The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is a central figure in a 50-50 split Senate. Democrats hold control but only with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tiebreaker. Sinema, a centrist Democrat, holds outsize political power and has the ability to make or break President Joe Biden's legislative agenda. She ran in 2018 on the promise to work in a bipartisan manner. How is she doing that? What do we know about her long-term legislative goals? In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen have a one-on-one conversation with Sinema. The Democratic senator, who rarely speaks with reporters at length, outlined her legislative goals on the minimum wage and border security as well as responded to criticisms of her refusal to get rid of the legislative filibuster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Arizona Senate's audit began nearly six months after the 2020 election at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday April 26. Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based company, was contracted by the state Senate to conduct the audit.Journalists had little to no access to observe the audit apart from the right-wing news outlet One America News Network. In order to observe the audit, journalists had to sign up for a six-hour volunteer shift.Arizona Republic reporter Jen Fifield was there Friday morning to work as a volunteer. She was the only journalist that day observing the election audit. She was unable to take notes while on the floor observing, but was able to do so on her phone when she stepped off the floor into a locker area. She questioned organizers about audit guidelines when she observed an issue.In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, Fifield joins hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen to breakdown her experience inside the coliseum and what to expect in the coming weeks. Cyber Ninjas is expected to file its report with the Senate in 60 days.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first Federal Election Campaign finance reports of the year came out last week. These documents can show how candidates raise and spend money in federal elections and provide insight on who might be running for what offices in the 2022 and 2024 elections.With time on the clock still, the first quarter report shows how the fundraising efforts of key players in the next two elections, including Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz. are starting off right out of the gate.In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen highlight some of the standout fundraising and analyze why some candidates are already falling behind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that Congress has passed the American Rescue Plan of 2021, which will help sustain people and cities financially, Congress is turning its priorities elsewhere, including to issues at the border. In February, U.S. Customs and Border Protection processed 28,328 migrants. That number more than doubled to over 68,000 in March, most of them families and children. The surge of migrants who are processed and the insufficient space to hold them in Arizona led CBP to release migrants into small communities in southern Arizona.The Biden administration has received pushback from Republicans on the rollback of former President Donald Trump's immigration policies and the handling of the current migrant situation. They are calling the issue a crisis and inhumane. How many of those statements are realist or alarmist? What does the situation look like in these camps? How have the conditions along the border changed under President Biden? In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by immigration reporter Rafael Carranza to break down the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgia became one of the first states to pass a voting restriction law after the 2020 election on March 25. The bill includes new changes like shortening the window to request an absentee ballot, requiring more than a signature on mail-in ballots and making it illegal to hand out water to voters in line. Arizona is considered one of the next states to possibly follow and implement similar laws. Senate Bill 1485 proposes getting rid of the permanent early voting list which is used by most voters. Senate Bill 1713 adds an identification card requirement along with a signature to verify a ballot. Both of these have the broader electorate asking if Arizona could be the next Georgia. The Arizona GOP pushed back on voting fairness after President Joe Biden won the state by the narrowest margin in the country, but now one of the state's most influential business groups, Greater Phoenix Leadership, is urging the GOP to resist changes to the election process. In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen talk with Sonja Diaz, the Founding Director of the Latino Policy & Politics Initiative at UCLA. She is a civil rights attorney and testified before the House of Representatives on voting in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From 1945 to 1962, the United States conducted nuclear mining in Northern Arizona and nuclear testing in Southern Nevada. Yet the government failed to warn people in the area of the radiation risks posed by that work and the health hazards associated with it, including various forms of cancer.Then in 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. It established a lump sum compensation for individuals who contracted illnesses in the aftermath of the testing. The program was later expanded in 2000 and is set to close its eligibility to individuals in 2022. Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., is sponsoring a bill to extend the eligibility to include Mohave County and Nevada's Clark County in the federal fund. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to listen to testimony from people in the affected areas. That included Mohave County Supervisor Jean Bishop, who grew up in the affected area and developed cancer due to the nuclear testing. In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by Bishop as she recounts her childhood in the impacted area. You'll also hear from Stanton on his outlook of the bill and why he took up the issue.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The divide between Arizona's congressional Democrats and its House Republicans is wider than ever in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Arizona Democrats said the fallout from the insurrection is testing their will to work together.“If I’m going to advocate to the federal government, to the (President Joe) Biden people, I’m not going to jump on with people that just tried to invalidate his election,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. Republicans, such as Rep. David Schweikert, also acknowledged the deeper rift and said it has been moving in that direction for years.In today's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen discuss the evolving dynamics of Arizona's congressional delegation and what that means for their ability to represent and advocate for Arizonans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick has been representing Arizonans since 2005 and announced Friday that she will not be running for re-election at the end of her term. In her career, Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz, has used her history in rural Arizona to bring more representation to smaller cities and has been a key member of the House Appropriations Committee. In January of 2020, she took some time off to treat alcoholism after a fall and returned in late February of that year. In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen talk with Kirkpatrick to discuss her career and what her absence will look like.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four months have passed since Arizona certified its election results. In the subsequent months, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Arizona Senate have been in an ongoing legal battle over an audit of 2020 election ballots.  The Arizona Senate subpoenaed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for access to the paper ballots and voting machines to conduct their own audit of the 2020 election results. The county argued that they legally could not handover the ballots. On Feb. 26, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason ruled the Arizona Senate's subpoenas were valid. In this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast, hosts Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen are joined by Phoenix City Hall reporter Jen Fifield to breakdown the legal battle and what potential precedent this could set moving forward.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a year of taking heat from the political left and right, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is answering his critics.Democrats such as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema criticized Ducey for being slow to protect Arizonans during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans criticized him for certifying President Joe Biden's narrow victory in Arizona during the 2020 election. On Monday, Ducey sat down with national political reporters Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ronald J. Hansen for this week's episode of The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast.The interview covered everything from managing COVID-19 to expanding school choice to Ducey's political plans after serving as governor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices