Since becoming Governor of Arizona in 2023, Katie Hobbs’ name has been synonymous with corruption. Now, one of her latest vetoes shows the lengths she is willing to go to protect her own schemes.
Buried on the afternoon of Friday, May 2, Hobbs vetoed SB 1612, along with 21 other bills. Sponsored by Arizona State Senator TJ Shope, SB 1612 would have required anyone applying for grants to various state agencies to disclose gifts, donations, or other support provided to the sitting governor. That sort of transparency should be something that every Arizonan can get behind—Republicans, Democrats, Independents, you name it—unless, of course, your agenda doesn’t involve the best interests of Arizona citizens, right Katie Hobbs?
This whole story starts at the very beginning of Hobbs’ tenure as governor. If you’ll recall, at the time, Hobbs set up a shady slush fund to provide donors with a conduit to buy political favor from her administration. While setting up and managing the fund, Hobbs illegally used public resources—like the state’s website—to solicit money for her inauguration. And she also tried to stop the disclosure of the names of those who donated to her inaugural fund.
But after immense political pressure and public records requests filed by groups like the Arizona Freedom Foundation (who operates AZ Free News), Hobbs finally released the names of the donors. One of the names of the groups on the list was Sunshine Residential Homes Inc., a for-profit company that contracts with the State of Arizona to provide some child welfare services. At the time, Sunshine Residential Homes made a donation of $100,000. But in June 2024, an eye-opening report revealed a deeper level of corruption—an alleged pay-to-play scheme between Hobbs and the group home.
According to the report, Sunshine Residential Homes donated approximately $400,000 toward the Arizona Democratic Party, Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign, and her aforementioned inaugural fund. How generous! Surely there couldn’t be anything else behind this. Oh…wait a minute. The report revealed that Sunshine Residential Homes was granted a 60 percent increase at a time when the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) cut loose 16 providers! On top of that, no other standard group home provider received a rate increase. This arrangement set up Sunshine Residential Homes to potentially receive millions of dollars more at the taxpayers’ expense. Are donations supposed to yield that kind of return?
While the scheme is still under investigation from both Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, Hobbs could’ve given the people of Arizona greater confidence in the government by signing SB 1612. Instead, she dropped a two-sentence veto letter saying that AHCCCS’ procurement and award processes are “consistent with Medicaid best practices.”
That’s right. Hobbs dodged the issue and attempted to bury it because she knows she has no good reason to oppose this bill. And that just about sums up Katie Hobbs. Her entire tenure has been filled with corruption. We’ve seen it when she diverted millions for an unauthorized program that has blown a hole in our state’s budget. We’ve seen it when she broke the law to take credit for the Republican tax rebate. We’ve seen it when she approved a $700,000 contract for Urias Communications, owned by the brother of the now-former Office of Tourism Director Lisa Urias, to create a new state logo. And now we’ve seen it once again as she tries to hide from her pay-to-play scandal through her veto pen.
SB 1612 would’ve brought some much-needed transparency and accountability, no matter who is in the governor’s office. That’s something all Arizonans deserve. But as long as Katie Hobbs is governor, we’ll get neither.
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PHOENIX, ARIZONA – This week the Arizona Supreme Court granted review of a critical 1st Amendment lawsuit, Center for AZ v. AZ Secretary of State. The case deals with Proposition 211, which established onerous and unconstitutional disclosure requirements on private organizations and donors that could lead to harassment, censorship, and chill free speech. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The Arizona Supreme Court granted review on the following issues:
“Is the Voters’ Right to Know Act facially unconstitutional under the Arizona Constitution?”
“If not, did the court of appeals properly dismiss Plaintiffs-Appellants’ as-applied challenge?
“We are thankful that the Arizona Supreme Court accepted review of this vital case for our First Amendment liberties,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Both the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona Constitution guarantee citizens the right to speak freely, which includes the right to not be forced to speak. Prop 211 not only violates this right for donors by silencing them from supporting causes they believe in but impairs the speech of nonprofits like ours as well. We are hopeful that the Arizona Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Constitution after considering the merits of the case.”
Joining the Arizona Free Enterprise Club on this challenge are the Center for Arizona Policy, with the Goldwater Institute serving as counsel.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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PHOENIX, ARIZONA – This week, the Arizona House of Representatives passed SCM 1002, which “urges the President, and the Congress of the United States to eliminate Vision Zero and instead promote transportation solutions that prioritize sound engineering methods, reliable safety outcomes, flexibility and engineering innovation.”
Vision Zero is an ideology, not transportation engineering. The ideology has one set of prescriptions for every perceived problem – narrow lanes, remove lanes, lower speed limits, add bike lanes and sidewalks, and other mandates that increase congestion to get people out of their personal vehicles. It first appeared in Sweden at the end of the 20th Century and has spread all throughout Europe and, unfortunately, most American communities.
Thankfully, the Trump administration has already taken steps to eliminate Vision Zero, DEI, and the Green New Deal from the federal government, including blocking New York City congestion pricing, uprooting emission reduction requirements, and removing the Complete Streets page from the Federal Highway Administration’s website. More of these actions are forthcoming under President Trump and Secretary Sean Duffy’s leadership.
“In recent years, radical leftists have hijacked our government to impose their woke transportation-related dreams across our country and world,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “We witnessed those dreams rapidly become reality over the past four years under the Biden administration and Pete Buttigieg. Thankfully, President Trump and Arizona Republicans realize the importance of stopping the un-American war on cars, replacing these with rational, tested, and true actions in our communities that prioritize freedom of choice and prosperity for all. We are grateful for the members of the Arizona Legislature who supported SCM 1002 and who stand as a check against Governor Hobbs’ radical schemes to fundamentally transform our state’s transportation policies.”
The Arizona House passed SCM 1002 with a vote of 32-23 (with five members not voting). Earlier this session, it was approved by the Senate 17-12 (with one member not voting).
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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For the past decade, our organization has been fighting the Green New Deal agenda in Arizona, working to score a decisive victory for reliable and affordable energy. Thanks to President Trump, that decisive victory now appears within reach.
Earlier this month, President Trump released three new executive orders and one proclamation, all aimed at unleashing American energy abundance. These executive actions are all part of a coordinated White House effort to initiate a tidal shift in the ever-steady march toward the Net Zero nightmare being pursued by radical environmentalists, the green industrial complex, and public utilities across the nation.
For years, energy regulators have forewarned of the impending grid crisis due to the overreliance on costly renewable energy, yet the previous administration only accelerated the catastrophe. The new Trump Executive Orders, coupled with his declaration of a National Energy Emergency, will directly address this crisis by ending the regulatory discrimination against coal, empowering the domestic mining of coal resources, encouraging the development of coal energy generation, and allowing for these activities to take place on federal lands.
Reigniting the American coal industry couldn’t happen soon enough. While China and India are building new coal plants at unprecedented rates to power their economic growth, we have been aggressively shutting our plants down. As a result of costly regulations, market manipulation to inflate the cost of coal and throwing immense subsidies at wind and solar projects, coal was set to be nonexistent within the next decade.
In Arizona, nearly 4,000 MW of reliable coal generation has been shuttered in the last decade alone. For reference, Arizona’s largest electricity provider has a peak demand of 8,000 MW. And the remaining coal generation benefiting Arizona’s electric grid is either being shuttered this year (Cholla) or is slated to be retired in 2031 (Four Corners Generating Station).
For some time, the thought of keeping coal in the resource mix, let alone building new capacity, was nothing more than a pipe dream. Despite tremendous work at the state level, reversing the war on coal has been viewed as an impossible task. The Obama/Biden EPA worked to regulate coal out of existence, the “Inflation Reduction Act” was dumping trillions into unreliable solar and wind, and the impact of ESG had taken its toll on the energy industry. And the Arizona Corporation Commission, the regulatory body that oversees our public utilities, has shown little interest in challenging the phase-out of coal.
Now everything has changed. The most destructive regulatory and economic barriers hindering new fossil fuel development and generation, including coal, have been removed, thanks to President Trump.
Just as significant, multiple banks and hedge funds have dropped their woke Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) lending requirements due to pressure from the White House. And another Trump executive order cracking down on state overreach has directed the Attorney General to act against states with laws and policies that undermine energy resource development and grid reliability, including ESG (a term the Arizona Corporation Commission has previously claimed to be undefinable).
With Trump leading the way, our elected leaders have never had a better opportunity to boldly and enthusiastically reshape Arizona’s energy future. Much of this work must begin at the Corporation Commission, which is why Republicans at the legislature are rallying behind HCM 2014, a memorial to the Commission to support the buildout of reliable energy and reconsider previous decisions that are leading to the closure of Arizona’s remaining coal facilities.
For those evaluating the politics of sound energy policy, the risk now isn’t opposing the radical environmentalists and climate change fanatics, but resisting the headwinds of Trump’s energy agenda. Let’s hope that our elected leaders don’t waste this historic opportunity for meaningful reform.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
This past November was a good time to be a Republican, especially here in Arizona. Not only did President Donald Trump win our state in a landslide victory, but Republicans expanded their majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate—despite being outspent in every single race.
While this turn of events shocked many in the corporate media who were convinced that Arizona was on its way from being a purple state to a blue state, we knew that voter registration trends told a different story.
Over the last couple of years, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in Arizona widened from 3.04% in 2020 to 4.03% in 2022. By April of last year, it had increased to 5.77%. And by November, it had expanded to 6.77%, a registration increase that proved decisive in President Trump’s overwhelming victory.
Now, 5 months removed from their electoral wipeout in November, there has been a lot of discussion about whether the Democrats’ political fortunes in Arizona would be reversing after their blowout loss to Trump.
Unfortunately for them, the latest voter registration numbers poured plenty of cold water on those dreams.
Maricopa County Slipping Away from the Democrats
If Democrats want any shot of controlling the legislature or winning statewide offices in Arizona, they need to flip Maricopa County blue. Yet that can’t happen when they keep losing the voter registration battle.
As you can see in the graph below, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in Maricopa County has increased from 85,000 in April 2020 to 191,000 in April 2025. That’s right, Republicans have more than doubled their registration advantage over Democrats!
These registration trendlines are consistent with the statewide figures that show Republicans doubling their registration advantage in that same timeframe. In fact, Arizona is more red from a voter registration advantage standpoint than at any point in the last 75 years! But that may not even be the worst news for Democrats.
If you look closely at the graph above, you’ll see something interesting. There are now fewer registered Democrats in Maricopa County than there were five years ago. And this has come during a time when the population in Maricopa County has grown by over 150,000 residents. (See here and here.)
Note to Democrats…that’s not how this is supposed to work. As the population grows, you would think your raw numbers of voter registrations would increase as well. But maybe, just maybe, it’s your woke policies that are the problem.
President Trump Brings Early Successes While Governor Hobbs Becomes a Bigger Embarrassment
In less than 100 days in office, President Trump has been hard at work executing his mandate from the American people. Along with issuing a torrent of Executive Orders that have unleashed fossil fuel production in America, he rolled back the Green New Deal climate cult fantasy, ended DEI and other race-based hiring and employment practices, and has been taking a sledgehammer to the administrative state by allowing Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to identify and eliminate billions in wasteful spending.
On top of this, President Trump issued an executive order announcing his intention to enforce the citizenship requirement for federal elections. His Department of Justice (DOJ) then followed that up by ceasing a legal challenge that began under the Biden administration against Arizona’s proof of citizenship laws. And his EPA recently announced that it will no longer penalize our state—as the Biden administration had been attempting—for foreign air pollution.
In the meantime, let’s check in on Arizona’s chief executive.
So far this year, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs has vetoed a popular bill aimed to deliver same-day elections results to our state. She vetoed a bipartisan bill that looked to provide affordable and reliable utilities to Arizonans. And to prove that she’s a total embarrassment (and a fraud) to the people of Arizona, she diverted hundreds of millions of dollars for an unauthorized program that has blown a hole in our state’s budget.
With all this incompetence, it’s no wonder why Democrats continue to see a steady decline in voter registrations with no surge of support. But Republicans can’t be satisfied. As the numbers continue to show Arizona as a firmly red state once again, we must build on this momentum with unity, hard work, and good policy.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
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