by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Elections, News and Updates
Adrian Fontes has proven himself to be good at two things during his tenure as Arizona’s Secretary of State: losing in court and throwing tantrums. It’s really unfortunate. The state’s top election official is not supposed to be taken to court on a regular basis—especially for, you know, his repeated attempts to undermine election integrity. And of course, throwing tantrums should be more characteristic of toddlers, not a government official. But Fontes can’t help himself.
In his latest tirade, Fontes joined Hillary Clinton’s old consigliere Marc Elias on Democracy Docket to whine about President Trump’s recent executive order to preserve and protect the integrity of American elections. Toward the end of the discussion, Elias asked Fontes about the multiple lawsuits against his Elections Procedures Manual (EPM), which he lost to us and Arizona Republican lawmakers. As has become all too common with our Secretary of State, he responded how you would expect someone to respond when he knows he can’t win. He attacked our organization and degraded our 15,000 activists and donors.
Yes. That’s right. The top election official in our state, who is supposed to remain unbiased and simply do his job to protect election integrity, lashed out against us and told people not to donate to us because we won our lawsuit against him and his illegal EPM.
Ummm…news flash, Mr. Fontes. One of the reasons our donors support our cause is to stop government officials like you from circumventing the law. So, when we win, they feel good because their money was put to effective use.
But we shouldn’t expect someone with such low character as Adrian Fontes to understand that. After all, this isn’t the first time he’s tried to use the power of his office to attack and intimidate organizations like ours that participate in the election process. Back in August, the day after the court ruled in our favor, Fontes hopped on a KTAR morning show to attack us and our donors in much the same way. Then, he followed that up a few days later with more baseless attacks during an interview with MSNBC.
Of course, all these attacks ignore the bigger picture that Fontes wouldn’t have to go to court—and lose—if he would just follow the law.
The fact is that Adrian Fontes took it upon himself to produce one of the most radical EPMs in Arizona’s history. Several of the “rules” in his EPM attempted to criminalize activity that is protected under the First Amendment—creating an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech. On top of that, Fontes included language in the EPM that attempts to rewrite state law or create new laws, which he does not have the authority to do.
We sued not over statutes that are already in place, but we sued over the vague and undefined language that Fontes used in his EPM that could be used against people who are simply trying to engage their First Amendment rights at poll locations. The Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed with us, and even highlighted 13 instances of “problematic language” in her ruling.
So, Adrian Fontes can keep whining and tell the judge that she was wrong all he wants. But we will not stand for his efforts to use the power of his office to defund our organization. And most of all, we will not be deterred in our work to hold him accountable for protecting the integrity of our elections.
As Fontes and his team of leftwing ideologues get to work on the next EPM, they should focus on following the law. And they should start by reading the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona Constitution for the first time. That’s what the people of our great state expect from their elected leaders.
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.
by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Misc, News and Updates
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would be reversing the Biden administration’s Guidance on the Preparation of Clean Air Act Section (CAA) 179B Demonstrations for Nonattainment Areas Affected by International Transport of Emissions.
This regulation, as interpreted and enforced by the previous administration, held Arizona accountable for the eighty percent of emissions in the Maricopa County nonattainment area that emanated from outside of the state – primarily from China and Mexico. These incoming international emissions made it impossible for Arizona to adhere to its State Implementation Plan in the federal government’s eyes no matter what policies it implemented to lower local ozone levels.
“This announcement from the EPA is welcome news to our state, which had been oppressed by the environmental policies of the previous administration,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “Due to this regulation from the Biden administration, Arizona was being forced to adopt radical control measures, like banning gasoline-powered vehicles, which still would have left our state short of meeting the ozone standard. Yet again, the left’s environmental policies have proven to be disastrous and unworkable. For the good of our state and country, we must never repeat these mandates.”
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is spearheading the effort to pass HCM 2010, which urges the EPA to take actions just like the one Administrator Lee Zeldin took yesterday, clearing the path for Arizona to submit an updated State Implementation Plan without the radical control measures that had been previously contemplated to protect businesses and families.
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.
by admin | Apr 1, 2025 | Elections, News and Updates
In 2022, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club crafted the blueprint to stop illegals from voting in our elections, authoring landmark legislation that was signed into law, becoming the first state in the nation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote with HB2492. Now, states around the country are taking notice and adopting our model, and just last week President Trump signed an Executive Order to do it nationally. Arizona was just the tip of the spear, and the dominoes are finally beginning to fall.
As of this week, two states require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Arizona was the first with HB2492. Earlier this year, Wyoming became the second. And now, the Texas Senate is considering a bill that is nearly identical to the Arizona Model, which would make them the third.
Arizona has long been at the forefront of this issue. In 2004, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 200 to require proof of citizenship to vote. After nearly a decade of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed us to only implement the requirement on our own voter registration form but prevented us from requiring it on the federal form. The result over the decade following the decision was the complete proliferation of the “Federal Only Voting” list, amounting to tens of thousands of potential noncitizens registering and voting in our elections.
That’s why in 2022, we authored HB2492, which was signed into law, adding the strongest protections in the nation while keeping within the confines of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. This bill is stopping illegals from voting here in Arizona and providing the model for other states to follow. Dozens of organizations immediately sued, and the law has been in litigation since. But it has already proven to work, and that’s why other states, and President Trump, are taking notice and action.
Last year, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club was invited to provide expert testimony to the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs on the Arizona model to require proof of citizenship to vote. Following that hearing in October, Chairman Brian Huges introduced SB 16, which is nearly identical to HB 2492.
If passed and signed into law, Texas would be the third state in the nation, following Arizona and Wyoming, requiring proof of citizenship prior to registering to vote. Specifically, this bill would fully require proof of citizenship when registering with the state-provided voter registration form. Not only was this affirmed as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, but it was also re-affirmed late last year when the high court took an emergency appeal in the litigation regarding Arizona’s HB2492, issuing a stay of a radical lower court ruling to allow us to fully implement this requirement. Arizona has been rejecting voter registration forms without proof of citizenship since then.
SB 16 would also adopt Arizona’s model by limiting those who are registered to vote without proof of citizenship from voting by mail or for any state, local, or Presidential election. In other words, as required by the Inter-Tribal Council Decision, those who register with the federal form would still be registered to vote, but they could only vote in person, and they could only vote in elections for the U.S. House and Senate.
Finally, SB 16, just like HB 2492, would require officials in Texas to regularly consult resources and databases at their disposal to investigate the citizenship status of those registered without proof. If evidence is found proving an individual is not a U.S. citizen, they would be removed from the rolls, and the matter would be referred to law enforcement.
Most people know that you have to be a citizen to vote. But many do not know that, right now, in 48 states, you do not have to prove it. In Arizona, we know the impact this has. In 2020, we had 11,600 voters who had never provided proof of citizenship to vote in an election where the difference between President Trump and Biden was just 10,457 votes.
Arizona has done all that it can to enforce our proof of citizenship requirements, and it is working. Wyoming became the second state. Texas is on track to be the third. It’s time for every other state to follow suit.
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.
by admin | Mar 27, 2025 | Misc, News and Updates
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and the Radical Left have made it clear that they want to dismantle school choice in our state. Despite getting trounced in November’s election where teachers’ unions and other anti-school choice groups made it a referendum on educational freedom, Hobbs has doubled down on her same tired and out-of-touch efforts since the start of this year.
Once again, it hasn’t worked. Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program continues to grow—with enrollment now over 87,000 students. So, Hobbs and her buddies in the teachers’ unions have resorted to employing one of their favorite tricks: relying on activist reporters in the corporate media to give their anti-school choice messaging an extra boost.
In early March, a coordinated attack was launched against Primavera, an online charter school serving thousands of K-12 students across the state. It began with a story from Craig Harris, a Red4ED activist that calls himself a reporter, who claimed that Primavera received a ‘D’ letter grade from the Arizona Department of Education for the past three years. According to the report, the school failed to meet the minimum academic requirements for a traditional charter school. Harris’ column then went on to complain about the owner of Primavera and how much money he has made while operating the school.
After the story was published, the Arizona Charter School Board convened a hearing to review the allegations against Primavera. In a span of just a few hours, the board imposed the most severe punishment at their disposal, revoking the schools’ charter and setting them up for eventual closure. In effect, Primavera was given the charter school death penalty after one meeting.
On the surface, this might make sense. After all, if a school is failing its students, it deserves proper accountability. But as so often happens with today’s corporate media, an important fact was omitted from this manufactured takedown. It turns out that Primavera was being graded as a traditional school even though it operates as an “alternative” school. And this is an important distinction. In an alternative school, a large portion of the student population is either struggling with performance or trying to catch up on their requirements in order to graduate. Because of this, alternative schools are graded differently.
For years, Primavera was given the designation as an alternative school from the Arizona Department of Education with the school receiving a ‘B’ grade. But in 2021, their alternative school designation lapsed, which resulted in them being graded as a traditional school for three years. When the administrators at Primavera realized the mistake, they reapplied and were once again approved as an alternative school for this current school year.
So yes, this big saga over a “failing” charter school that was given the harshest punishment imaginable by the charter school board is literally due to a paperwork error. It’s one big nothing-burger that was all triggered by an activist reporter who has an endless supply of axes to grind with charter and private schools.
It does look like Primavera failed to file the correct paperwork, and if the charter school board sees fit to punish Primavera for this mistake, fine. Go for it. But to go from offering no warning to the school to giving it the death penalty is obvious overkill—especially since the Arizona Department of Education granted Primavera’s application to be redesignated as an alternative school.
The reality is that none of this would have happened if Primavera was a district school. Just look at Isaac Elementary School District, which has been mismanaging funds for years and currently faces a budget shortfall of over $12 million! Or Mesa Public Schools, which failed to explain where $32.3 million of their federal emergency funds slated for COVID expenses went. None of these district schools have ever faced the sort of consequences imposed on Primavera. And they also seem to conveniently avoid the attention of these same activist reporters.
It’s time for the charter school board to make the situation right. They should rescind their action against Primavera and come up with a more appropriate remedy that doesn’t displace thousands of students because of a paperwork error.
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.
by admin | Mar 27, 2025 | News and Updates, Regulatory
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Today, the Arizona Senate Government Committee passed HB 2518, which “prohibits a public service corporation or public power entity that is regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission from employing or entering into an independent contractor agreement with an individual who served as a commissioner in the preceding two years.”
“I applaud lawmakers for continuing to move this commonsense legislation forward in the process,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “HB 2518 provides protections for ratepayers by ensuring that elected members of the Corporation Commission can’t go from regulating utilities to working for them.”
HB 2518 previously passed the Arizona House of Representatives with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 51-2. It will now be considered by the full Arizona Senate.
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.
Recent Comments