This is a busy time of year at the Arizona State Capitol. Most years, legislators are attempting to finish all of their work, most notably the annual budget, in order to call and end to the session and be done for the year. This year’s legislative session will be a significantly longer one, with Governor Katie Hobbs and the Republican-led … Read More
Local Legislator Wants to Increase Punishments for Protests Gone Awry: This is the Way
It is the nature of politicians to extrapolate the worst of what happens around the country and make it a local issue, regardless of whether or not it has a chance of becoming one. Both Republicans and Democrats do it, and it’s one of the more obnoxious parts of politics; after all, we should all prefer that politicians focus on … Read More
CHAOS with the LD3 Republicans: the Scottsdale/Fountain Hills GOP is Melting Down
As a rule of thumb, the higher up the politics go, the more professional they are, but when the stakes are the lowest (at the more local level), the more messy it can get. We have covered significant political messiness in both local parties here, but what is unfolding in the LD3 Republican Party (covering Scottsdale and Fountain Hills) might … Read More
The Battle Lines are Drawn: Scottsdale Legislative Reps and SUSD Superintendent Menzel Trade Blows
Note: this post has been edited to reflect that Tammy Caputi changed her voter registration to Independent in 2018, and that Jason Alexander is a social media advisor for her, not a political advisor. The fallout from Scottsdale Unified School District’s Superintendent Scott Menzel and his “woke” comments from a 2019 interview have recently stolen a lot of oxygen from … Read More
Mayor Ortega Earns Heat from State Legislators Over Rio Verde Foothills Water Crisis
As you know by now, the water crisis in the Rio Verde Foothills has gotten a lot of attention with powerful parties lining up on both sides of the debate (get up to date here). Mayor David Ortega has received heat for being strongly against using Scottsdale city resources to help alleviate the crisis, and now that heat seems to … Read More
How the Scottsdale / Paradise Valley Legislative Races Played Out
At the time of writing this on Sunday night, not every race is completely certain at this point. One thing that is for certain however is that the best case scenario for Republicans did not work out, and we see that playing out in some of the Scottsdale area races rather prominently. As a reminder, the city of Scottsdale is … Read More
Scottsdale Moving Forward with STR Enforcement: When Will State Get the Point?
Finally, the crackdown of party houses may finally start in earnest in Scottsdale. So why did it take this long? Last Friday, Scottsdale police were finally able to begin their enhanced enforcement efforts on out-of-control short-term rental parties. This is after the STR issue was a major campaign talking point on numerous city council and mayoral campaigns, and which clearly … Read More
Scottsdale City Council Living Up to Promises and Doing What the State Won’t: Regulating Short-Term Rentals
We have recently written about the town of Paradise Valley’s attempts to curb short-term rentals (STRs) in the face of inaction by our state government. Now Scottsdale is getting in on those attempts in the fight for preservation of a high quality of life. The Scottsdale City Council recently unanimously voted to close loopholes in STR laws in the city, … Read More
New Times Stands Up For Kavanagh Stand Up Routine
By now most of you are familiar with the dust up over John Kavanagh’s use of as few ethnically based jokes to roast Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the Western Conservatives Conference. For some reason the Southern Poverty Law Center felt it necessary to send a ‘monitor’ there and secretly record the event, even though the event was live-streamed. Afterwards the … Read More