Good morning, Rj! Happy Sunday! ☀️
Kari Lake lost, again. On Monday, an Arizona judge rejected former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s final lawsuit in her attempt to overturn her loss to Gov. Katie Hobbs in the 2022 election. Lake spent the months leading up to the election pushing lies and conspiracy theories about our elections, and particularly targeting and discouraging the use of mail-in ballots, which have been widely popular in Arizona for voters of both parties. Now, after yet another failed lawsuit, Lake announced that she plans “play by the rules” to pursue voter registration and ballot chasing, AKA the practice of reminding voters to turn in their ballots, something that’s…pretty standard for campaigns. Unsurprisingly, she’s continuing the grift and fundraising off the effort, despite the fact that the 2022 election is over.
Ducey improperly allocated COVID-19 funds. According to the Hobbs administration, Gov. Doug Ducey illegally gave out another $50M in federal COVID-19 relief funds, throwing public school students under the bus yet again. Despite refusing to fully fund all-day Kindergarten for the 90% of Arizona students who attend public schools, Ducey handed those federal funds over to private and religious schools. This isn’t the first instance of Ducey’s mismanagement of COVID-19 funds – earlier this year Hobbs rolled back another $210M that Ducey illegally gave out in his final days in office.
Hobbs vetoes more anti-voter bills. On Friday, Gov. Hobbs vetoed several more attacks on our voting rights that were passed by Arizona Republicans. One of those bills, SB1066, was an unconstitutional attempt to discourage Arizonans from registering to vote by mail and requesting an early ballot. Thank you to Gov. Hobbs for vetoing these bills, and thanks to all the Arizona voters who have fought against the many attacks on voting rights pushed by the Republican majority.
ICYMI: FEC complaint filed against Sinema regarding her alleged misuse of campaign donations to fund her luxurious lifestyle.
Unplug! Enjoy the long weekend! Take time to care for yourself and if you can, enjoy time with loved ones. It’s been a long legislative session dealing with extremist Republican lawmakers who don’t care about what voters want – we all deserve rest.
Thanks for reading Last Week, This Morning!
Abigail with Progress Arizona
