As Election Day nears and those big fat ballots start landing in your mailbox, we’re launching the Elections Agenda to help you vote.
It’s not a newsletter — it’s an expansive voter guide for readers who don’t want to surf the hellscape of candidate websites and social media to figure out who these people are and what they stand for.
We know how grueling it is to try to get to know the politicians running for statewide, federal and legislative office in Arizona, especially while you’re frantically filling in dots on your ballot.
Luckily, we’ve spent the last few months studying the candidates as we moderate debates, write background-heavy previews of those debates and crank out recaps of what the candidates said.
It’s been a lot of work. But as we looked back, we realized we had something kind of special on our hands.
So we put it all under one roof.
The Elections Agenda has everything a voter needs to be confident about their choice.
Plus, a very cool Agendowl graphic.
But what’s in this guide?
Think of the Elections Agenda as a structured version of our notes on the candidates. We’ve collected about as much information on candidates as a sane person could want, and then some, and made it searchable and useful.
For legislative, congressional and statewide elections, we’ve included statistics about the districts, short bios on the candidates, original articles detailing political dynamics of the races and videos of the debate.
We’ve also got their campaign websites and social media accounts, like their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And we snagged their campaign finance filings, financial disclosure statements so you know who’s backing them.
The Agenda also sent out a form to all candidates whose emails could be scrounged up to request additional information, like their top issues, professional experiences and family life. If a candidate responded back to the form, their answers are included in their card.
And, since we’ve been covering most of the incumbents for years, you can browse all the times they appeared in our “In Other News” section.
Some of it’s pretty funny.
Remember Mark Lamb’s “good old fashioned dick pics” or Gov. Katie Hobbs throwing Attorney General Kris Mayes under the bus for saying ICE agents might get shot if they manhandle Arizonans who are packing heat?
Propositions also make an appearance, with a clear summary of what the measures entail, as well as an analysis of how they came to be and the bigger message they are trying to send.
The website isn’t a static project — we’ll be adding more information and elements as the election season drags on.
We designed the hub with this particular moment in mind. Your ballot arrives in the mail, you open it and immediately get overwhelmed with all the choices you’re supposed to make.
But we’d love to hear from you about what else it needs.
If you have any suggestions, or even totally different ideas, drop us a line at [email protected].
Monumental news: Southern Arizona is about to be home to the state’s fourth national park, Henry Brean reports for the Arizona Daily Star. The U.S. Senate approved a bill (U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani introduced the House version) to upgrade Chiricahua National Monument. All that’s left to do is for President Donald Trump to sign it. But don’t expect much to change at the preserve, except for upping its national profile and drawing in more tourist dollars. Still, Willcox Mayor Greg Hancock was thrilled, saying “tonight is a night to celebrate.”
Elsewhere in the Southern Arizona desert: Multiple federal agencies have rejected permits for water stations in the desert, affecting roughly one-third of the stations run by Tucson nonprofit Humane Borders, Emily Bregel reports in the Arizona Daily Star. Humane Borders argues the move will lead to more migrants dying while crossing the border, while the National Park Service is leaning on the claim that the stations encourage migrants to walk in dangerous areas and that the permits are inconsistent with border security.
Cash, gold bars, aircraft: Attorney General Kris Mayes says her office seized all of the above from Yuma doctor Irfan Fazil, who she says defrauded Arizona’s Medicaid program out of $36.5 million.
“He’ll spend the next 7.5 years in prison and will pay back every dollar he stole from taxpayers,” Mayes wrote on Instagram.
Eat more, drive less: The chairman of Rio Nuevo, Fletcher McCusker, told radio host Bill Buckmaster on Friday that local restaurants are struggling as receipts plummeted 20% this August compared to last August. He said some people have been unwilling to go downtown in the weeks after the mass shooting, but he agreed with Joe that parking is also a problem for destination date nights.
Allen vs. the feds: Pima County Supervisor Jennifer Allen, who has organized public forums opposed to the Marana detention center, said she isn’t done fighting, despite the recent announcement that the Management & Training Corporation signed a multimillion-dollar contract with ICE.
“I am outraged that MTC will soon be reopening the shuttered Marana prison as an ICE detention center,” Allen wrote on Facebook. “Our community will only suffer from this hideous facility. We should all do everything we can to oppose and close this facility.”
The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission is the state’s only official, nonpartisan voter education resource — created by Arizona voters for voters.
We publish the voter education guide, host the debates, and break down what’s on your ballot. Not who you should vote for — what you need to know before you do.
Get the facts at AZCleanElections.gov.
Former Pima County Republican Party Chairman Bill Beard posted this photo from Congressman Juan Ciscomani’s rally with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson at an eastside bar on Thursday.
It doesn’t appear to be a big crowd, but the Ciscomani campaign reposted one of Johnson’s tweets, adding that 400 people showed up at the venue.
A month before the election, though, the size of their wallets might matter more than the size of the crowd.
And we did spot at least one millionaire: retired Tucson car dealer Jim Click.