Let them fight
Make live tweeting cool again ... Rolexes for all ... And the guillotines were a hit.
The Democrats vying for their party’s nomination to replace Raúl Grijalva in Congressional District 7 clashed over their voting records, donors and the future of mining in Arizona during an hour-long televised forum in Phoenix on Tuesday night.
It was a five-person debate featuring Deja Foxx, Adelita Grijalva, Daniel Hernandez, Patrick Harris and Jose Malvido.
But it was a two-person brawl, as the two frontrunners, Hernandez and Grijalva, spent much of their time landing attacks on each other.
Hernandez lobbed the first attack, saying Grijalva’s recent support for a failed tax increase, Tucson’s Prop 414, proves that she is “out of touch” with voters, who overwhelmingly rejected the proposition. Hernandez (and his sisters) sided with the business community in opposition to the measure.
“Respectfully, you are no progressive. You’re one of the second most conservative Democrats … You voted with Republicans 45 times,” Grijalva said.
It was only the first exchange between Grijalva and Hernandez, but there were more to come over the course of the debate, with other candidates chiming in at times (and Joe posting the juiciest bits on Bluesky).
Hernandez found himself clashing with the other four Democrats on the stage, particularly over his support for the mining industry, which he frequently referred to as “good union jobs.”
We should note that Hernandez received financial contributions from the mining industry in this campaign.
Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer, attempted to break through the noise of the two frontrunners, noting that the Democratic Party is losing ground with the youth vote, in part because it keeps nominating tired old politicians like Hernandez and Grijalva.
She noted that while she’s younger than most candidates, she has engaged in politics for a decade — and her advocacy helped pressure the Tucson Unified School District to revise its sex ed curriculum while Grijalva was serving on the school board.
“I was navigating a sex education curriculum, last updated in the 80s, that didn't mention consent, was medically inaccurate and that school board members, including Adelita Grijalva, had decades to fix,” Foxx said.
Harris, who said he came out of retirement to run for public office, likened the current state of politics to the French Revolution, suggesting that Americans are almost ready to break out the guillotines. He frequently mentioned his plan — “capitate capitalism” — to cap personal wealth at $1 billion, forcing the richest Americans to re-invest their wealth into the American economy.
While no one on the stage was a billionaire, Harris talked about how billionaires can afford to pay more under his proposed tax plan.
”A billion dollars — you can afford multiple jets and multiple yachts and eat caviar and drink champagne three meals a day every day and still not spend enough,” Harris said.
Another big question the Democrats wrestled with was how the party should stand up to the Trump administration, and whether Democrats are failing in that duty.
Foxx, Harris and Malvido said that CD7 needs a new perspective.
Both Grijavla and Hernandez said they had the political experience needed to be effective in Washington.
Grijalva said she would continue her father’s legacy.
“I am a Grijalva. So, yes, I'm going to be a Grijalva. But the kind of Congress that I would be walking into is very different than the one my dad did. And one of the reasons why my father could be an unapologetic progressive is because the values of Southern Arizona are progressive. So I don't think you can be too progressive when you're in the right side of history,” she said.
Hernandez said Republicans in Washington are afraid of him.
“We are in a crisis as a country. The moment that we are in needs bold leadership that is going to fight back against Donald Trump. I am a gay Latino who got elected at 21 to a school board, fought corruption and nepotism. At 26, I got elected to the legislature and founded the LGBTQ caucus. I'm Donald Trump's worst nightmare,” Hernandez said.
The Democrats will share a stage again on Tuesday, June 10, just a few days before ballots are mailed out.
The three Republican candidates for this solidly blue district — Daniel Butierez, Jorge Rivas, and Jimmy Rodriguez — will join “Arizona Horizon” tonight at 5 p.m. for their own debate.
A lot to navigate: It’s budget season at the Arizona Capitol and the top GOP lawmakers are hashing out a deal (at least we hope they are) with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. The background for those negotiations is fraught with concerns over a fragile economy, Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie reports. State tax revenues are expected to drop as federal tariffs make consumers hesitant to buy, along with federal spending cuts and a potential recession.
School fights: After weeks of manufactured suspense, state Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced she is running against Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne in the Republican primary, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports. Her key issue is Horne won’t allow expensive purchases by parents who use school vouchers, like a $5,000 Rolex watch or a $24,000 golf simulator.
Picking judges: For the first time, voters in Mexico are going to elect every judge in the country, KJZZ’s Nina Kravinsky reports. The radical change, which has taken years to develop, is getting rolled out in phases. Voters will elect 800 judges next month, and then elect the remaining judges in 2027.
Override incoming: The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board approved sending a $45 million budget override to voters in the fall, the Arizona Luminaria’s Shannon Conner reports. The money would go toward raising teacher salaries, supporting art, music and physical education programs and hiring counselors, reading and math specialists, and librarians, among others.
The mani-pedi crowd: In the wake of Congress signing off an a massive federal budget bill, Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock says it was entirely predictable that a Republican like Rep. Juan Ciscomani would vote for a big tax cut, no matter the cost to programs like Medicaid.
“Arm-in-arm with Donald John Trump, Ciscomani is selling a new Republican Party devoted to men with calloused hands,” Morlock writes. “But they can't shake their addiction to neoliberal policies that serve the mani-pedi crowd.”
Setting records: Arizona’s rising enrollment at universities is bucking a nationwide trend, KJZZ’s Nick Karmia reported. Arizona State University graduated a record number of students this spring, for the second year in a row, and overall enrollment in Arizona’s state universities is the highest it has ever been, thanks largely to online students. Meanwhile, nationwide enrollment dropped 15%.
This Memorial Week, we’re pouring out our drinks for all the great Arizona publications we’ve lost over the past few decades.
And we’re offering 25% discounts to incentivize our free readers to upgrade. (Thanks to all of you who clicked the button this week!)
But today, we’re pouring one out for our neighbors to the north.
You see, more than 20 Colorado newspapers were just gobbled up by a company that Arizonans know well.
Times Media Group — the proud new owner of 21 news organizations in Colorado — has been buying, cannibalizing and scavenging off the carcasses of Arizona’s newspapers for a long time.
It owns the formerly venerable Tucson Weekly, Inside Tucson Business, the Foothills News, the Marana News and many more.
Not satisfied with gutting more than two dozen Arizona newspapers, the Times Media Group is expanding its starvation program to new markets.
The company announced the new acquisitions with great fanfare in its local papers this week. But something tells us corporate, not the few reporters left in the company, wrote those cheery articles.
Because when Times Media Group comes to your town, it’s an absolute disaster.
Here’s how Nieman Lab explained the company’s history in Tucson. (And FWIW, you can read Times Media Group founder Steve Strickbine’s defense here. It’s actually pretty thoughtful.)
Jim Nintzel spent more than three decades as a reporter and editor for the Tucson Weekly covering everything from Arizona politics to rock ’n’ roll. After a series of local news shuffling and ownership changes, Nintzel found himself overseeing Tucson Weekly, four separate community newspapers, a business publication and a number of advertiser-friendly special sections with a five-person staff and some contributors.
Nintzel made it work — sometimes on a shoestring budget. Then, Times Media Group purchased the outlets, including Tucson Weekly, in 2021.
“They devastated the newsrooms that I worked in, and I had to quit after a year because I couldn’t put out a product I could be proud of,” said Nintzel.
Luckily, Nintzel is back in local journalism, working with the Tucson Sentinel thanks to a three-year grant from Report for America.
But, man, we miss the Tucson Weekly.
Anyway, support local news before Times Media Group comes for us all.
There was a moment during the debate on Tuesday night when our ears perked up.
It is hard to ignore when a congressional candidate is talking about the French Revolution. It is, generally speaking, hard to slip that into a casual conversation.
No surprise that Democrat Patrick Harris’ unusual stage presence and guillotine-related comments were a big hit on social media.
