Candidate cards: Legislative District 9

The Democratic firewall … Water, water everywhere … And third Martha is a charm.

The blue slate of lawmakers in the East Valley’s Legislative District 9 are attempting to fend off Republican challengers in the House and Senate in a district that is critical for Democrats to keep. 

Luckily for them, two of the three Republican challengers have already run and lost in the district. 

Democratic Sen. Eva Burch, who rose to prominence this year after revealing her experience with abortions amid the resurrection of a territorial-era abortion ban, faces a challenge from former police officer and Republican Robert Scantlebury. 

Scantlebury ran against Burch in 2022 but lost by about 3,000 votes. 

LD9 Reps. Lorena Austin and Seth Blattman are seeking reelection against challenges from Republicans Kylie Barber and Mary Ann Mendoza. Both incumbents were first elected to their spots in 2022, when voters rejected Mendoza and her former running mate, Kathy Pearce.¹

Much like two years ago, both Scantlebury and Mendoza are campaigning on immigration — and they’re not exactly shy about the undertones of their rhetoric. Mendoza, for example, was pulled from speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2020 after she shared an anti-Semitic conspiracy online. She was set to speak about her son, police Officer Brandon Mendoza, who was killed in a car crash with an undocumented immigrant. This year, images of her in blackface surfaced online. 

See full-size images of all the cards here.

It’s a dry heat: Fondomonte, the Saudi Arabian company using huge amounts of water to grow alfalfa to send to Saudi Arabia, applied to drill a new well and is hanging a “now hiring” sign at its property in northwest Arizona, Arizona Public Media’s Zachary Ziegler reports. He also has a deep dive in audio format about the history of hedge funds and foreign actors buying our water. Meanwhile, Gov. Katie Hobbs spent some time talking about water in Cochise County last week, telling residents she’ll take administrative action to protect groundwater there if the Legislature won’t take action, AZPM’s Christopher Conover writes. The Sierra Club and Audubon Society are suing the U.S. Forest Service for allowing a mining company to pump so much water it dried up a stream and killed plants and wildlife in the Tonto National Forest, the Arizona Republic’s Caitlin McGlade reports. The main water line supplying potable water to the Grand Canyon area keeps breaking, but authorities swear they’ll have a long-term fix by 2027, the Associated Press reports. And the Environmental Protection Agency is listening to grievances from Lake Havasu residents served by Havasu Water Company, which somehow can’t get uncontaminated water from Lake Havasu to its residents, the San Bernardino Sun reports.

“The irony of this whole debacle is that my wife and I can sit on our front porch any time of the day or night and watch millions and millions of gallons of water flow by, and yet we can’t get any of it to drink. We feel like we’re in a Third World country,” Lake Havasu resident Gary Chamberlain told the Sun.

The center of the political universe: Jimmy McCain, the son of the late John McCain, announced he became a Democrat and will support Kamala Harris. But vice presidential candidate JD Vance announced that if John were alive, he would have supported Donald Trump. Dick Cheney, who is alive, will also support Harris, he announced. Meanwhile, Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz is coming back to Phoenix tomorrow for a pre-debate speech, per the Republic’s Stephanie Murray. Trump and Harris will square off in their first debate at 6.p.m. Arizona time Tuesday night. 

Traductor?: Mohave County will not include Spanish-language directions on their ballot, county officials announced, because the ballot is really long and they’re trying to keep it to one page and they’re not legally required to do so anyway, per the Kingman Daily Miner’s Bill McMillen. The county elections director said four other counties have already removed Spanish from the ballot: Coconino, Greenlee, La Paz and Navajo.

Book review incoming: U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly hit the talk show circuit over the weekend ostensibly to talk about his new children’s book, "Mousetronaut Saves the World," but really mostly trash-talked Trump and Republicans, the Republic’s Bill Goodykoontz notes.  

Help us buy Mark Kelly’s whole “Mousetronaut” series by clicking the button today! Those books aren’t free.  

Now hiring: About 10% of positions in the City of Scottsdale are vacant, the Scottsdale Progress’ Tom Scanlon reports, and mayoral challenger Lisa Borowsky is making filling those positions a centerpiece of her challenge to Mayor David Ortega.

Satan’s long tail: Eight years after Satanists attempted to give a prayer at the Sahuarita Town Council, the council is formalizing an invocation policy it created to stop the Satanists that says only employees can give the prayer, the Green Valley News’ Jorge Encinas reports. 

Tune in to the Politics Unplugged Podcast with Dennis Welch to hear Hank try to get the show canceled due to inappropriate content. 

Also, the Republic’s Laurie Roberts gave us a shout-out in her reporting on the debacle surrounding Republican state House candidate Michael Way’s residency, which we expect to get a court ruling on today.

Former appointed U.S. Sen. Martha McSally is working on the 3.0 version of herself. 

And it is, indeed, the best version of Martha yet. 

1. She was the sister of the late Senate President Russell Pearce, who became famous and got recalled after sponsoring the anti-immigrant SB1070.