Candidate cards: Legislative District 17

She’s Democrats’ secret weapon … Stealing an election (mailer contract) … And they’re f*cking scared of that sh*tstorm.

Former Republican Sen. Vince Leach is on a mission to get his seat back, and he’s halfway there.

Leach served in the House and Senate for eight years before 2022, when Justine Wadsack knocked him out of the Senate seat in Legislative District 17, which stretches from southern Pinal County to southeast Tucson in Pima County.

This year, Leach got his revenge by knocking out Wadsack in the primary after hammering the airwaves with reminders of her “weird” behavior during her freshman term in office.

Now, the only thing standing between Leach and his old seat is Democrat John McLean, who has proven fundraising prowess during his first attempt at public office.

Democrats were widely hoping that Wadsack would pull off a victory in the primary because Leach is generally considered a stronger opponent to Democrats in November.

But Democrats may have a secret weapon in the race.

These days, Wadsack is working for Turning Point Action and hammering Leach as “wrong for Arizona,” which progressives hope will suppress GOP turnout for Leach and help propel McLean into office in November.

Still, without the high-profile target of Wadsack, Democrats’ focus in LD17 may be shifting to the House race.

Republican Reps. Rachel Jones and Cory McGarr are fighting to keep their House seats against local real estate developer Democrat Kevin Volk.

It’s an uphill battle for Democrats.

But by utilizing the “single-shot” strategy of running just one candidate for the district’s two House seats, Volk has a fighting chance.

Not to mention, Volk has a massive war chest of nearly a quarter-million dollars, while the two Republicans combined have roughly $60,000 cash on hand as of the last campaign finance reports.

See full-size images of all the cards here.

Thanks to a whole bunch of you readers who sent us pics of the political signs popping up in your neighborhoods.

Here are a few of our favorite submissions so far. Keep them coming to info@arizonaagenda.com

Fiancé or foe?: The former fiancé of the Maricopa County Democratic Party's executive director was hit with 10 felony charges for defrauding the party after he was paid $24,480 to produce campaign mailers that were never sent out, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. Executive Director Ne'Lexia Galloway told a political consulting firm to use her fiancé’s company but keep the arrangement quiet. She resigned, and former chair Nancy Schriber stepped down after backing her.

Thrown on the heap: Justin Heap, the Republican nominee for Maricopa County Recorder, was let go from his job as a lawyer in the county public defender’s office in 2010 after “unsatisfactory completion of (his) initial probationary period,” KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. Nobody knows exactly what he did, but Heap says he definitely wasn’t fired, while the former public defender says he must have done something wrong.

“It doesn't mean there wasn't cause, you can pretty much guarantee there was,” James Haas, who led the office in 2010, said. “It doesn't make any sense that an office would hire someone, invest in training them and then just let them go.”

If we have satisfactorily completed our initial probationary period, please officially hire us as your local reporters.

Everybody stay cool: Democrats were worried that if they filed lawsuits over the razor-thin CD3 primary election or showed any division, Republicans could weaponize their actions as “election denialism,” the Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reports. Plus, there was no evidence evidence of fraud and little likelihood that a lawsuit could change Yassamin Ansari’s 39-vote margin of victory over Raquel Terán.

Border Czar: Kamala Harris visited the southern border in Douglas on Friday, joined by U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Harris pledged that her administration would pursue more severe criminal charges against repeat offenders and bar people from receiving asylum if they cross the border unlawfully, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. Meanwhile, progressive groups are using the immigration issue to mobilize new and first-generation citizens in swing states like Arizona, and they’re especially focused on killing Prop 314, which would let local law enforcement arrest border crossers, the Arizona Mirror’s Gloria Gomez reports.

Flakey Republican: Former Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake endorsed Harris, saying her policies are more in line with his conservative free-market views than Donald Trump’s.

“I don't agree with everything that the Harris campaign has put out. That's not necessary. I've never agreed with the entire platform of any Republican I voted for,” Flake said.

It’s tamale time: Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered the Arizona Department of Health Services to immediately start enforcing the “tamale bill” legislators passed this year that lets vendors sell more types of foods made at home that require refrigeration, like meat and dairy products, Reagan Priest writes for the Arizona Capitol Times. Health services representatives initially told vendors it could take a year for the changes to take place.

From coding to candidacy: A 36-year-old software engineer who is challenging Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego sat down for an hour-long conversation with the Phoenix New Times. Matt Evans doesn’t know much about Phoenix’s water situation, but his main focus is increasing enforcement as a solution to the homelessness crisis, TJ L'Heureux writes. He has one endorsement: Republican Maricopa County Sheriff candidate Jerry Sheridan.

Havasu headaches: Staff and students at Arizona State University’s Lake Havasu City Campus aren’t sure what the future looks like after ASU announced it's closing the campus and blamed the move on the state legislature’s funding cuts, the Today’s News-Herald’s Taylor Schwartz-Olson reports. ASU said 20 jobs will be “affected” and 225 students will have to find a different campus to study at or move to online classes.

The Washington Posts’ Yvonne Wingett Sanchez got ahold of a leaked recording of a call between Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes all freaking out about what to do with the “glitch” where the state discovered roughly 100,000 longtime registered voters may not have verified their citizenship.

Beyond the news value of learning that Hobbs wanted to give all those voters federal-only ballots and not let them vote in state races, it’s very entertaining to hear them all cursing and pulling their hair out over the decision.

“It’s still going to create just this s---storm of ‘told you so, all these illegals are voting,’” Hobbs said.

“Think about all of the 82-year-olds in wheelchairs who are not going to be able to make it to the polls and sure as hell aren’t going to, like, be able to find their f---ing driver’s licenses or birth certificates in time,” Mayes argued.

“(It would be) an absolute s--- show at the counties if we tell them they need to go chase down 150,000” voters to verify citizenship, Fontes said.

But perhaps the most entertaining part of the leaked call is speculating about which of the three leaked it, and why…