Hobbs makes her move

Making good on threats … Vote safely … And we’re lovin’ it.

Yesterday morning, group chats and inboxes were buzzing in Southeast Arizona: Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Department of Water Resources have begun the process of designating the Willcox Basin as an “Active Management Area,” which will limit groundwater pumping in the area.

This is huge news in a place where the earth is cracking open from dramatic groundwater declines, and where everyone knows someone whose well has gone dry.

And it would be a historical milestone as the first state-initiated “subsequent AMA” in Arizona,¹ highlighting Hobbs’ role as the first governor to push the ADWR to take rural groundwater management seriously.

Conflict over groundwater depletion and regulations have been ongoing since 2015 when locals pushed for an AMA but got nowhere.

Things really heated up in 2022, when local residents circulated initiative petitions to designate AMAs for the Willcox Basin and neighboring Douglas Basin, successfully collecting enough signatures to get both basins on the 2022 ballot. In the end, a majority of residents of the Douglas Basin voted to form an AMA, while a majority in the Willcox Basin refused.

Last year, the Governor’s Water Policy Council, a bipartisan group of government officials and stakeholders, drafted plans for new groundwater management laws, only to be thwarted by Republican Sen. Sine Kerr and Rep. Gail Griffin, who refused to hold hearings on the council’s bills in their respective legislative committees.

This year, Hobbs went on a very public day trip to the Willcox Basin with a cohort of journalists, talking with local officials and residents about their groundwater problems. A few weeks later, the ADWR held a public presentation and forum on the basin’s hydrological data and regulatory option for an AMA.

But at the time, nobody was sure whether the show of force was just an administrative flex in an attempt to pull all parties back to the negotiation table, or evidence that an AMA designation was incoming. Hobbs said she preferred a legislative solution, but reserved the option of taking administrative action.

Turns out, she went with the latter strategy: Shoot first, negotiate later.

Besides being a strong political move by Hobbs, an AMA designation will “stop the bleeding” in the Willcox Basin while the Legislature continues its policy battles.

As of yesterday’s announcement, no new land can be irrigated in the Willcox Basin — undoubtedly a source of relief for locals who continue to see their desert landscape being cleared for new nut tree orchards and pivot circles.

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The press releases flooded in…

Mike Laws, mayor of Willcox:

"Our community is facing difficult decisions as Arizona moves forward with an Active Management Area for the Willcox Basin. While there are a range of views on the AMA, the urgency of addressing our water challenges cannot be overstated."

Ed Curry, local chile farmer:

“This announcement of a potential AMA is a new beginning for the Willcox Basin, and we must continue to work together to move forward to protect our groundwater supplies. I am thankful for the courage of Governor Hobbs and her administration to tackle these issues head on.”

Steve Kisiel, Willcox Basin homeowner:

“Today’s announcement by ADWR to initiate the AMA designation process gives me hope that we will finally have a secure water future here in the Willcox Basin.”

Sine Kerr, LD25 state senator:

"It has now been 135 days since the Republican majority delivered a comprehensive rural groundwater plan to Hobbs, a plan that actually provides for more meaningful conservation than an AMA, and we have yet to receive her response. Her lack of leadership and lack of willingness to work with lawmakers in a bipartisan manner are on full display with this maneuver."

Mark Jorve, local vintner:

“We support and welcome this step taken towards protecting our water supplies. As a small business vineyard in the Willcox groundwater basin we’ve experienced firsthand the alarming declines in our local water levels due to decades of unchecked, unlimited groundwater pumping.”

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Next month, as required by law, the ADWR will hold a public hearing where citizens can express their support or opposition to a Willcox AMA designation. The agency then has another 30 days to decide whether to finalize the AMA designation or abandon it.

If the AMA becomes official in December, the freeze on agricultural expansion will remain in place. Going forward, a “management goal” and “management plan” will be designed for the AMA, which are supposed to address the existing overdraft by implementing a “continuing mandatory conservation program” for commercial water users in the area.²

And now that Hobbs has proven willing to put AMAs in place, legislative stalemate tactics will no longer be an option for her policy opponents. They’ll have to come up with statutory amendments or AMA alternatives that actually pass through the Legislature and survive Hobbs’ veto pen.

Expect more news in 2025 as the opposition decides how they’ll return Hobbs’ volley.

The politics of violence: Tempe police arrested 60-year-old Jeffrey Michael Kelly, who they accused of both shooting up the Democratic National Committee office in Phoenix several times in recent weeks, and of putting white powder and razor blades on political signs around Ahwatukee, per the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 17-year-old who bought explosives and planned to launch a terrorist attack on the Phoenix Pride festival last weekend, 12News reports. Finally, a Colorado man pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Gov. Katie Hobbs ahead of the 2022 election, back when she was the secretary of state, per the AP.

Maybe next time it’ll stick: Many of the companies and business groups that pledged not to support election deniers and attempted insurrectionists after the 2020 election have seemingly forgotten that promise and are now funding election deniers and attempted insurrectionists once again, the Republic’s Laura Gersony reports.

Insurrection 2.0 incoming: The secretive network of GOP-donor-backed “election integrity” groups that supported Donald Trump’s first attempt to steal an election have become much more sophisticated and well-funded in the four years since the last election, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The former president and his allies have spent the last four years laying the groundwork for a more organized, better funded and far broader effort to contest the outcome — a Stop the Steal 2.0 — if the vote doesn’t go his way,” WSJ writes.

Join our secretive network of pro-democracy readers working to prevent election theft. Click the button today!

Ghost ballots: Dead people’s votes will count in the November election, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports, but that’s because in every election at least a few people cast a mail-in ballot and then pass away before the ballot is tabulated. State law says the vote has to be counted in those cases.

“A vote is considered legally cast once an eligible voter places it in the mail or drop box,” Taylor Kinnerup of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office told Fischer. “It is not based on if the person is alive once it’s counted.”

SNAFUS, not conspiracies: About 120 voters in Cochise County got ballots that left off the Board of Supervisors race in District 2, where the board’s lone Democrat, Ann English, isn’t seeking reelection, the Herald/Review reports.

Better late than never: The Arizona Republic editorial board endorsed the Arizona for Abortion Access Act yesterday, saying they’re not promoting abortion for the sake of abortions, but because the measure ensures women have the right and freedom to make that decision with a doctor. The paper had already issued a slew of endorsements on other measures before early voting started.

“We understand the angst of those who say abortion shouldn’t be used as birth control. This measure isn’t a blanket method to do that. It has guardrails with health care advice to help make that determination,” the editorial board said.

Success is 90% showing up: After Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren stripped his vice president of her duties and urged her to resign, VP Richelle Montoya showed up to the first day of the Navajo Nation Council's fall session. Nygren, who was supposed to deliver a speech to the council, skipped out, per the Republic’s Arlyssa Becenti. The fallout between Nygren and the first female vice president in Navajo Nation history began after she accused him of sexual harassment earlier this year.

Keep a journal: George Headley, a sophomore at ASU and the political editor of the State Press, explains to KJZZ’s Sam Dingman how to maintain your zen during election season, riffing off a piece he wrote for the State Press about how his mom simply avoids politics and the news.

“If I’m going to think about this, if I’m going to have anxiety about it, why not cover it? I think that does help my anxiety a lot, just to be involved. Because I’m no longer thinking about it as a world-ending experience, I’m thinking of it as a story,” he said.

If you don’t have plans for Halloween yet, you can spend it at Desert Diamond Arena with Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, where the duo will be filming an event for “The Tucker Carlson Live Tour.”

In other amusing Trump news, Yelp shut down the reviews for the Pennsylvania McDonalds that he spent a few hours working at as part of a photo op, the New York Times reports.

Obviously, the comments were fire before they got shut down.

“There was a giant orange rat in the kitchen. The operator let it in to roam around and even posted pictures of it. Pretty weird,” one reviewer wrote.

“The best McDonalds I’ve ever been to in 47 years. The older employee was extremely nice. Make McDonalds Great Again! Bring back the Dollar Menu!” another wrote.

1. The Douglas AMA is Arizona’s first “subsequent AMA,” but that designation came from a citizen petition and election, not the ADWR.

2. Though it remains to be seen if the ADWR will step up with meaningful conservation plans.