New lawmaker Q&A: Sen. Lauren Kuby

Get to know your vegan senators … Freedom to speed … And elites in the beer line.

When Democratic Sen. Lauren Kuby jumped last-minute into the race for a Senate seat in a progressive stronghold, she thought she’d be joining the Legislature’s majority party.

The former Tempe City Council member wasn’t going to run for the Legislature — until former Democratic Rep. Melody Hernandez had to drop out of the race over a challenge on her nomination signatures.

After winning the Democratic nomination for Tempe’s Legislative District 8 Senate seat, Kuby went from a write-in candidate to a shoo-in lawmaker.

But instead of getting to do the kind of progressive policy work she did in Tempe, Kuby’s playing defense against Republican bills.

“I ran knowing that we were going to get a majority. What the hell happened?” she said.

Kuby got into politics at the city council level at age 56 to act on climate change. But she doesn’t consider the move to the Capitol a “promotion.”

“You can get more done on a city council than you can with the Legislature,” she said.

Even when she served on the Tempe City Council, lawmakers were attempting to block her work. Kuby said her colleagues on the city council started calling her “Preemption Patty” after the Legislature overturned ordinances she championed banning single-use plastics and commercial pet sales.

Now that she’s in the Legislature, she’s having to vote against those same kinds of preemption policies, like stripping cities of their zoning authority.

But climate policy is at the heart of her political background.

Before her state Senate run, Kuby unsuccessfully tried to get a seat on the Salt River Project board. The public utility company’s board members — who decide consumer rates and policies — are elected through a funky weighted voting system based on how much land each voter owns. Kuby thinks it’s “in need of an infusion of democratic principles.”

In 2022, she lost the race for the Corporation Commission, which she called “the most important office no one's ever heard of” and “the fourth branch of government.”

Now, she’s sponsoring a bill to change the commission's name to the “Public Utility and Corporation Commission” to give people a better idea of what they’re voting for.

We discovered other interesting tidbits in our Q&A with Kuby, like that her daughter is good friends with Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers’ daughter and that her husband invented a board game that’s super popular in Denmark. You can watch the whole interview here.

Now, onto the fun stuff!

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Q: Your Wikipedia page says you are vegan. Where’s the best place for vegans to eat in your district?

A: Green New American Vegetarian and Nami.

Q: What’s the most surprising feedback you’ve received from a constituent that stuck with you?

A: The story of a woman who rescued miniature greyhounds, including one that was severely neglected, which spurred Kuby to push anti-puppy-mill legislation.

“I learned so much about the industry, and it's a very upsetting and horrible industry, and she guided me through that process,” she said.

Q: If Senate Democrats had a Spotify playlist, what song would you add to it?

A: “Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing” by Stevie Wonder.

Q: If you could chair any committee, which one would it be? What committee would you least like to chair?

A: Kuby would most like to chair the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee. She would stay away from the Federalism Committee.

Q: If there was a talent show for legislators, what hidden talent would you perform?

A: “I'm a really great baker, a vegan baker, so it has to be a cooking show,” Kuby said. She used to be a baker in San Francisco.

All gas, no brakes: Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman tried to use his elected position to get out of a criminal speeding ticket, making him the third lawmaker in the last year to do so.¹ He was pulled over for criminal speeding while going 89 mph in a 65 mph zone on U.S. Route 60 in late January, the Republic’s Perry Vandell reports. The Department of Public Safety let him off the hook — since he reminded the trooper that lawmakers enjoy immunity from small-time charges during the legislative session. Republican Sen. Mark Finchem got out of a speeding ticket last month (at least for the time being), while former Sen. Justine Wadsack eventually had to take a driving class to settle a criminal speeding charge from last year. There’s a bill in the works right now that would strip away Arizona lawmakers’ immunity from speeding tickets — and all those tickets (or lack thereof) are getting national attention. The Associated Press looked at how lawmakers from other states have used legislative immunity to wiggle past problems, including a violent outburst in West Virginia and false accusations about who opened fire after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl.

If only she were a lawmaker: A Venezuelan woman in Tucson was whisked away from her family after she was pulled over by a state trooper for driving under the speed limit, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington reports. She was deported to southern Mexico with two of her children hours later. But her husband and two other children remained in Tucson and didn't know where she was for three days. What led to all this? A woman yelled at her for selling empanadas in the parking lot of a QuikTrip gas station and threatened to call the police. Minutes later, she was pulled over for going 25 mph in a 40 mph zone.

Can’t break into an open public building: Hundreds of peaceful protesters descended on the Arizona Capitol yesterday as part of a national “No Kings Day” demonstration against President Donald Trump. The state Senate locked the doors, and Republican misinformation machine Wendy Rogers claimed protesters “tried to break in.”

No big change: Federal prosecutors in Tucson expected to see a tidal wave of immigration cases as the Trump administration launched a crackdown, but so far it’s been pretty much the status quo, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. Some court-appointed defense attorneys say their caseload has actually dropped since Trump took office late last month. Meanwhile, local law enforcement officers want to disable drones they believe are involved with cross-border drug smuggling, and state lawmakers want to make sure police officers don’t face legal liability, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Attorney General Kris Mayes is on board with the proposed bill, HB2733, saying she trusts police to bring down the drones responsibly, even in urban areas.

Doing just fine: Trump and Elon Musk are doing a good job, at least according to a focus group of swing voters in Arizona, Axios’ Erin Doherty and Margaret Talev report. They liked Trump’s disruptive, expansionist use of presidential power, saying it’s helping “get America back on track.” What they didn’t like was Trump saying the U.S. should displace Palestinians and take over Gaza. The same focus group took a very dim view of Gov. Katie Hobbs.

"If Gov. Hobbs needs these 2024 swing voters to win in 2026, she's got her work cut out for her," Rich Thau, who moderated the focus groups, told Axios.

You’re our focus group. If two of you click this button to upgrade to a paid subscription, we’ll consider today’s edition a success.

Frozen out: All the funding from the Inflation Reduction Act that was destined for Colorado River projects was frozen by the Trump administration, the Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said those projects include $87 million for a wastewater treatment project in Tucson and $107 million that was headed to the Gila River Indian Community. The freeze is also delaying repairs to the 63-year-old Glen Canyon Dam.

Republican political consultant Brian Murray doesn’t often find reasons to praise Democrats.

But after reading our piece last week about politicians’ junkets, he had to give a shout-out to Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Sure, Hobbs may have been on an expenses-paid junket to the NCAA Peach Bowl in Georgia. But she waited in the beer line with all the other plebes.

Also, just for good measure here’s the subject line of the latest Joe Arpaio email we received.

1. At least, the third lawmaker that we know of. Fun fact: All three of them were members of the Freedom Caucus.