Play the video above to see these stories on AZ Illustrated Politics for Friday, Sept. 20 with guests Carol West, former Tucson City Councilwoman, Frank Antenori, former state lawmaker, and Jeff Rogers, former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party:
CITY COUNCIL RACES: While ballots are set to be sent out to Tucson voters in four weeks, West said the election season was shaping up a snoozer. Antenori said that Republican Ben Buehler-Garcia had a shot against Democratic incumbent Karin Uhlich in Ward 3, although he said it would be an uphill battle because the city now does an all-mail ballot and Democrats have proved adept at getting supporters to vote by mail. Rogers said that Uhlich had a better shot at winning this year because four years ago, a Green Party candidate siphoned votes and led to her narrow win over Buehler-Garcia.
MEDICAID EXPANSION: Antenori blamed Gov. Jan Brewer and her political allies for creating roadblocks that prevented his group from getting a referendum effort to block the state’s Medicaid expansion on the ballot, but expressed hope that the Goldwater Institute’s recent lawsuit to block the expansion would prevail in court. Rogers said the lawsuit, which argues that the expansion required a two-thirds vote in the Legislature because it enacted a new fee on hospitals, would be a close call by the state’s Supreme Court because of some ambiguity in the Arizona Constitution.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: West said she thought a new campaign to build support for same-sex marriage could change attitudes ahead of a potential 2016 ballot proposition to reverse a ban on gay and lesbian unions in the state. Antenori, who had previously supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, said that he now believes the state should not have any involvement in the matter of marriage. Rogers said it was only a matter of time before same-sex unions were legal in Arizona.
AZ Illustrated Politics is produced by Jim Nintzel. Contact him at jnintzel@azpm.org.
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.