4 GOP rivals for AZ governor debate electability, other issues

The underlying theme of the hour-long televised debate was each trying to show that he is the only one who can defeat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November. That often left U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, who has so far been leading in the polls going into the July 21 GOP primary election, on the defensive.

The broadest attack came from his fellow Congressman David Schweikert, who pronounced Biggs  unelectable.

"Fellow Republicans: Are you tired of losing?'' Schweikert said, addressing the viewing audience directly.

He said there are more Arizonans registered as politically independent than those who affiliate with either the Republican or Democratic parties.

That's not exactly true. Republicans have a slight edge — about 50,000. But that disappears when those registered with the Libertarian, No Labels and Green parties are added in.  

Schweikert said the results of the last few elections show that nominated candidates have often gone on to lose because they failed to attract independent voters, and that even some GOP faithful didn't vote for them.

Schweikert said the same will happen in November if Biggs is the nominee.

He said the clue is that Biggs is "wholly owned'' by Turning Point, the organization set up by the late political activist Charlie Kirk. It has endorsed many candidates who tend to be more on the periphery of the GOP, not always with electoral success.

"TP and I are not what you would call 'bedfellows,' '' Biggs responded in speaking to reporters after the debate. But he acknowledged that Turning Point Action, the political arm of the organization, is backing him.

Asked about the fact that Hobbs managed to defeat Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake four years ago, as Lake lost independents and some Republicans, Biggs responded: "I think I'm a very different person than Kari."

Schweikert has his own history, having been fined $125,000 in 2022 by the Federal Elections Commission over misappropriated campaign funds. That followed his accepting liability for 11 campaign violations charged by the House Ethics Committee and a $50,000 fine.

But Schweikert said that has not hurt his electability, noting he has continued to get reelected every two years to the U.S. House in one of the most politically competitive congressional districts in the state.

Businessman Scott Neely, for his part, said he is the one who can get the votes in November, more so, he said, than either Biggs or Schweikert. He brushed aside the fact that he only picked up 3.1% of the vote in his 2022 bid for the GOP nomination.

"My opponents have spent years in government,'' Neely said.

"We still have a water crisis. They've spent years creating red tape and regulation that's made it hard on Ken and my businesses,'' Neely said, referring to Ken Micelli, who rounds out the foursome of GOP gubernatorial candidates. 

Micelli had his own pitch.

"People want a political outsider,'' he said.

Vote-by-mail issue

The contenders also took varying positions on whether Arizonans should continue to be allowed to vote by mail.

Arizona law has permitted mail-in voting since 1991 when the Republican-controlled Legislature agreed to no-excuse early voting. Prior to that, ballots would go out early only to certain people, such as those who were homebound and those working on Election Day who could not get to the polls.

Mail-in voting has proven immensely popular, with upwards of 80% of all votes in Arizona cast by people who got their ballots in the mail.

But the practice has been under fire in the GOP, starting with President Donald Trump insisting it can lead to fraud.

Republicans in the current Legislature voted just a week ago to put a measure on the ballot that could impair the practice, including a requirement for all voters to provide identification. Its proponents, however, could not say how that would work — or if it even could — for those who vote by mail, leading to claims this is a back-door way of getting rid of early ballots.

Meanwhile, a separate group is gathering signatures to amend the Arizona Constitution to guarantee the right to vote by mail.

Neely said he wants to kill no-excuse early voting except for veterans who are overseas or out of state.

"And I support mail-in ballots for the disabled, the handicapped,'' he said.

And for everyone else?

"One day, one vote, on paper, in person,'' he said.

Schweikert disagreed, saying he recognizes the popularity of the current laws. But he said there need to be some changes to ensure that ballots are being mailed only to those who are eligible — and alive.

He said his mother, who died in 2010, was still getting ballots mailed to her house, which Schweikert said his brother inherited, for at least a decade.

Schweikert said voter rolls updates and some form of identification are called for, though he did not spell out what that might be.

Biggs said if the state is to keep early voting, it needs a system like Florida's. There, anyone who has gotten a ballot by mail and wants to drop it off at a polling place must do so by the Friday before Election Day.

That avoids what happens in Arizona where people can walk in to a vote center on Election Day and drop off their sealed ballot envelopes. More than 290,000 voters in Maricopa County alone did that in 2022.

The result is that those envelopes cannot be opened and votes counted until the signatures are checked against examples on file. And that can't occur until all the ballots cast in person on Election Day are counted, one factor in why it can take a week or more to find out who has won.

Micelli sidestepped the question of early voting, saying he wants to use biometrics to determine if someone is eligible to vote. He acknowledged that would require a method to verify each person's unique identification but said it wouldn't affect privacy because all that data would remain with the state.

But he said there is a problem. "Do you know how many people that have passed away have voted last year?'' Micelli asked, though he provided no estimate.

And what is the basis for his claim? 

"Have you heard of something called AI?'' Micelli responded, providing no more details.

Taxes 

Schweikert took a shot at Biggs for his claim that Arizona could eliminate the state income tax. The problem with that, he said, is that income taxes bring in close to a third of all state revenues, about $18 billion a year. Schweikert said that making such sharp cuts, politics aside, is impossible because much of the state spending actually is protected by voter-approved measures that lawmakers cannot alter.

"You'd have to double Arizona's property tax,'' he said.

Still, Schweikert said, there are ways to generate more money to provide some tax relief.

One is that Arizona has about 8.5 million acres of state trust land, much of it in urban areas — areas that already have water and sewer and are ready for residential development. He said the state should be selling that off quicker than it does, a move that also could help with housing affordability.

Biggs also touted "dormant assets'' like trust land. He also said curbing waste and fraud in programs like Medicaid could save billions.

Neely wants to cut taxes for businesses across the board and eliminate property taxes for Arizonans 65 and older.

Data centers

The candidates all said there need to be constraints on new data centers.

"Where's the power going to come from, and where's the water going to come from?'' asked Biggs. 

Neely suggested requiring them to obtain their own sources of power, such as small nuclear reactors.

Of note is that Biggs said data centers should not get any kind of tax break.

That aligns him on this issue with Hobbs, who in January asked lawmakers to eliminate tax exemptions for data centers. Republicans in the Legislature balked, resulting in a final deal where no new breaks will be approved — but only for three years — and prior existing exemptions will remain.

All four Republicans expressed general support for giving vouchers of taxpayer dollars to parents to send their children to private or parochial schools or to teach them at home.

Neely said there need to be some restrictions on how the money can be spent. But he also said it would make sense to allow these Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to be used for students to attend trade schools to be trained for the jobs of the future.

"It's an important component in the future economy because the present economy is going to be consumed by robots," he said. 

Biggs said he wants to make vouchers "more accessible to more people,'' also mentioning trade schools. But he provided no specifics about how that would work, saying only that state Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, is coming up with a "concept.''

Wednesday's televised event was sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and the Arizona Media Association.