By Adam Gaub
Casa Grande Dispatch
Breaking with current state party leadership, the Pinal County Republican Committee has endorsed Steve Smith of Maricopa for speaker of the House in the Arizona Legislature.
Smith, who now is a senator in District 23, is running for a House seat in Tuesday’s election. That move allowed him to avoid a primary election faceoff against Republican Sen. Melvin in the new District 11. It was Melvin who made the floor motion to support Smith for speaker against current Speaker Andy Tobin.
Melvin said the move was made to bring more conservative leadership to the Arizona Legislature.
“He’s been very strong on the border,” Melvin said of Smith. “He would make sure bills relating to border security would pass.”
In addition to supporting, Smith’s candidacy, Melvin and the Pinal County Republicans also back Sen. Andy Biggs of Gilbert in his bid for the Senate presidency against Sen. Steve Pierce.
Smith is expected to cruise to an easy victory on Tuesday and Biggs has no opposition.
Pinal GOP Chairman Stephen Kohut said the decision to push for new leadership stems from disappointment because the Arizona Legislature allowed key bills to be set aside.
“This endorsement of legislative leadership is unprecedented in party history and was taken due to deep concerns about the failures of the current legislative leadership,” Kohut wrote. “It is a stark reality that the policies and principles endorsed by the electorate have been thwarted at the sole discretion of the current Senate president and speaker of the House.”
Of note, Kohut said the current legislative leadership has killed bills that would have created a state guard, reformed the state’s pension system and addressed immigration issues.
Melvin said putting Biggs and Smith in positions of power would allow true conservatives to regain control of the legislative agenda. He criticized Pierce specifically for refusing to spend money to aid Republican candidates locked in tight races in competitive districts this fall.
“That’s especially bad as far as I’m concerned,” Melvin said.
Biggs challenged Pierce for the Senate presidency last year but was narrowly defeated. Kohut alleges the money Pierce raised this year for the “Republican victory fund” is only being doled out to candidates who would back the current party leadership.
Smith made a name for him- self nationally during his first term in the Arizona Legislature, sponsoring a bill that spawned the creation of a website, build- theborderfence.com, which solicits private donations for the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
