The 2023 session at the state Capitol has been defined by vitriol amid a sharp GOP lurch to the right, Capitol veterans say || Photo by Gage Skidmore (modified) | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY
Arizona Mirror
The Arizona legislature has been in session for 184 days with no end in sight. Of the many things one could say about this unique session, which has been filled with a half-dozen extended breaks, one thing has been certain for many Capitol regulars: This session has been more tense, more partisan and contentious than previous sessions.
“It’s radically different from the historical culture that has dominated the legislature,” Chuck Coughlin, president of public affairs firm HighGround, told the Arizona Mirror. Historically, the divide at the legislature was between “social safety net Democrats” versus Republicans, who were divided into “big government” and “small government” camps, Coughlin said.
But those philosophical divides have given way to fiercely partisan divides.
“There is no such thing as a fiscal conservative anymore,” Coughlin said, adding that candidates in both parties are running on the platforms of “what the other guy is against and not what you are for.”
From a practical standpoint, the shift has transformed how work gets done at the Capitol — or doesn’t get done. Some legislative veterans say they’ve seen this change coming for years.
“Each session (it) has gotten worse,” Sandy Bahr, the longtime head of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, said.
The rightward lurch among Republicans and the Trump-fueled approach to politics that favors hostility and denigrating opponents is on full display at the legislature, particularly when bills are heard in committees, where the public can show up to tell lawmakers what they think, Bahr said.
“As far as what goes on in these committees to people who come to express their concerns, they’re just not interested in hearing from anyone who might disagree,” she said. “It is not just, ‘Oh, we can agree to disagree,’ it is, ‘You are an awful person and I do not like you and I will disrespect you.’”
While it’s been particularly acute this year, the shift has been a long time coming, said Gaelle Esposito, a lobbyist with the progressive firm Creosote Partners.
