By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Courting another legal fight with the Legislature, Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday she is not going to seek Senate confirmation of her choices to head state agencies.
"I'm quite frankly done with Jake Hoffman and his agenda,'' Hobbs said of the Queen Creek Republican who heads the Senate Committee on Director Nominations. It is that panel that gets to screen gubernatorial choices, a part of the process that gives the Senate the power to "advise and consent'' on the picks.
"I'm not going to send anyone else to him to go through this circus that he continues,'' the governor said.
Only thing is, the last time the governor stopped sending names to the Senate it ended up in court, with a judge ruling that her scheme to have agencies run indefinitely by unconfirmed "executive deputy directors'' was illegal. But Hobbs bristled Friday when reminded of that ruling and asked how long she thinks she can avoid submitting new nominations.
"You'll have to ask Jake Hoffman or the Senate president,'' she said, raising her voice. "I don't know the answer.''
But the governor appeared to be setting the stage for another court fight.
"If somebody's upset about it, they can sue me again,'' Hobbs said.
She did not address the fact that her last legal battle over the confirmation process did not end well for her.
Hoffman, for his part, told Capitol Media Services Friday that the Senate will wait to see what exactly Hobbs plans to do about who heads her agencies before deciding whether to take legal action. But he called the governor's action "a childish temper tantrum and emotional meltdown,'' referring to her by her first name.
"But what's clear is that, from her unhinged statements at the press conference today, she's once again making rash, emotional decisions and, quite frankly, flying by the seat of her pants without any due diligence or thought behind her actions,'' Hoffman said.
All this occurred just days after the governor's picks to head two major state agencies quit after she said it became clear that the Republican-controlled Senate would refuse to confirm them.
That was confirmed just hours later when Hoffman said that Carmen Heredia, the governor's choice to head the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, and Jennifer Cunico who she tapped to be state health director, were "unqualified nominees.'' That left the question of who Hobbs would nominate to replace them.
"You know, if I'm being really honest with you, why would anyone want to go through what these folks are going through,'' the governor said. "They are being dragged through the mud because of one person's political agenda that has nothing to do with their careers in public service.''
And she said both have done "amazing work'' for the state "that is totally separate from indicted fake elector Jake Hoffman's political agenda and conspiracy theories.''
That was referring to the fact that Hoffman is one of 11 Republicans indicted by a state grand jury after they submitted documents to Congress following the 2020 presidential election saying that Donald Trump had won the Arizona primary and that the state's electoral votes should be tallied for him even though he had been outpolled by Democrat Joe Biden.
They along with others who are accused of helping advance the plan are facing charges of conspiracy, forgery and conducting fraudulent schemes and practices. A trial is set for January.
All that, however, still leaves the question of who will run the state agencies if there is no director, much less someone who has been confirmed.
"We're going to move forward in the best way possible in the current environment,'' Hobbs said. And what that includes, she said, is having the agencies be run with interim directors rather than submit new nominees to the Senate -- and to Hoffman.
If all that sounds familiar, it should.
During her first year in office in 2023, some of the governor's picks were confirmed and a few were rejected.
But that still left 13 by September of that year who were in a governmental limbo, allowed to serve as director for up to a year. If they were not confirmed in that time, the governor would be legally required to name someone else.
But Hobbs, rather than waiting, then withdrew those 13 names.
The governor's action left each agency without a director. She then used a procedural move to name each nominated-but-unconfirmed director as an "executive deputy director,'' doing the same job as before -- but as a deputy director not required to get Senate confirmation.
The Senate then sued.
In a 17-page decision last year, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney said that Hobbs was "arguably'' within her power to withdraw the names of her nominees after she could not get them confirmed.
Where she broke the law, Blaney said, was in giving those deputies the exact same duties and powers they would have had as Senate-confirmed directors.
"The governor ... took those actions for an improper purpose, culminating in an improper result -- one that violates Arizona law,'' he wrote.
Blaney also took a slap at Hobbs for arguing that state law allows the appointment of deputy directors to agencies, even without directors who are subject to Senate confirmation over them.
"That argument improperly elevates form over substance,'' the judge said.
He said that under Arizona law, directors run their respective agencies and are appointed to their positions through a statutorily defined process -- meaning Senate review and confirmation.
"That process requires oversight by the legislative branch,'' Blaney said. "Here, the governor willfully circumvented that statutory process and eliminated the legislative branch from its executive role.''
Hoffman defended the role of his committee in doing in-depth reviews of each nominee. And he also noted that some of the governor's choice have made it through the process.
A total of 15 of her picks have been confirmed, with four rejected outright. Another seven nominations -- including the most recent two -- have been withdrawn.
Hoffman said there are still 9 nominations that have yet to get a hearing.
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