Secretary of State Fontes on the upcoming Arizona gubernatorial election, primary election turnout

[00:00:00]Well, some votes still need to be counted from last night's primary race, but Arizona's biggest race has been set for November. Republican Congressman Andy Biggs will challenge Democrat Katie Hobbs for governor.

[00:00:11]>> Joining us is Secretary of State Adrien Fontes after a busy day yesterday. Uh the secretary will have a look at the governor's race. It does have similarities if you think back to 2022.

[00:00:23]Katie Hobbs and Carrie Lake, an extreme mega Republican against Katie Hobbs, who of course leans left. In November, though, the difference is going to be the lieutenant governor. So, from a political standpoint, does it make sense for either of those candidates to kind of pick someone who's more centrist?

[00:00:42]>> Well, I it depends on who you think is further to the extreme. So, it in my perspective, it's going to be uh Mr. Biggs who's got to find someone who's got to moderate him. He's a J6er. Uh he's a person who has had some pretty extreme views. Uh and you know Katie Hobbs did not have a lieutenant governor when she won her last race here in Arizona. So uh when you talk about like moderating uh that really is going to be more I think what Mr. Biggs is going to have to do. Uh but there are always ways that that folks in politics can put themselves in a position to be more attractive as the lead candidate for more Arizonans. And so I expect that whatever the picks are going to be either for Governor Hobbs or for Mr. Biggs, um they're going to help round out those individuals. Um they're going to help talk to other communities, uh help with fundraising and do all that sort of stuff just like a vice president would do for a president.

[00:01:33]>> So you're you're for the lieutenant governor.

[00:01:36]>> Well, not really. Uh that's the first question, right? I don't think we need another paid executive officer. um in Arizona. I wasn't in favor of the proposition, but the voters voted for it and that's the law now. So, we're going to follow the law and uh we'll see how that race plays out.

[00:01:53]>> Kimberly Ye leading Tom Horn in this race for superintendent of schools in the past. Diane Douglas, Kathy Hoffman, uh have not won reelection to this office, whether it's Republican or Democrat, voters seem to be flipping constantly this state office. First of all, do you think that this was a referendum on ESAs and whether or not they should have guard rails?

[00:02:17]>> Well, that's a tough question because you're only looking at a primary so that if it was a referendum, it was only a referendum as to Republican voters. It was not a statewide look, which is in all of the other cases you mentioned happened at the general. So, here you have an incumbent in Tom Horn that looks like, and again, we're kind of preceding the final results, uh it looks like he's going to get unseated in the primary and and and that happens. That's what politics looks like. Um, so, uh, I'm not really sure that it's a referenda on anything other than internal Republican party questions. Uh, and then we're going to have really basically an open seat. You're going to have a state treasurer, uh, and a former community college president looks like, uh, in Dr. Ruiz on the Democratic side of the ballot facing off in January. So, uh, we'll see what direction the state wants to go as far as that is concerned. And uh certainly I think there's some very important and very uh budget sensitive issues in the ESA voucher programs and how those two candidates propose to uh administer that that that program.

[00:03:15]>> Adrian, this has been the earliest primary in Arizona and voter turnout was not great. You just gave us some numbers here just a second ago. Um do you think there's a way to get people more interested in the primaries?

[00:03:27]>> Well, you know, there's a couple of things I think that are at play here. uh first and foremost, and we used to have our primaries in September, by the way, and then we moved back to August. And um Arizona has four election days, so this is uh still kind of right in the middle of summer. A lot of folks, particularly in in in the deserts in southern Arizona and here in the Central Valley, uh are not around. And so you can attribute it to that. Um this is the lowest turnout in the last 12 years. I think 2014, we were at 27%. We're not going to make 25% I think when we hit the final numbers.

[00:03:59]But that also might be attributed to the following. Uh on the Democratic side, neither the governor nor myself nor the attorney general had contested primaries. So you don't have a whole bunch of ground game on that side of the aisle. Moreover, uh the Republican side of the aisle on those same offices, they didn't really have a whole bunch of money behind them. And one very important factor I think folks are forgetting, this is the first time in those 10 years, I think 12 years now, that we haven't had a federal statewide race on the ballot, either president or senate.

[00:04:29]>> And so really the top of the ticket is the governor's race, >> not a bunch of other federal money and other folks coming in really concerned about the US Senate or the presidency.

[00:04:37]So that's a different wrinkle here. Um I I I wish turnout would be higher. I wish folks would really get engaged in this because whoever the candidates finally are once we certify these elections in in in a few days down the road uh that's going to be your choices in November.

[00:04:52]And so um that's a this is a really important part of the process. Uh and a lot of folks have talked about should we use a different process in the primaries. Uh there have been proposals on the table for open primaries for you know rank choice voting things of this nature. So I think that conversation is going to move forward. Uh, in my view though, the more folks that participate, the better off we are because you get a better representation of the true will of the most people involved. That's why I've always said, let's get more people involved. Let's get more eligible voters voting because that's how you can get to that that dream of the revolutionary founders, right, in the Declaration, the consent of the governed. Well, we all get governed. We should all use our voices.

[00:05:33]>> Okay. So, we're now just a little bit over a 100red days away from the general election. Do you have any concerns at all regarding whether it's mail and ballots or how the ballots are counted?

[00:05:43]>> Yeah. Well, you know, we always have concerns. We have a different set of concerns in the same bucket. So, at some point, we were talking about uh are we going to have enough power? Is the air conditioning going to go out? Is the church lady going to show up on time with the keys to open up? Uh now, we're worried about some of the things that we've seen. Federal interference is a possibility. You know, the president and and the Secretary of Homeland Security are kind of jerking around with their letters and their threats. That's a problem. it moves people away. Uh that may impact some of our our pole workers and stuff. Uh we do have some technology issues and we certainly have seen foreign actors uh trying to get into our systems that has happened not too far back. Uh but these are all the bucket of things that we have to look at, right?

[00:06:24]So we've got a couple of extra things to look at in the bucket, but that doesn't mean we don't look at the other stuff.

[00:06:29]So, um, these are added concerns to the all the whole list, but I trust the folks that run our elections at the county level, our supervisors, our recorders, those poll workers, the temporary workers, all those folks in Arizona's election family who actually do the work. And by the way, if I could, thank you to all those folks who actually make it happen for all of our voters. And you know, as an election administrator and a professional in this field, I really, really, really am proud of the work that we've done because this primary election is a great example of all of us of all political stripes working together to make sure that Arizona's voices are heard, even if it's just a primary, but we did a great job.

[00:07:08]>> Well, I mean, think about this with the problems that they we have seen in the past. It is so easy and and Arizonans will fire at you if the election doesn't run smoothly. So when it does certainly it it is worth thanking those people.

[00:07:24]>> Absolutely.

[00:07:24]>> Who who you know take the slings and arrows when things don't go well.

[00:07:28]>> Absolutely. It is a zero sum game for a lot of our critics. If it's not perfect, it's a complete disaster and that's just not real. Those are unrealistic expectations. But I'm always proud to be a part of a team that like in 2024 we had 15 bomb threats statewide and we handled it without missing a beat. And and so that's what makes me proud. And again, in my role as the secretary, outcomes be damned. I can separate my opinion from my duty. And whoever I personally vote for, that's fine. But my duty is to all of Arizona's voters. And so is every recorder, every supervisor, all of these folks who work in our warehouses and our vote centers. Uh so to them goes all of the credit for >> And you've got your own race coming up in the the general election. You'll be taking on Alexander Colladin. So good luck to you.

[00:08:13]>> Thank you so much. Adrien Fontes, Secretary of State, joining us tonight.