The Gaggle: An Arizona politics podcast The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com

In her second year, Gov. Katie Hobbs has used her veto stamp much less than her first year.
By this time last year, the Democratic governor had denied a record-breaking 63 bills presented by the GOP-dominated Legislature. This year, Hobbs is at 42 vetoes.
Her second red stamp came across House Bill 2570, or the Arizona Starter Homes Act. Introduced by Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, it was intended to make homebuilding more efficient and thus more affordable.
But Hobbs said the bill couldn’t guarantee affordable home prices. She argued it went too far because it cut much of the local control cities have over development.
This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Mary Jo Pitzl is joined by housing expert Mark Stapp, the Fred E Taylor professor of real estate at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He says the solution is more complicated than it seems.
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On Tuesday, April 9, the Arizona state Supreme Court ruled to uphold near total-ban on abortions dating back to 1864.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the exact parameters for Arizona went into question. Just months before, then-Governor Republican Doug Ducey signed a law that limited abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, when Roe v. Wade went into effect nationally, Arizona had an abortion law dating back to its territorial days.
So the question became: which ruling would be the law of the land in Arizona? At the time, the state Court of Appeals overruled and instated the 15-week law. This week, the Arizona Supreme Court reversed this decision, allowing the 19th century law to take affect.
Today on The Gaggle, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl dissect Arizona's new, but ancient, abortion law and how it will impact the state politically and legally.
First, state politics reporter Stacey Barchenger joins the podcast to break down why the justices allowed at 160-year law to stand and who will benefit politically from the decision.
Later, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias joins The Gaggle to investigate the legal fallout from the court's decision.
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Imagine there is a ballot with several candidates seeking the same seat. And you like most of them. But you can only pick one because that’s what the rules require. 
When that happens, the vote in a multi-candidate race is split – and the outcome often is the candidate you least like wins.
This is called vote splitting, a phenomenon that happens when a race attracts at least three candidates who have similar positions or maybe similar demographics. This makes it attractive for a contrasting candidate to benefit from the divided vote and prevail.
It’s happened time and again across the nation and here in Arizona.
Think Paul Gosar. He emerged from an eight-candidate field in 2010 to win the GOP primary in a heavily Republican district. It cemented his standing as an incumbent and he hasn’t lost since.
There’s a move afoot to stop vote splitting by introducing “approval voting,” a system where voters could vote for all of the candidates in a given race who appeal to them. And they could do that without ranking them. This is something the Center for Election Science, a national, nonpartisan nonprofit focused on voting reform, is pushing.
In this episode of The Gaggle, Mary Jo Pitzl examines the effect of vote-splitting, the potential issues it can cause, and some of the unintended consequences of the practice. You'll also hear about the related practice of ticket splitting, which factored prominently played a big role in the 2022 general election. 
Joining Pitzl via Zoom are Nina Taylor, the organization’s CEO, and Chris Raleigh, director of advocacy and communication and a specialist in campaign management. 
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Trust in the election system in Arizona is eroding. Some may even say it's broken all together. One side says the vulnerability of voting machines and delay in election results is what makes the system distrustful. This was most obvious during the Maricopa County recount of the 2020 ballots that lasted months.
The other side says it's the new found distrust in the system that makes it broken.
But either way a question remains among most American, and specifically Arizonan, voters: how can we make elections better?
This question fuels the work of David Becker. He is a co-founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and he believes that technology and reliance on data can help us toward improving elections. He also helped launch the Election Official Legal Defense Network, which connections election officials with free legal advice.
This week on Election Dissection, an elections series of The Gaggle podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Mary Jo Pitzl and Sasha Hupka sit down with Becker to discuss why he's confident in the safety of our elections systems, how America ended up in this position and why he's keeping an eye on those who oppose Donald Trump come next January.
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Rents in Arizona have jumped significantly since the pandemic. In 2021, metro Phoenix made national headlines when rents skyrocketed by 30%. An investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's office reveals that a group of nine landlord companies have been using a software that allows them to see what other properties are charging and thereby "fix" their rental prices to match. Attorney General Kris Mayes is not having it and is seeking restitution for those affected. But that could take years. What about renters who need help now?
In this episode of The Gaggle, producer Amanda Luberto sits down with Stacey Barchenger, our state politics reporter, and Catherine Reagor who covers real estate issues. They hash out what could happen and what resources renters have access to right now.
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U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko has had enough of Washington, D.C.
Lesko has represented the northwest Valley for six years after winning a special election to fill the spot for Trent Franks, who stepped down after allegations of sexual harassment involving his female staffers.
Lesko has been a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, voting against his impeachment and voting in Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was being pushed out of office in a Republican-led coup, Lesko decided that she was done with Capitol Hill.
This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Ron Hansen is joined by Laura Gersony to dive into the crowded Congressional District 8 race to replace her. The Republic's two national politics reporters dissect the approach and positions of the candidates eyeing the open seat and discuss who has a chance of winning the primary in August.
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