Play the video above to see these stories on AZ Illustrated Politics for Friday, Sept. 13 with guests Lea Marquez-Peterson, president of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Bruce Ash, Republican national committeeman, and Vince Rabago, former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party and former candidate for state attorney general:
ELECTION LAW REFERENDUM: This week, opponents a new state law that would overhaul the state’s election regulations turned in more than 146,000 signatures to block the law and force a public vote on the November 2014 ballot. Rabago said the law was an effort to suppress the vote and Marquez-Peterson said it would disrupt efforts that Latinos have used to increase participation in elections. Ash disputed that the law was designed to suppress the vote but said that he did have some concerns with certain elements of it. He predicted it would fail at the ballot box next year.
MEDICAID EXPANSION: Although former state lawmaker Frank Antenori’s effort to force a referendum on the Medicaid expansion failed this week, the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the expansion based on the fact that it did not get the approval of two-thirds of the legislature as tax increases are required to do. Ash said that it was clearly a tax increase on hospitals, while Rabago said there was a lot of precedent of similar fees in state government. Marquez-Peterson said the business community had supported the expansion because it brought billions in federal funding to Arizona hospitals while freeing up dollars in the state’s general fund.
IMMIGRATION REFORM: Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution that opposed a path to citizenship for undocumented people now in the United States as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package. Ash said that he wrote the resolution because he didn’t believe that people who had entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas should eventually have a right to vote, but Marquez-Peterson and Rabago said that the lengthy path to citizenship envisioned in the immigration-reform package that passed the Senate earlier this year was a reasonable compromise on the issue.
AZ Illustrated Politics is produced by Jim Nintzel. Contact him at jnintzel@azpm.org.
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