On this episode Arizona 360 looked back at the headlines that shaped January with a journalists roundtable that included Arizona Daily Star editorial page editor Sarah Garrecht Gassen, Green Valley News/Sahuarita Sun editor Dan Shearer and The Yellow Sheet editor Hank Stephenson. The panel discussed how local communities and the state responded to help affected families during the partial government shutdown.
"The local community will step up and help. We had a lot of local efforts, people giving to the food banks. The Town of Sahuarita gave to the food bank," Shearer said. "When we have these big events, we learn a lot about how government really affects our day-to-day lives."
The discussion also covered Kelli Ward's recent victory as chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, and how the former U.S. Senate candidate's leadership signals the party's shift to the political right.
"Do the people who are in the party of Donald Trump look at Kelli Ward as an extremist? No. But do the people who are in more the party of Doug Ducey look at Kelli Ward as an extremist? Absolutely," Stephenson said. "It is a war between those two wings of the party and right now the farther right wing just took over Arizona's party."
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