What was supposed to be a public committee hearing at the Arizona House of Representatives last week ended with Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez of Tucson delivering a two-minute screed against a lobbyist.
What sparked Hernandez’s anger?
A sticker on the lobbyist’s laptop.
The stickers in question.
The west-side Democrat told Tucson Agenda the sticker was “deeply troubling and unacceptable.”
“A lobbyist appearing before my committee displayed material on his laptop promoting a website he is associated with that has engaged in slanderous attacks against my family and me — conduct that mirrors prior illegal and harassing behavior in my own neighborhood, with that same logo that went on for weeks,” Hernandez said. “In my eight years of service, this ranks among the most inappropriate actions I have witnessed in a professional setting.”
The sticker in question references the website Hernandont.com, which popped up last spring.
It’s unclear who built the website — or who printed the stickers — but the site is critical of Alma, her sister Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, and, to a lesser extent, their brother Daniel Hernandez, a former state legislator.
It also takes aim at their political consulting firm, Hernandi Group LLC, which the siblings founded.
We’ve written about the Hernandi Group’s eyebrow-raising tactics, including its apparent attempt to use its network of influence to lobby for the plastics industry, and the family’s lack of disclosure about the business and its clients.
And we aren’t the only ones to take notice.
“Now, you might ask, is it ethical for elected officials to run a consulting firm that, among other nebulous services, facilitates ‘strategic partnerships and grasstops advocacy?’” the website reads. “Does it sound exactly like what a 7th grader would picture when first learning about pay-to-play corruption?”
Hernandez named lobbyist Hugo Polanco of Creosote Partners in one of her tweets following the incident. He declined to comment on her accusations. And for what it’s worth, we don’t know if he’s behind the site — anyone can request a sticker online.
But Hernandez put him and his progressive lobbying firm on blast.
“It is frankly mind-blowing that anyone would choose to hire individuals who behave in this manner to represent them. My advice to Mr. Palanco and his team is simple: stop being activists when you're paid lobbyists, focus your time and energy on delivering results for your clients, rather than engaging in attacks and targeting Democrats who actually get work done.”
Everyone knows the statehouse is full of complicated political, ideological and industry rivalries. They just rarely spill into public view.
And this particular spat highlights a larger issue within the Democratic Party here in Tucson — namely, the divide between the more progressive “activist” wing of the party, and the more ideologically flexible “get things done” wing of the party.
The Hernandez family has always fallen squarely within the latter camp.
We spoke to several lobbyists last week, and many were reluctant to wade into the dust-up between the Hernandi political trio and a lobbyist — even as they acknowledged the family has no shortage of political rivalries with Democrats at the Legislature and in Tucson.
As an example, the trio came out against Proposition 414 last spring, despite widespread support for the Council-referred half-cent sales tax among elected Democrats in Southern Arizona. Alma also earned the ire of local Democrats for her public posts calling for Congressman Raúl Grijalva to step down shortly before he died.
And yet, sometimes those fights start with something as simple as a sticker.
Despite her detractors, Hernandez has been on a solid winning streak since first getting elected in 2018.
She has had more bills signed in the Republican-controlled Legislature than almost any other Democrat, and she has easily won reelection over the past eight years — often without any real challenge.
But this year could be different.
Hernandez is term-limited in the House. And as she attempts to move up to the state Senate, she already has several potential primary challengers, including former Tucson City Council member Rocque Perez, who represent the same part of town as Hernandez.
And Perez isn’t pulling punches.
He launched his campaign last month with an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star that was sharply critical of her, noting that she has consistently landed near the bottom of scorecards by progressive political groups like Progress Arizona and Arizona Center for Economic Progress, and has pushed “Zionist” legislation to criminalize protest encampments on college campuses.
He also noted that most of her campaign contributions come from Phoenix, most of her financial support comes from lobbyists and executives, and a good chunk of it comes from corporate PACs.
“In a community where one in four families live below the poverty line, Tucsonans deserve representation who fights for them — not for utility companies, not for corporate donors, and not for agendas overseas,” he wrote. “Tucson, it’s time to demand representation worthy of the city we love.”
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover and Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller got a second bite of the apple when they went head-to-head on live air on Friday’s Bill Buckmaster Show.
Ever since Steller’s column a week earlier, the two high-profile Tucsonans have been posting publicly about their thoughts on how Tucson should respond if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descends onto our streets.
As we wrote last week, Steller supports locals protesting peacefully and observing ICE actions, while Conover believes community members need to be more cautious when responding to police actions and notes there haven’t been “ICE raids” in Tucson — yet.
If you only have time for one podcast today, make it this one.
But the TDLR version is that Conover wants “to take the temperature down so that everybody stays low risk and not high risk” when it comes to possible future clashes with ICE.
And while we’ve all heard the warning about not fighting the guy with a printing press, Conover may have had the last word, at least in this news cycle.
She penned an op-ed on Sunday urging locals not to jump to conclusions when it comes to reports of ICE activity in the Old Pueblo.
“In response to footage from other cities, a long-time local columnist said Tucson should be planning a ‘blanket resistance.’ He is implying we should meet recklessness with more recklessness, and I wanted to scream from the rooftops against that,” Conover wrote, referring to Steller’s first column. “We must not fight fire with more fire, but with water.”
Meanwhile, immigration attorney Mo Goldman offered his own take in the same edition of the Star, quoting the late Congressman John Lewis in urging Tucsonans to act and not stay on the sidelines.
“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something,” Lewis said, and Goldman repeated in the Star.
Community on edge: Tucsonans are increasingly worried about the possibility that the Trump administration’s mass deportation program will come to Tucson, which led concerned parents to call Sunnyside High School after false reports of immigration agents on campus, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. It’s one of many recent examples of rumors sparking fears among the local immigrant community, along with the advocates and volunteers who are stepping up for them. In an example of what would scare any parent, the Arizona Luminaria partnered with the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers on a series of stories about a Venezuelan mother who is trying to get back to her family after she was deported from Tucson.
Meanwhile, in Minneapolis: Democratic U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva delivered remarks from a congressional field hearing in Minneapolis, where the city is still reeling from the death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an ICE officer.
“What is happening in Minnesota is unfortunately all too familiar for Arizonans,” Grijalva said. “Arizona is no stranger to this fight. In 2010, the state passed SB1070 – the ‘show me your papers’ law. 1070 was one of the broadest, strictest laws of its kind at the time and it made Arizona a testing ground for racial profiling and cruel immigration policies – the very kind that we see implemented across the country today.”
Boosting school choice: U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican running for his third term in Congressional District 6, introduced a bill that would expand funding for charter school buildings, per the Herald Review. The bill, HR7086, would allow states to use taxpayer dollars for facilities-related expenses, which often aren’t as accessible to charter schools as they are to regular public school districts.
Money rolling in: Democrat JoAnna Mendoza put out a press release saying her campaign against Ciscomani in CD6 has brought in nearly $1 million in the last three months, and just shy of $3 million since she jumped into the race. We can’t independently verify those amounts as Federal Election Commission reports aren’t publicly available yet.
You can get us one step closer to sending out a “We made $1 million” press release by clicking this button.
Deadline creeping up: After negotiating for four days last week, officials from Arizona and the other states that rely on the Colorado River still do not have an agreement for how to divvy up the river’s water, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. Officials from the states will meet again later this month in Washington, D.C. as they try to strike a deal before a February 14 deadline.
Pima County Republican Club also meets today at 11:30 a.m. at The Kettle just west of I-10 on 22nd St.
The Tucson City Council meets briefly today at 10 a.m. at Tucson City Hall to interview city clerk finalists. Almost the entire meeting will be held behind closed doors.
The Oro Valley Town Council will have a study session on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The agenda and both the live stream can be found here.
The Tucson City Council has two more meetings on Wednesday — a study session at 1 p.m. and their regular session at 6 p.m. The council meets at 255 W. Alameda, but you can also watch the meeting via the city’s livestream. The council’s agendas can be found here.
The Regional Transportation Authority will have more Q&A sessions this week. On Wednesday, the RTA will meet at 5 p.m. at the El Rio Neighborhood Center. On Thursday, RTA officials will also hold another public meeting at the Ward 3 offices at 5:30 p.m.
RTA Director Mike Ortega will be on the Bill Buckmaster Show on Friday at noon, you can listen live here. (Joe will be the co-host.)
The long tradition of local officials creating fake personas so they can post about official business continues with Benson Deputy City Manager Jay Howe, who is resigning from his post, Terri Jo Neff reports for the Herald Review.
Howe, AKA “Frank Mills,” created a fake Facebook account so he could dump on critics of the Aluminum Dynamics smelter, a controversial project that Benson residents debated for most of last year.
Leading a double life can be tricky and it looks like Howe wasn’t 100% comfortable with it.
He notified an executive at Aluminum Dynamics about his social media gambit in June, and seven months later went on Facebook to tell the world.
