A View from the Left Side

Arizonans Fight Back Against #AZLeg Republicans with Six Referenda

Rep. Pam Powers Hannley Season 1 Episode 2

As predicted many times by the House Democrats, the people of Arizona are fighting back against bad government and unconstitutional laws passed by Republican Legislators during the 2021 session, which ended on June 30. There are six referenda, a few citizens initiatives, and some lawsuits at play two months after the session ended. Signature drives are happening statewide to stop several bills from becoming law and sending them to the ballot box. This is a huge undertaking, but well worth the effort.

This episode features interviews with David Lujan, President and CEO of Children's Action Alliance, talking about the three education-related referenda that are being proposed to stop an automatic annual $2 billion in tax cuts from going into law and Eric Kramer from Arizona Deserves Better talking about the three referenda aimed at stopping a collection of voter suppression bills from becoming law.

All six referenda need more than 118,000 valid signatures by September 28, 2021 to put these bad Republican ideas on the ballot for the citizens to decide. Nobody asked the Republicans to suppress the vote and crush public education funding for the foreseeable future in Arizona.

According to Lujan and Kramer, the groups are working together on signatures. All six referenda petitions and some citizens initiatives should be available at these locations.  The Arizona Education Association and Arizona Deserves Better websites have lists of events where people can sign all of the petitions.