When Arizona state senator Rich Crandall was asked when he was going to resign his seat to take over his newly appointed position as Wyoming’s Education Department, he said it wouldn’t be for a while. He isn’t sure the job the Wyoming governor created this year is really available.
Crandall, who never met a parent empowering piece of education legislation he liked, is waiting for word from the Wyoming Supreme Court. The Wyoming Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case brought by former Wyoming head of education, Cindy Hill, on August 20.
The Legislature passed SF 104 which stripped the Superintendent of Public Instruction of authority including general supervisory duties and transferred them to a governor-appointed director. Crandall was a perfect fit according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, “Crandall also has been part of the system. He was president of the board of Arizona’s largest school district in Mesa, and he has chaired both that state’s House and Senate education committees. So the senator clearly knows how the game is played.”
Crandall certainly knows how the game is played and his fellow Republicans in the Arizona Legislature know they got played and will continue to be played by Crandall, but don’t know for how long.
Hill, who was elected by the people of Wyoming, has a steep hill to climb in her challenge of the law, but over 22,000 Wyoming residents signed a petition in opposition to the law. Hill’s wide-spread grassroots supporters believe that the law nullifies the people’s vote for the office and allows the governor power over education in Wyoming.
“All parties were represented on the petition,” Jennifer Young the repeal effort’s primary organizer said. The petition drive failed due to a delay by the Secretary of State and a lawsuit has been filed by the group.
Hill and Platte County residents Clara and Kerry Powers, filed their legal challenge immediately after Gov. Matt Mead signed the bill into law, in the middle of Hill’s four-year term. The superintendent remains one of the five statewide elected officials but no longer oversees the Wyoming Department of Education according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Hill will argue that the bill; SF 104, made a fundamental change to state government and should have required an amendment to the state constitution.
The Tribune Eagle reported that the Court “agreed to examine the charge that the law is unconstitutional for four reasons:
-The law negates the superintendent’s ability to fulfill the constitutional requirement to have “general supervision” of public education.
-The law violates the power of voters to elect a public official and deprives them of their right to free speech.
-The law violates the separation of powers by giving too much authority to the Legislature.
-The law fails as either a general law or special law.
In her pleading, Hill asserts that “the Legislature has unconstitutionally encroached upon the powers and duties of the executive branch by centralizing all authority over education in the Legislature.”
Crandall is comfortable with overreach. He played an integral part in Arizona Governor Jan brewer’s successful “roll over” of the state legislature in her effort to expand Obamacare through Medicaid expansion.
On July 20, when asked by a friend how his new job was working out, Crandall replied, “Loving Wyoming. Great people, great weather.”
Crandall has few friends in the Legislature after he threatened a fellow legislator that he would kill all of her bills after he discovered she had witnessed his daughter tampering with his opponent’s campaign signs.
“So while Arizonans sweat out the summer, and the folks in Arizona’s LD16 really experience taxation without representation, Rich is sweating out the Court case that will decide his fate,” said one Capitol source. “I sure do hope Wyoming gets stuck with him and we don’t.”