Katie Hobbs is an Arizona native. She was born and spent her childhood in the town of Tempe. She attended Catholic schools. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University in 1992, and a masters degree in social work from Arizona State University in 1995. She began working as a social worker in 1992, specializing in domestic violence, mental health, and homelessness. Katie Hobbs is married to Patrick Goodman. They live in Phoenix and have two children.
Hobbs was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2012, served one term, then won election to the Arizona Senate in 2014. In 2018, Hobbs ran for Secretary of State against Republican Steve Gaynor. The Associated Press initially called it for Gaynor, but the election was close, and in these modern times it takes several days to make…sorry, determine that Hobbs was the winner.
Interestingly, Hobbs chose not to step down from her position as Secretary of State before she entered the race for governor. While it is not a legal requirement to do so, it would be the ethical thing to do since the duties of the Secretary of State include overseeing elections. It is a clear conflict of interest for a candidate to participate in an election over which she has some administrative control. I do not recall much in the way of public hand wringing over that issue.
Now, a conflict of interest is one thing, but a documented case of racial discrimination is something else and will sink the campaign of any candidate, unless the candidate is Katie Hobbs. Back when Hobbs was in the Arizona Senate, she “was involved in the firing” of a staffer, a black woman, named Talonya Adams. According to an article that ran in the Arizona Republic in December of 2021, “Adams was fired from her job as a Democratic Senate aide in 2015, when Hobbs was the Senate Democratic leader. Adams filed a discrimination lawsuit, winning jury verdicts that found she was discriminated against on the job and was retaliated against when she was fired.”
Hobbs issued a lukewarm apology that did not cut it with many in the black community. She ended up issuing another apology, a three minute video, that satisfied many but not all. The article also included a statement from her gubernatorial primary competitor, former Obama administration official Marco Lopez who said, “It shouldn’t take six years, two jury verdicts and four weeks of bad press to take responsibility and do the right thing.” As of the publication of the Arizona Republic article, Hobbs had not personally apologized to Adams.
Katie Hobbs won the gubernatorial race. As many new governors do, she chose to celebrate with and inaugural ball, but was it more than a celebration? Raising money was not a problem in these situations. Corporations, businesses, and even individuals lined up to throw cash at the new governor. The donation amounts ran from $25 to $250,000. The $250,000 came from Arizona Public Service, Arizona’s largest electric utility company. That donation alone covered the cost of the ball, which was approximately $207,000, leaving the committee with a $43,000 cushion. There were, of course, many other donors. All tallied, the ball committee raked in around $1.5 million.
Now, if you think that there is more afoot here, you would be correct. It turns out that the committee organizing the affair was incorporated as a “social welfare organization” as a 501(c)(4). This designation allowed the “social welfare organization” to spend its money on political activity, including the funding of candidates for elected office.
Now, I can imagine that at some point someone may have suggested to Katie Hobbs something such as, “Governor Hobbs, our budget for the event is $300K and we have already raised half a mil. That covers the costs plus a $200k cushion. Shouldn’t we shut down the fundraising at this point?” To which the governor might respond (in the voice of James Earl Jones), “There will be no end to the fundraising. These funds will be the weapon with which we will end the Republican Alliance once and for all!”
Then there was that weird veto. The Arizona Congress passed a bill that eliminated some of the regulation against selling prepared food without a restaurant license. There was wide bipartisan support for the bill. It seemed like a “no brainer”, nonetheless, Governor Hobbs vetoed it. After recovering from the shock, the legislature announced there would be a vote to override the veto. This too seemed a no brainer, until a bunch of Democrats backed off and killed the override effort.
I suspect that, in the interim, the Democrats in the legislature met with Governor Hobbs. A spokesman for the group probably pointed out, “That stupid law disproportionately affects the local Hispanic community which is part…*cough*…of our…*gag*…constituency….”. While Governor Hobbs states (in the voice of James Earl Jones), “I find your lack of faith disturbing”. So, in the end, the Democrats had a change of heart and the override effort was abandoned.
Governor Hobbs’ term as governor is four years. It seems to me that avoiding interaction with the Governor would be prudent. If you find yourself in her presence, keep your eyes low and answer, “Yes my Lord”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Hobbs
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/12/08/katie-hobbs-apologizes-recognizes-discrimination-talonya-adams-firing/6426337001/
https://kjzz.org/content/1836138/arizona-gov-katie-hobbs-collected-15m-corporations-special-interests-inauguration