Exposing the Recall Con: Hobbs’ $322M Disaster

Arizona voters are being misled—and it’s not by the lawmakers facing recall. It’s by the very political machine that created this crisis in the first place.

The recall campaigns against Speaker Steve Montenegro, Rep. David Livingston, Rep. Matt Gress, and Rep. Michael Carbone are nothing more than a Hobbs-backed hit job to punish the leaders who saved Arizona’s disability services from collapse.

THE ROOT OF THE CRISIS: $322 MILLION GONE

This all began with the Hobbs administration’s failure to manage $322 million in Medicaid funding—confirmed by the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC).

AHCCCS, under Governor Hobbs, miscalculated federal reimbursements, misallocated state funds, and lost track of massive expenditures, triggering a fiscal catastrophe that nearly shut down support for over 59,000 vulnerable Arizonans.

Then came the reckoning:
•    AHCCCS Director Carmen Heredia and Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) Director Jennie Cunico both resigned under pressure, just before they were set to testify in the Senate on a mountain of misconduct.
•    Their departures came amid explosive allegations of fraud in the sober living home system, illegal contracts, and total mismanagement of the very “Parents as Paid Caregivers” (PPCG) program that left families hanging in limbo.

This wasn’t a partisan attack. This was administrative collapse.

And what did Governor Hobbs do in response?
She didn’t step up—she shut it all down.

Instead of solving the crisis, Hobbs declared a moratorium on legislation, holding up every bill in the state as ransom until she got her way.

REPUBLICANS STEPPED UP AND SAVED THE PROGRAM

While Hobbs grandstanded, Republican leadership took decisive action. They:
•    Passed a bipartisan funding solution to stabilize the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD)
•    Preserved the PPCG program with the reform guardrails necessary to prevent future funding collapses
•    Implemented real legislative oversight and accountability, ensuring that this kind of disaster can never happen again, no matter who sits in the Governor’s Office

No more blank checks. No more backroom expansions. No more unilateral power plays by incompetent administrators. Thanks to Republican leadership, this program now has legal guardrails.

WHO’S REALLY BEHIND THIS RECALL?

Let’s name names:
•    Andy Gaona – The recall’s lead attorney, a known Democrat operative and brother of Will Gaona, Hobbs’ Deputy Chief of Staff
•    Will Gaona – Governor Hobbs’ right hand and a direct tie to this coordinated takedown effort
•    Stacy Pearson – Democrat PR strategist, weaving media narratives and crisis control behind the curtain
•    Reclaim Our Arizona Representation (ROAR) – A front group masquerading as a “bipartisan” movement. In reality, it’s stacked with Hobbs loyalists, activists, and Democrat donors
•    Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton – A Democrat lawmaker quietly aiding the recall effort while her own party stayed silent during the funding crisis
•    Fringe Republicans – Bitter or irrelevant voices offering false credibility to this scam—people who did nothing when families were at risk

WHY THIS RECALL? DISTRACTION, REVENGE, POWER

This isn’t about kids. It’s about:
•    Distracting the public from Hobbs’ $322 million failure
•    Covering up the resignations and scandal inside her administration
•    Silencing Republicans before the 2026 election cycle
•    Turning Arizona into a rubber-stamp state for Hobbs’ unchecked agenda

THE BOTTOM LINE

•    JLBC documented the fiscal failure
•    Hobbs lost control of her agencies and lost her directors
•    Republicans passed the fix, restored accountability, and provided funding for DDD families in a responsible way that won’t bankrupt our state
•    Democrats are now trying to erase that fact through politically orchestrated recalls

Arizona families deserve leadership, not lies.

We remember who froze legislation.
We remember who resigned in disgrace.
And we remember who actually saved the program.

Defend the truth.
Reject the recall.
Protect the leaders who protected Arizona’s most vulnerable.