Best Political Penmanship 2024 | Austin Smith | Megalopolitan Life

Best Political Penmanship

Austin Smith

The Republican lawmaker from the northwest corner of Maricopa County came to the Arizona Legislature in 2023 with a cowboy hat and disdain for anyone who didn't share his far-right views. Smith, an election denier who supported making it easier to challenge ballot initiatives and wanted to carve Maricopa County into four smaller parts, quickly carved out a legislative agenda focused on knee-capping opponents. He and his rural neighbors didn't want to keep rubbing elbows with the progressives, drag queens and abortion rights advocates that fill the politically blue streets of Phoenix. It's an orthodoxy he fine-tuned in the hallways of Turning Point Action, a part of the Valley-based right-wing political empire that aims to replicate little Austins and implant them across the country. But somewhere along the way, Smith failed to learn the finer points of cursive writing. As he prepared to run for reelection, he did what lawmakers must do — gather signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot. But Smith, who ironically sits on the House committee that oversees elections, was accused of forging 100 of the signatures. When faced with the accusations, Smith did what you'd expect from a member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus — he tucked tail and ran, dropping his reelection bid and blaming everyone but himself.

Best Misogynist

Sonny Borrelli

The election-denying state lawmaker who hangs with QAnon bros in Vegas has a troubled history with women. The Lake Havasu City Republican has yet to outrun allegations from the early 2000s that he punched his second wife in the mouth and pushed her to the ground during an argument. He's also accused of breaking down a door and ripping a phone out of the wall as his wife called 911. It all resulted in him pleading guilty to a class 1 misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. Fast-forward to 2024, and Borrelli, now Senate majority leader in the state Legislature, floated this misogynistic trope to explain his vote against a bill guaranteeing women the right to contraception: "Like I said, Bayer Company invented aspirin — put it between your knees," the lawmaker said. In other words, if women didn't have sex, they wouldn't need birth control.

Best Power Lesbian

Kris Mayes

In 2022, voters in Arizona helped Kris Mayes shatter the lavender ceiling, making her the state's first LGBTQ+ attorney general — and just the second LGBTQ+ person elected statewide. Since taking office, she's become a consumer champion, suing apartment landlords for price gouging, fighting housing discrimination, going after troubled assisted living facilities, snagging $15 million from Johnson & Johnson over deceptive advertising of some of its baby powder, securing the first conviction in the state's massive Medicaid fraud scandal, suing Amazon, fighting robocalls, investigating gift card fraud and so much more. Mayes also built a bulwark against election fraud, indicting Arizona's fake electors, and vowed to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Best Power Gay

Oscar De Los Santos

With his natty blue suit and an educational pedigree that includes being a Rhodes Scholar, a Yale law degree and a master's degree in Christian social ethics, Oscar De Los Santos can be spotted wherever there's a progressive political cause to be supported. In his first term as a state lawmaker, he already makes for an impressive opposition figure as the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Arizona House and co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus. He's also the first LGBTQ+ person elected to represent Legislative District 11, which includes South Phoenix, Laveen, Guadalupe and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. De Los Santos has pushed for a statewide queer-inclusive antidiscrimination bill, though it's likely that won't pass until the Legislature flips to Democratic control. Earlier this year, when Republicans stood in the way of repealing a 160-year-old abortion ban, he joined Rep. Analise Ortiz in shouting "Shame!," "Hold the vote!" and "Blood on your hands!" at Republicans. After the House finally approved the repeal of the abortion ban, De Los Santos was stripped of his seats on two powerful legislative committees as punishment.

Best Mean Girl

Justine Wadsack

Justine Wadsack is the QAnon Karen of the Arizona Legislature, and there seems to be no end to the targets of her venomous outbursts. The far-right MAGA queen from Tucson has, literally, turned her back on Gov. Katie Hobbs as the new Democratic governor called for bipartisanship. In her first term as a state senator, Wadsack targeted LGBTQ+ people, unsheltered folks, drag queens and deaf and blind students. She also supported book bans and dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion training. Her latest outburst came at the expense of a Tucson police officer, who had the audacity to try to write Wadsack a speeding ticket after allegedly clocking her doing 71 in a 35. She was later miffed when another officer addressed her as "Mrs." instead of "Senator." With three homes and tenuous ties to the legislative district where she's legally supposed to live, Wadsack also is the political epitome of this quip from "Mean Girls": "She doesn't even go here!"

Best Republican

Stephen Richer

When Stephen Richer ran for Maricopa County Recorder in 2020, he did so on a platform of making the job "boring again." The job, though, has become anything but thanks to his party taking a sharp right turn and embracing every election-denying conspiracy theory they can articulate — and many they can't. Richer has stood firm, defending the county's elections as sane and secure, which is no small feat thanks to his own party's histrionics. Richer has taken on Twitter trolls, stared down those threatening physical violence and sued Kari Lake for defamation and won. He does it with a smile, earnestly running the most transparent elections around, operating an open door policy with the media and even hosting a contest for residents to design new "I Voted" stickers. It's why we honored Richer in 2021 and why we're throwing accolades his way again this year. This time, though, it's more of a political obituary. The election-denying wing of his party put an end to his bid for a second term during the July primary.

Best Democrat

Mark Kelly

Kelly is not the bluest of Democrats, but the U.S. Senator deserves credit for helping to turn Arizona into a purple-verging-on-blue state. The former astronaut and Navy pilot won election to the Senate twice since 2020, becoming the first Democrat to win multiple Senate elections in the state since Dennis DeConcini in 1988. Since taking office, Kelly has reliably voted with his party but hasn't been afraid to buck it from time to time. Kelly routinely cuts through the dogmatic clutter surrounding Arizona's border issues to approach things in a common-sense way, winning the respect of many hardline Republicans in the southern part of the state. And there are no better advocates for ending gun violence than Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman and shooting survivor Gabrielle Giffords. Other Democrats deserve more credit for pushing Arizona into more progressive territory. But Kelly has done as much as anyone to convince Arizona's independents and moderate Republicans to vote Democrat, which is why he was seriously considered to be Kamala Harris' running mate this year.

Best Mic Drop

Paul Penzone

It's hard not to like Paul Penzone. The sensible Democrat would likely have coasted to a third term as Maricopa County sheriff in November had he opted to run. Instead, worn down by court oversight and six years of cleaning up the mess left for him by former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Penzone resigned in January just a year shy of finishing his second term. It's refreshing to see an elected official give up power without the threat of indictment. Penzone's tenure wasn't perfect, but he dismantled Arpaio's Tent City, worked to repair the agency's reputation among the communities it persecuted and racially profiled for decades, and tried to combat a staffing shortage while also facing the increasing use of fentanyl and other drugs in the jails he oversaw. Along the way, he sometimes got sideways with the federal judge overseeing the racial profiling court case left behind by Arpaio. That's what ultimately led the mild-mannered sheriff to call a press conference and quit with this zinger: "I'll be damned if I'll do three terms under federal court oversight for a debt I never incurred and not be given the chance to serve this community in the manner that I could if you take the other hand from being tied around my back."

Best Day Drinkers

Republicans in the Arizona State Legislature

Facing political fallout from an abortion ban they orchestrated, a yawning state budget deficit and myriad other problems at the Arizona Capitol, what did House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen — the two most powerful men in the legislature — do? They went on a bourbon junket with lobbyists to Kentucky. Better still, they followed that boozy vacay in April with a second one in June, trading bourbon for the fine wine of the Valley — Napa Valley, that is. Besides the optics of boozing it up with lobbyists away from home, the duo also skirted state law, which bans lobbyists from donating to lawmakers during the legislative session. Instead, the cash went to the leadership PACs of the two men. Shady but legal. The April "experience" included a private steakhouse dinner with the dudes in Louisville paired with a tour along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Cheers!

Best Anger Issues

Leezah Sun

When the best you can do is muster just one year in the Arizona House — a place where corrupt lawmakers have long found solace — you know the bad behavior has reached epic levels. Meet Leezah Sun, a Democrat who resigned her seat in January 2024 as she faced likely expulsion. Her bad behavior included threatening to throw a lobbyist from a balcony, interfering in the court-ordered transfer of children in a custodial matter and threatening to initiate a state investigation into a school district over a dispute involving a political ally. After quitting, did Sun pull back from the public spotlight, attend anger management classes and get in touch with her inner namaste? Hardly. She launched an effort to unseat an incumbent and win a seat in the state Senate and was accused of campaign shenanigans. Voters soundly rejected her in the July primary. So of course she's running for the Tolleson Union High School District Governing Board in November. This mean girl just can't quit Arizona politics.