PHOENIX — Governor Katie Hobbs has agreed to send her Cabinet nominees to the Arizona Senate, where they will face the same confirmation process she clashed with Republicans over.
The governor, a Democrat, battled the Republican-led Senate last year over the approval of her state agency directors. Republicans sued late last year after Hobbs bypassed the process by yanking her nominees and appointing executive deputy directors to oversee 13 agencies.
Hobbs will nominate agency directors and send them to the Senate by the first week of the legislative session, which begins in January.
“Governor Hobbs will always put politics aside to do what’s best for the people of Arizona,” Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater said in a statement Monday.
A judge in June sided with Senate President Warren Petersen, saying that the move violates state law, which mandates Senate approval of agency directors. The judge signed off on the agreement Tuesday, ending the lawsuit.
“We'll be back to business as usual and how things should be,” Petersen told ABC15 on Tuesday.
That includes the same confirmation process as last year.
Petersen created a special panel chaired by Sen. Jake Hoffman, a Hobbs critic, to vet her nominees. Under previous governors, agency directors appeared before the committee related to their agency.
The committee rejected a number of her nominees, and Hobbs withdrew her nominations in September, calling the process a “political circus.”
Petersen said Senate confirmations are a key part of state government’s system of checks and balances. "Agency directors need to be quality candidates," he said.
“They do things that affect the public, and so it's really important that these people are competent and fair in what they're doing,” he said.
Hobbs told ABC15 in January that the confirmation process went “far beyond” the Senate’s responsibilities.
"The fact is, Arizonans sent me here to do a job,” she said. “Agency directors are an important piece of doing that job.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein called on her Republican colleagues to approve Hobbs’ agency directors.
“It's time to stop the games, and stop the obstruction,” she told ABC15. “And let's move on with helping the people of Arizona.”
And she said she wants the Committee on Director Nominations to get new leadership.
“I hope that ... we will have a chair who is respectful of the nominees, and I hope that we will have consideration for their credentials,” she said.
Petersen said he is looking forward to "quality nominations,” saying he doesn’t expect the same problems as last year.
“I don't see a lot of controversy, even though the process will be the same,” he said.
The executive deputy directors are expected to remain in place until January. However, legal questions about their tenure could still arise. The judge in the lawsuit did not rule on the validity or legality of their appointments – or their actions.
Meanwhile, Epstein said she is hoping her party wins control of the Arizona Senate in the November election.
“We're going to win because you know what? The people of Arizona are so sensible,” she said. “The people of Arizona want normal.”
