Nine weeks into the legislative session, Governor Katie Hobbs received her first report card.
"Overall, voters are giving her a thumbs up on her job approval. She's plus 13," says OH Predictive Insight's Chief of Research Mike Noble.
Noble says the Governor is building a coalition of Democrats, Independents and Republicans. "43% approving, 30% disapproving and even 25% of republicans give her a thumbs up right now," Noble said.
In Noble's view, the Governor has the wind at her back. Republicans can't say the same thing. Their insistence on pushing election conspiracies and culture war issues is not, according to political consultant Chuck Coughlin of Highground Inc., resonating with the majority of voters.
"I've been telling them, I've been telling Republicans that talk to us down at the legislature, if they continue in the manner they're currently behaving, they will be a minority a the end of 24," he said.
Coughlin says that based on the early returns from this session, there are three to four Republican-held seats in the legislature that are vulnerable.
"If she's got a majority of Arizonans rolling with her, that helps all things from a governor's point of view in terms of impacting her agenda," said Republican political consultant Stan Barnes of the Copper State Consulting Group.
This includes getting a budget agreement. The governor told reporters Thursday her staff is meeting regularly with lawmakers and next week she hopes to sit down with Speaker of the House Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen.
"We're just looking to establish a sense of trust," Governor Hobbs said.
At the beginning of the session, Republicans thought they had all the answers when it came to the budget. They adopted their version and sent it to the governor who then vetoed it. That's not the case now. Republican leaders know they have to negotiate with the governor.
