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Arizona is facing divided government for the first time since 2009

By Mark Brodie
Published: Thursday, January 5, 2023 - 12:34pm
Updated: Thursday, January 5, 2023 - 2:48pm

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The stage at the Arizona Capitol
Bridget Dowd/KJZZ
The stage at the Arizona Capitol on Jan. 5, 2023.

It's Inauguration Day in Arizona. The top statewide officeholders were publicly be sworn on Thursday morning.

They took their oaths in a private ceremony on Tuesday. Now that Gov. Katie Hobbs has officially taken office, Arizona is facing divided government for the first time since 2009. That’s when former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, resigned to join the Obama administration as Homeland Security secretary. Her replacement, Jan Brewer is a Republican, as is, of course, now former Gov. Doug Ducey. And the Legislature has been controlled by Republicans almost exclusively for the past few decades.

To get a sense of what we might expect from this new arrangement, The Show spoke with longtime lobbyist Kevin DeMenna of DeMenna Public Affairs. DeMenna talked about what he's expecting come the start of the legislative session next week when for the first time in years, we have a GOP-controlled Legislature and a Democratic governor.

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