Democrats, though, and they may have to and that's always, you know, for us who observe this, I go up to the republican leadership and say, well, you know, there's 29 Democrats and the senate there's 13, why around you talking to them?

And we don't need to and they haven't had to.

They say I want more money for education.

And then you have the diehard republican base that wants more tax cuts and you have five billion dollars and you have -- there's still a big overhang from ten years ago and they still owe $900 million to K-12 schools that did this budget on and that's still sitting there and the state pension system, they could throw four billion at that and it would be under and a lot of debt they could be looking at.

>> And the governor is saying no way to a skinny budget and give me something here.

>> That made it absurd in the first place and the governor said no one has talked to me and expressed disapproval and it won't pass musster.

>> Lawmakers are not talking to the governor.

>> They should have talked to them and talking to him and the Democrats and it's a question of how much can you give the Democrats before you lose all of the republicans and losing the governor because historically, when you see the Democrats get in situations where the republican leader saying taking to Democrats, they ask for the moon and now is our chance and you end up with nothing.

Is it in their interest to give the republicans a budget if they won't get a lot of what they want or is it better to let the republicans flounder?

>> If they go to the republicans and say, listen, I know to get the two you need, you'll lose six and I'll bring the whole caucus and let's talk, the problem is, for decades, the republican leadership has not had to and it's -- I can't talk.

It would be great if they did, there is a lack of communication from the ninth floor to leadership and whether that is because there's been some turnover, he lost his chief of staff and I don't know.

>> Jim, the fact the governor said lawmakers weren't talking to him, I was surprised by that.

>> Yes and no, the fact republican leaders haven't been able to, basically, build anything that resembles a deal within their own caucus to go to the governor's office to say we have a starting point to negotiate with or say, here is what we have and we know what you're asking for or to meet in the middle or try to pick up straggling republican votes and I think that's indications that they've been work on this since last summer and the best option that they had was to copy and paste and maybe it was done as a statement or as a way to demonstrate to people that, look, we don't have a deal and we'll have to consideration options that we wouldn't have considered otherwise or last year and, I think there's an argument to be made this may have been a part of it to, basically, acknowledge that, but at the same time, they're not anywhere close.

We're well passed -- we're passed 100 days here and it won't be a shock to see us at 150 or 170 days.

>> It's an election year which is always at play.

>> Just today, the judge dismissed a claim that Mr. Finch, they should all be knocked off the ballot because they were involved in an insurrection was this a surprise?

>> Not real.

You see Democrats trying in all over the country with Greene and trying to knock folks involved in the rallies that lead to the attack on the capitol.

Remember, what these challenges are for that we're seeing in a lot of different races for people that don't have enough good signatures or something else and this is a novel, legal idea to be going after on a ballot challenge.

The judge said this is not the forum and this is under the insurrection clause of the 14th amendment to block confederate leaders after the civil war.

And this has never been used -- we've never seen anything like January 6th and never been used for anything like this either.

>> Yeah, it's a novel, legal theory that got some press, but I think those who looked at the filings and listened to the arguments in front of the judge thought this was a hail Mary by the Democrats and it's a not Partisan and a Democrat effort, obviously.

But, you know, they got Margorie Taylor Greene in front of a court today.

Madison Hawthorne, the federal judge threw that out and I don't think they failed an appeal and will file to the Arizona Supreme Court to get them to revive it and I find that as a longer hail Mary than the original lawsuit, but basically, it says these people riled up a crowd, caused the insurrection against the United States' government and under the constitution, they are no longer eligible to be in office.

That's the argument.

>> Jim, they can't hold office engaged in an intersection or rebel imagine but if you offered aid or comfort and that's Lucy there, isn't it?

It is, and that's where they're trying to make their case.

These are folks who, you know, allegedly involved in the rallying but support of it and praised them and vocally cheering on what was happening kind of throughout this time period and some of it on that day.

And that they were holding up what happened as a good thing and mark Finchham and a case and that's what they're holding their hopes on and going to the Arizona Supreme Court, I can't imagine -- I would expect they'll take a dim view and interesting to see how this plays out here and around the country and in federal court, which might be a more proper venue.

>> And the idea of getting them off the ballot, the judge said not here, not now, but these actions could be adjudicated in other ways.

>> This ruling is not meant to say, can never be reviewed in a court of law and the judiciary can't tackle this and this is not the proper forum, a place to kick people off for having bad signatures.

>> Technically, this lawsuit is under Arizona's election statute and the judge said, you know, we don't have time to hear all of the evidence.

This is not the right forum, but go shopping somewhere else and we'll see.

>> Jim, interesting week for attorney general mark Brnovich and we'll start that Donald Trump paid attention to him, but not the kind of attention the attorney general was looking for.

Talk to us.

>> It's similar kind of attention since he jumped into the race.

He doesn't like mark Brnovich because mark Brnovich hasn't put forward the lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

I think that's ultimately the litmus test.

We've seen that up and down the ballot and he put out that interim report, detailing what his investigators found or not found in a lot of cases in terms there was malfeasance and there is no smoking gun and no charges and no one is being, you know, lined up for the gallows what is trump and a lot of these folks have been calling for all along.

And so, you end up in a situation where, you know, he came out and blasted march Brnovich and said he's not doing anything, destroying it, kicking the can down the road.

>> He said I understand his frustration, the former president's frustration and will continue to do what the law requires.

>> What we heard from him was, unfortunately, we have other good candidates for senate and I'll be endorsing one of them soon, Jim landers, masters and won't be mark Brnovich and I don't think the former president will be happy.

>> Brnovich is threading a needle and he has to, you know, be able to prove whatever he alleges.

At the same time, he's trying to prop up, you know, the base that says they have concerns by showing to them that she's making a reasonable effort and found some problems and he's going to continue to investigate and dig into it and not enough for the former president, but it might be enough to peel off those who demand it in the republican party.

At the same time, he's on the other side, trying to keep, you know, those republicans who think this is silly, have some reasonable chance of getting their vote.

>> The attorney general, I believe, today, filed after secretary of state Katie Hobbs over election manuals.

I thought he was reprimanded for suing people he was representing and is he doing this again?

>> That was yesterday over the election's procedural's manual and he did not file similar lawsuits against the former republican secretary of state, Michelle Reagan, when she twice did the same thing and didn't have the procedure's manual.

This is the Brnovich versus Hobbs, 117, and have gone after each other so many times and finding this in Yavapai county of all places.

I don't think state law allows him to do it.

>> You have something on that?

>> Yeah.

I think this is slightly different to just point out a little bit of a nuance, was that in the past, we saw the attorney general himself in his office going after clients and they have to fawn this out and say, we think you should do it and think could make a case that's what they should have done all along that the AG had a problem with.

It doesn't do anything about the obvious political nature.

>> In the meanwhile, he's putting out press releases about suing the Biden Administration over title 42 and everything else under the possible sun using his office as a Cudgeol'^.

>> '^Profile encourage, rusty bowers, getting a JFK award and talk to us about this.

>> He was one of several and who got it for the 2020 election, and essentially standing up against the conspiracy theories and a lot of the baseless claims I was stolen and rigged.

When the republicans came calling on legislative leaders to get involved, he said, look, I voted for Donald Trump and supported him and wish he would have won and nothing we can do here because nothing, obviously, illegal that happened and no evidence of anything that you're claiming.

And so there's no way I'm going to, basically, abuse my office and do this.

With a different response that the trump campaign found in the state senate and up and down the hierarchy across the state.

>> Jeremy, they've placed careers and lives on the line, according to the statement for award and endured persistent harassment tactics.

That's strong stuff.

>> We saw protesters outside the speaker's house and probably worse in Atlanta, the Michigan secretary of state and people were targeted by hostile rhetoric because of alleges they were perpetuating a theft of the election which is not a real thing that happened, but especially, I think in rusty Bower's case and refusing to go along with the so-called audit in the senate and blocking some of the legislation that would have, basically, allowed lawmakers to overturn the people's decision in the presidential election.

So in that regard, he's kind of gone above and beyond what his colleagues would do.

>> He spoke out early and often.

We did a story ten days after the election when this first bubbled up in the political reporters, they started hearing there was this effort that you could pull back the vote and the legislation could come in a special fashion and change the law and get ridden of the Biden electors and replace them with republicans and I called him up and said, absolutely not, I don't have the legal authority and I won't break the law.

You can't retroactively change the law.

You can for the next election and they pressured him and said no, no, no.

You have to give the guy credit.

He was the profiling courage.

>> His response was not, awe, shucks, but I was doing any job.

>> I think you can kind of make that argument, that is what he was called onto do in that moment.

I think a lot of leaders around the country found themselves facing a decision, inflection point, and what he did, think one thing to say about rusty, he's a man who knows what he believes and knows what his moral compass is.

I think he's generally with someone moral right and wrong.

In this case, he determined where were the right lines and what he would do.

>> Doesn't take well to being pushed around, I would imagine.

>> No.

>> An interim county Maricopa attorney, Rachel Mitchell and who is Rachel Mitchell?

>> A long-time prosecutor at the attorney's office, the sex crime's division and well respected prosecutor, more attention than you might see from a local prosecutor a couple years ago with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination hearings and lead the questioning of accuser.

>> And she'll show up.

>> She didn't mention her predecessor.

She had issues and Miss Mitchell, said, no, absolutely, I'll be there and my job is to be here, fix this office, fix our relationship with the public, fix our relationship so that people trust us again and if I have time, I'll campaign for a full election.

Now, of course, what jumped out, the board.

Supervisors putted their thumb in the scale.

There's three republicans running for this election.

>> Yeah.

>> They could have gone and gotten Rick romly or someone to be a place holder and bill gates said we looked at the universe of people and these were the best three and vetted them all and got them to say the vote of supervisors did just great and the audit was not necessary.

>> One of the candidates who was out that think the election was a complete fraud and last question here, Jim, should they have gone to someone who was not an existing candidate?

>> You find someone to take it over and let the voters decide.

Obviously, I think the county board of supervisors is not having a good working relationship with the county attorney's office for the last year plus and finding it difficult and really wanting to, you know -- obviously they made the decision this would be the best case that even it was putting their case on the scale to do that and, you know, clearly, I think you could make the argument that the board wants her to go to full-term.

>> They did.

The chairman, bill gates, I interviewed him a couple of days eight, listen, bob, it's not good for this office to have three county attorneys in one year, which is what's going to happen, what would have happened for sure if they would have picked a place holder.

That implies that they hope, or Mr. gates hopes she wins the election.

She will have put her mark on the office during the next six months and, you know, maybe she stays.

>> We'll wrap it up and good to have you.

A reminder on Monday on Arizona horizon, a debate between the republican candidates at 5:00 and republican candidates for superintendent of public instruction on Arizona horizon and that's its for now and you have a great weekend!

Coming up on Arizona PBS, a look at what makes the ASU women's Triathlon team successful and why climate change and the