Welcome to your vote 2022 AZPM's coverage of the 2022 election.

I'm Liliana Soto.

This week we're bringing you portions of interviews with the two women running for governor.

These interviews were recorded in recent days in Phoenix.

We asked both candidates to come into our studios, but we were unable to get that scheduled in time for this program.

Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor, sat down with Ted Simmons at our sister station in Phoenix.

Here's part of that 30 minute conversation that they had.

Get to some issues here.

Inflation, the number one.

Phoenix is the number one.

My goodness, we're number one as far as inflation rates of large metropolitan areas in the country.

Why is that?

Well, our inflation here in Arizona is being largely driven by housing prices.

We are seeing skyrocketing rents.

It's very difficult for someone to get into first time homeownership.

And and we're seeing I'm hearing that from folks all over.

We have a comprehensive plan to address affordability in Arizona.

In terms of housing, we need to build more.

We're not meeting the demand.

And so prices are continuing to stay high.

But, you know, I, I raised my kids here in Phoenix with financial ups and downs.

I know what it's like to have to get a second job to put food on the table and pay your mortgage.

And so my affordable Arizona plan addresses struggles that Arizonans are facing right now.

We propose a tax breaks on everyday items like over-the-counter medication and diapers.

We put people back to work by expanding childcare assistance and a refundable tax credit for pursuing career and technical education.

I know what it's like to struggle, and I'm never going to forget that as governor.

Those, though, sounds like they sound like lower tier ideas, frankly.

I mean, what about tax policy?

And, you know, I mean, cutting consumer demand would lower prices now.

Tax hikes could be an option there to lower consumer demand.

Is that something that you would consider?

Well, not only is a tax hike not feasible, it's not appropriate right now when we're facing record levels of inflation that's hurting everyday Arizonans.

OK, you say that that tax hike, your quote is it's not on the table.

What is your tax policy We have a very stable tax environment in the state right now that is bringing in record revenue.

And that's evidenced by the historic investments the legislature has been able to make this last year and things like water infrastructure and public education.

We should not be talking about raising taxes on Arizonans when they are struggling with inflation right now.

Should we be talking about lowering taxes?

Well, a lower tax was just it was passed in the 21 session and it will go into effect in January.

Right.

But should we talk about continuing to lower taxes?

I mean, your opponent say she wants to get the income tax to close to zero as possible.

Sounds like what the current governor is has been saying for the past eight years.

But the idea of getting the income tax, either eliminating it or getting it as close to zero is something you'd go for.

I think we need to look at all the options that are going to help Arizonans and also allow us to continue to provide the service things that Arizonans need from their government and make sure that we are being able to continue to grow as a state.

But is that it?

So that would be an option then we should look at all the options.

Absolutely.

As far as a budget is concerned, did would you have voted for the last budget if you were still in the legislature?

I think the last budget was the first bipartisan budget I've seen in years during my time in the legislature, the eight years I was there.

We didn't have a bipartisan budget.

And and I don't think I think the budgets that were passed under my time there fell far short of meeting the needs of Arizonans.

And this budget was a good budget.

And it shows what you can do when folks are willing to put partizan differences aside and work together.

And it's the kind of thing I hope to be able to work on as governor.

Has enough been done, though, to get money back into funding things that were cut drastically during the recession?

I think education is a good example here.

And certainly the billion new dollars to our public schools is critical funding.

The problem we're facing now is that the legislature refuses to repeal the aggregate expenditure limit.

And so schools right now are in limbo because they can't budget this billion new dollars that was appropriated to them.

Let's move on to abortion here.

It's very confusing right now.

This the landscape is very confusing regarding which law applies and what's being looked at by the courts.

15 week ban right now is de facto.

Would you support that law?

No, I did not support that law when it was passed and signed by the governor.

It is an extreme ban and also includes no exceptions for rape or incest.

This is the kind of ban that creates confusion and chaos for people that need this health care and that could potentially put women's lives at risk.

And I just to expand on that, the the other law that is potentially going to be in effect, the Civil War era ban that criminalizes all abortion.

My opponent has said that that's a great law.

And she's called women who seek abortion executioners and murderers.

I have a 20 year old daughter and in 2022 she has less rights than I did 50 years ago.

Your opponent, though, has recently said that her views apparently have changed.

She now wants abortion to be rare, but not illegal.

What do you make of that?

I think that she walked that back.

I think that she doubled down on her desire to criminalize all abortion.

As far as any kind of any kind of limit, any kind of limit for abortion, where do you go?

15 weeks.

Do you what do you do?

Where do you go?

Abortion is health care and it is health care should be left to medical providers who have the expertise.

And a decision to have abortion should be between a woman and her doctor.

Does that equate to no limits?

Look, there is no one size fits all limit that's going to address really extreme circumstances.

And this idea that there is rampant late term abortion is just false.

Late term abortion is incredibly, incredibly rare.

And when that happens, it is often devastating.

To a woman and her family.

They have a nursery.

They have a name picked out for the baby.

They're having this conversation because something has gone terribly wrong and doctors need the ability to provide the care that their patients need in those very difficult and rare and extreme circumstances.

So it sounds like that the answer is no limits.

Do you think Arizonans want to see no limits as far as abortion is concerned?

What I know is that right now Arizonans don't support the 15 week ban and they support access to safe and legal abortion.

And that's the conversation that we should be having.

How do we make abortion legal and safe and allow doctors to provide the care that they need to provide to their patients instead of being on the phone with their lawyers to find out if they're going to be arrested for it.

Your opponent has said that it is disqualifying, disqualifying for a gubernatorial candidate not to declare the 2020 election stolen.

How do you.

This was actually during the primary.

I, I imagine the sentiment still holds.

How do you respond to that?

I would respond that it is disqualifying for her to say that it was and to be running on that as her entire platform.

She has made it her platform to dismantle our democracy and overturn the will of the voters.

For the former president that she's that she is more beholden to than the people of Arizona.

Why do you think there are so many people who question the results?

Because political leaders like Kari Lake continue to mislead them.

She is not running for the people of Arizona.

She's running for herself and for the former president.

And when people like her question the results of the 2020 election and try to overturn them.

We stood firm because there is no evidence of anything she or anyone else says about the 2020 election being stolen.

That being said how do you instill confidence in the election system when so many people regardless of how they got the information who gave them the information they still believe there's a problem.

What do you do?

They believe there's a problem because people like Kari, they keep lying about it.

And so I'm going to keep doing what I've done since 2020 and that is tell the truth and continue to lead and ensure that we are administering our elections with integrity because we are.

And we're going to continue to push back on the lies and we're going to continue to make sure that voters have the accurate information both about how to participate in the process.

And countering the lies that continue to be told.

We got to talk about water here.

The pace of growth in Arizona does- do we have enough water to meet that pace of growth?

And if not, how do you handle that?

What do you do?

We certainly are at a point of crisis, and we need to take drastic action to address that.

And that means making sure that when we are planning for future growth, that we are actually planning that it is strategic and that we have the resources to meet those meet that demand.

The legislature just made a billion dollar investment in water infrastructure.

That's an important first step.

But it's going to cost a lot more than a million dollars- a billion dollars.

The governor's plan relies heavily on desalination.

That's also an important tool.

But we are at least a decade away from that being a reality.

And so that is not an immediate response.

We need things that are more immediate and address the the issue more, much more, more immediately.

And we can do that with improved technology.

Around recycling water, investing in conservation projects, which also the legislature and governor's plan does.

But we need to do more.

Colorado River Water.

I mean, we've got a next compact coming up.

We just finished talking about a previous one.

We got another one coming up, and we're finding out the Colorado River water levels they're sinking and they're sinking fast.

Yeah.

I mean, what do you do in terms of collaboration and cooperation with the lower basin states to ensure Arizona has its proper supply of water, Colorado River water?

Yes, that is absolutely a critical issue.

And and I don't think that collaboration has been happening.

It's it's a lot of competition.

And we have to work together because we're in this together.

And and we need a leader who is willing to go to the table and fight for Arizona's interests and make sure that we're working together on that.

We're running out of time here.

But I did want to mention health concerns.

The current governor, did he handle the pandemic correctly?

I think there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking that can be done.

I think it's important for the next governor to come in and really talk with with leaders across the state about what we did well and what we need to do better and be prepared in case something like this happens again.

I think that's really critical.

I think that when you're in a crisis as a leader, you don't get to choose what crisis you're in and you have to take decisive action.

And people are going to question that.

We have to work together in the best interests of the state.

And that's what I'll do as governor.

Would you have used, though, executive powers in a similar fashion?

I think executive powers are an important tool for a governor leading through a crisis.

I'm not going to speak to a hypothetical, but I think in making executive orders as was done during the pandemic, they need to be done judiciously and fairly and not singling out different industries in different ways, but that there's a level playing field and and most importantly, that we're keeping not only Arizonans safe, but allowing the economy to continue.

You can see more of the interview with Katie Hobbs on the website for Arizona Horizon on the PBS station in Phoenix.

We now turn to the Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake.

She sat down for a clean election interview.

It should be noted that Hobbs was offered the opportunity to participate in a clean elections debate with Lake, in which she turned it down.

Lake was given a half hour interview with Mike Broomhead, a radio talk show host in Phoenix.

And here's a portion of that interview All right.

Let's get into the questions.

We built these questions based on a number of questions sent in to clean elections from voters across Arizona.

Overwhelmingly, the number one question was ask was about voter integrity and election denial.

So I just want to start to clear that up.

Recently, you made a statement and said, when I'm governor, we're going to make sure that we have honest elections.

What is it going to take to satisfy you that Arizona has honest and fair elections?

That's a great question.

And I have not shied away from that question.

When I was on the campaign trail, I said 509 days on the campaign trail.

That's a top issue for Arizonans.

They don't like how elections have been run.

They don't feel that their vote truly counted They know that when when they see the mailbox with five ballots and there's only one voter at their home that gives them pause.

It makes them realize that there's a lot of ballots floating around out there that shouldn't be out there.

So we're going to work to improve the voting system, clean up the voter rolls, make sure that we don't have mail in ballots floating around in homes where there's only one voter and they're receiving five mail in ballots, and make sure that when our votes are counted, they're counted properly in a very transparent way where we trust the system of voting.

What that's going to take is probably going to take a lot, and I'll work with the legislature to make that happen.

We want every voter, whether they're Democrat, Independent, or Republican, to go to bed on election night and know that their one legal vote counted and know that whatever the result is, whether their guy won or their guy lost.

That they can live with the results because they know that our election system is fair, honest and transparent.

Would you want to end mail in voting or would you want to get rid of the tabulation machines and go to a total hand-count only?

I want to make sure that the machines are counting fairly.

And we've had major problems with the electronic voting machines.

It's documented And it's not just me saying this back in 2017.

If you look on the internet, you can find probably 20 minutes of Democrats from Hillary Clinton to Amy Klobuchar or to Vice President Kamala Harris saying that these voting machines, electronic voting machines that tabulate our sacred vote are easily compromised.

Not fair.

Easily hacked.

I believe it was Kamala Harris, Mike, who said that she witnessed with her own eyes as one of these machines was hacked right in front of her.

We can't have machines like that counting our sacred vote.

There's too much on the line.

And if you look back at the primary in Georgia and one county two counties actually they took the results of the electronic voting machine and they had a hand count in those two counties.

And guess what they found out?

The electronic voting machine, the person who the voting machine said was number one and won was actually in the hand count the third place.

And the third place winner in the hand count or in the voting machine count was actually the first place winner in the hand count.

We can't have that kind of discrepancy.

Our vote is too sacred.

And so we want to make sure we have a secure and honest election system.

And I'll work with lawmakers to make sure that happens.

I know you've been asked about this election and whether you would abide by the results no matter what happens.

Are you confident that this election cycle in Arizona will be a fair an election?

I wish I could sit here and say yes, but I'm not.

We have an incompetent Secretary of State who happens to be my opponent and I'm not the only one saying she's incompetent.

The Arizona Supreme Court in a recent ruling called her incompetent.

She's not even showing up at the office.

She's only been at the office 19 days in the last six months.

And we the people are paying her salary.

She's not showing up for work.

And we have some very critical elections.

I'm afraid that it probably is not going to be completely fair.

We look back at the August 2nd election that was a primary election.

Katie Hobbs, the incompetent Secretary of State, is the one who gave guidance to the various counties of how many ballots they would need for the primary election.

And Pinal County, one of our largest counties, one hour into voting on Election Day, ran out of only the Republican ballots and they continued to run out of ballots.

By the end of the day, a quarter of the polling places had run out of ballots That's a lot of people who were disenfranchized during the primary election.

And we're already finding out in this election, Mike, that there have been problems.

Just this week, we found out that Hobbs, in her incompetency and maladministration, had already messed up with 6000 ballots, the wrong ballots sent to the wrong people.

And so we're seeing problem after problem.

I wish I could sit here and say I have complete faith in the system.

I don't have faith in the system.

And that's why I'm going to work with lawmakers to come up with a way that we have secure elections that our voting rolls are cleaned up so that we're getting rid of the people who don't live here anymore.

They're not on it anymore.

The people who don't exist or the people who have passed away.

You had talked about possibility of ending the food or rental tax here in Arizona.

Right.

But there have been some small municipalities, small towns that are saying that's how they pay for critical services like fire and for police.

Would the state be a part of replacing that revenue to the cities and towns?

Or are the cities and towns just have to restructure their tax format?

No.

And my opponent's trying to turn that into her.

Her tax plan is is absolutely ridiculous.

Cutting cutting taxes on a few items.

You know, we're we're talking about really helping people returning a half a billion dollars back into the pockets of hardworking Arizonans, money they've earned, by the way.

And so we don't believe there should be a tax on food.

Not every city has it.

But this is an essential we've got to eat.

We've got to feed our families.

And so we're going to return that and we're going to return a rental tax.

People can't afford their rent right now.

They're paying additional money on tax, on rent.

These are ways that cities have come up with to tax their citizens even more, make it harder to afford living in Arizona.

So we're going to return that half a billion dollars out of the general fund.

We will reimburse the cities and the counties and help them come up with a plan over the next five years, will reimburse them for that and then wean them off that tax, help them come up with a plan to deal with not having that tax income.

And here's the issue right now.

We've got the cities pulling this money from people.

And with Joe Biden's inflation and Joe Biden's economy, our citizens cannot afford life right now.

They can't afford to fill gas in their car.

They can't afford to put food on the table.

They've got to have help.

We will assist those cities and municipalities get them a plan.

But as Arizona continues to grow, we're going to watch the revenues grow.

And they may not even need that money after five years time.

So let's move to another critical topic and a big controversial one here in Arizona in the topic of abortion.

If the 15 weeks ban that was passed was rewritten so that it supersedes the territorial law where we are now and it crosses your desk, would you sign that 15 weeks ban?

I don't understand why it would need to be rewritten.

Well, because now it's written the way it's written so that it does not supersede the territorial law that we've defaulted to.

So if if it is reversed where now that is in place of the territorial law, would you sign that law?

Well, we have to see where this where this falls.

We don't know what's going to happen is tied up in the courts.

Right now.

It goes back and forth.

I don't want to answer a bunch of hypotheticals about what kind of legislation I would or wouldn't sign, but I've never shied away from the fact that I'm pro-life.

My goal is to save as many babies as possible.

And, you know, when when Roe v Wade passed and then in the decades that followed, we had many people say, look, we need to have people have access to abortion, but it needs to be safe but rare.

And Mike, it's become anything but rare depending on the stats.

We've taken the lives of 63 to 70 million babies.

In New York City, as it stands, half of the African-American half of the black babies are aborted.

More babies are aborted than survive.

And so it isn't rare.

It's not rare anymore.

And the Democrat Party has embraced anything goes abortion.

You could be in Labor ready to deliver your baby that you've carried for nine months.

And if you choose to have an abortion, they're OK with that.

And if you don't believe me, ask my opponent.

I know she didn't have the courage to be here today, but she has finally been pinned down a couple of times on that because I pressured the media to ask her.

That is radical, radical to take a baby at nine months.

And she does want to stop there when she had the opportunity to sign legislation to save a baby who would survive an abortion, to give that baby life saving treatment, a baby who survived an abortion, she voted no on that.

She would rather see a baby die on a cold metal tray.

That is radical.

And I'm tired of the people like Katie Hobbs, who is radical, trying to tell me that because I care about women and care about babies that I'm radical.

It's not true.

So let me just let me clarify with you, though, because you're here.

She she isn't.

Let's clarify.

In cases of incest or rape or for the life of the mother, would you be willing would you sign a piece of legislation that had those exclusions or exceptions in there?

I believe the 15 week bill does have that.

I know people say it doesn't but at 15 weeks, if you if you're in any of those circumstances, obviously you're going to know you're pregnant by four months in by 15 weeks in so I believe those are in there.

They like to say there's no exceptions, but with 15 weeks, there really are exceptions in there.

Obviously, I want to make sure the life of the mother.

Absolutely.

You know, I think what will happen as we see new laws taking place or we're seeing babies being protected, we're going to be locking up a lot more rapists, really locking up people who are raping and that's a good thing that could come out of this.

You know, it's it's horrifying to think of somebody being raped, a victim of incest, the life of the mother.

I want to make sure we're helping those women the real perpetrator, the real death sentence should go to the person who raped, not a baby.

OK?

But we're going to we're going to make sure that we have absolute health care for women.

To call abortion health care for women., it's not health care.

Let's not fool ourselves.

I want to make sure we do have true health care for women.

I'm from a family of nine.

Eight of us are women, girls.

And so I care deeply about health care for women.

And the left has been trying to call abortion health care for women I want true health care.

And the problem is they always say pro-choice, their pro-choice Mike, there is no choice.

When you walk into a Planned Parenthood, they give you one option and that is to take the life of your baby.

They don't say to you, is there anything we can do to help you keep this baby?

Is that what is what are the reasons you're choosing this abortion?

How can we help?

Perhaps we can find a loving family who wants to adopt the baby.

They don't give you choices.

And we need to make sure we're offering women as true choices.

But as far as legislation goes, we've got two laws right now.

Do you favor one of those two over the other, the territorial law or the 15 weeks ban?

I favor a law that will save as many babies as possible and help as many women as possible.

We'll see what the legislature finds out.

You know, I like to say this, and I've said it on the campaign trail.

I'm running for governor, not emperor.

My job is to follow the laws that are on the book.

I'm going to be in the executive branch we'll follow the laws that are on the book.

We could do hypotheticals all day.

Well, what if this happens and what about that?

Well, what about this?

The point is we're going to follow the laws that are on the book, and we don't know at the end of the day right now where that stands, where the judicial system has it right now.

And we'll see what happens and we'll and we'll go from there.

OK, let's talk let's jump to another big issue in Arizona.

Let's talk about the border.

You have stated for quite a while now day one as governor that you would declare an invasion at the southern border.

Let's start with legal authority.

Do you believe you have the legal authority to do that?

Absolutely.

Article one, Section10, United States Constitution so let's jump then to the fallout.

We know that there's been a history in Arizona with SB 1070 with boycotts in Arizona.

We know the Super Bowl at one time was pulled over the Martin Luther King law.

You're going to you would be inaugurated.

You would be sworn in a month from the Super Bowl being here.

If the NFL were to threaten, they're going to pull the Super Bowl.

If you do that, would it make you waver in your decision?

You want to tell me that a bunch of football teams owned by billionaires are OK with sentinel pouring across our border?

At a record level, killing our young people?

Number one killer right now is fentanyl 18 to 45.

It's killing a generation of people if the NFL is OK with that, then they got to do some soul searching.

I don't think the NFL's that stupid.

I really don't.

So you wouldn't be concerned about that.

We're stopping the cartels.

No, I'm not concerned.

Ok. To see more of the interview with Kari Lake, visit the Clean Elections YouTube page.

Election Day is November eight.

And early ballots are out.

Christopher Conover has some reminders for you when it comes to voting and what you need to do to make sure your vote is counted.

Election night is November 8th, but early ballots went out weeks ago.

If you received an early ballot in the mail and have not sent it in, now is the time.

Ballots must be received, not postmarked by the county elections office by Election Day.

Most counties recommend that you put your ballot in the mail no later than seven days before Election Day.

That's this Tuesday.

If you don't get your ballot in the mail, on time not to worry, you can drop it off at any polling center on Election Day or at any early voting site before that.

If you're casting a traditional ballot in person on Election Day, there are a few things to remember.

In Pima County.

Precincts are gone, and now you go to a vote center where they'll print a ballot for you.

Make sure you bring a government issued photo ID with your name and address on it.

If you don't have that, bring two things with your name and address on it, like a bank statement or a utility bill.

And that's our show for this week.

As always, visit our website for all the latest election information.

I'm Liliana Soto.

Thanks for joining us.