A state Senate panel voted on party lines Thursday to reject the nomination of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ pick to lead the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions.
Senators spent two hearings questioning Barbara Richardson about her qualifications only to vote against her nomination.
Richardson is the interim director of the department pending Senate confirmation, which seems unlikely to come through.
DIFI isn’t an entity which typically generates a lot of headlines. It’s an agency tasked with “assisting and ensuring regulatory compliance” of insurance companies and financial services.
But, the committee chair, Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), accused Richardson of not following the appropriate rulemaking processes as director and of participating in “activist activities.”
“We need people who are going to faithfully implement and execute the laws of the state. We need people who are going to avoid being in roles like on DEI councils and climate resiliency task force, we need people who are going to follow the law,” he said.
Democrats criticized the process and accused Hoffman of turning it into a political hit job against a well-qualified candidate.
Hoffman said the DEI council isn’t his main reason for rejecting Richardson, but that it’s mainly about regulatory decisions. For example, he indicated that she should be going through the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council to approve policy changes.
Richardson said she doesn’t avoid GRRC and that she isn’t improperly instituting policy changes.
The process of confirming Hobbs’ agency heads has been a point of contention ever since she took office.
Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-Phoenix) apologized to Richardson and told her colleagues that DEI isn’t a bad word.
“You made it clear that it’s not something you’re really instituting, but somehow this got devolved into a political hit job,” she told Richardson.
Ortiz also noted that many members of the public who came to the hearing to speak against Richardson were responding to a since-deleted post on X by a conservative group. The group’s post claimed that Richardson is a radical who wants insurance premiums to be based on skin color, something she did not say.
“Jake brought Republican precinct committeemen who don’t even know what DIFI stands for, let alone what it does, to engage in a hit job on a career nonpartisan public servant. The only people who are harmed because of these political games are the people of Arizona,” Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater said in a scathing statement in response to the vote.
“Jake Hoffman is a liar and a clown. He’s a completely unserious and radical politician engaged in a partisan witch-hunt,” he wrote.
Slater said the vote against Richardson is a “new low in the extreme partisan weaponization of basic government functions by an out of control Republican majority.”
Slater also said he’s frustrated that Hoffman has only considered half of Hobbs’ nominees.
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