Arizona state senators on Monday advanced one of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ appointees to lead a state agency. It’s the first time the Senate has considered one of the governor’s nominees in months.
The state Senate is tasked with voting to confirm Hobbs’ agency director appointees.
This week, lawmakers on a Senate panel unanimously voted to recommend the full Senate approve a new director for the state tourism agency: Alix Skelpsa Ridgway.
Hobbs’ previous choice to lead the agency, Lisa Urias, resigned amid conflict-of-interest accusations after the nominee’s own communications agency received thousands of dollars to design a new state logo.
Ridgway told the lawmakers she wouldn’t have done the same as her predecessor:
“In relation to the brand project, her specific dealings with that is not something that I would agree with,” Ridgway said of Urias.
Republicans in the state Senate have rejected several of Hobbs’ nominees over the last three years.
The Senate approval process was even the subject of a lawsuit in 2023. Hobbs refused to deal with the Senate committee any more and withdrew her nominees. She then labeled them “deputy directors” tasked with running their agencies, in an effort to circumvent the Senate.
A judge ruled against Hobbs and she was forced to return to the Senate process in 2024.
Hobbs is up for reelection this year, and there are still seven unconfirmed agency leaders, including Ridgway.
In 2025, the Senate confirmed a dozen agency heads. Earlier this session, the Senate finally voted to confirm Department of Environmental Quality Director Karen Peters. She was interviewed by the Senate’s director nominations committee last year, but the full chamber held off on confirming her then.
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