KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
Marcus Dell’Artino of First Strategic and Sam Richard of Consilium Consulting joined The Show to talk about the decision to not launch an ethics investigation against a Republican state lawmaker, state Democrats electing a new party chair and more.
Conversation highlights
MARK BRODIE: Sam, let me start with you. State Democrats elected their second new party chair of 2025. Charlene Fernandez, former state lawmaker, former House minority leader. Good choice going into 2026?
SAM RICHARD: Oh, absolutely fantastic choice. I am over the moon about Charlene’s ability to bring people together, and I think that’s what the party needs in this moment. Not just the party itself, but also what we’re looking at going into an even-number year and a very, very important election cycle. I think that she has the trust and the history and the relationship with our statewide officials and can command a room and is going to take the party in the right direction.
BRODIE: How big of a challenge will it be to for her to bring the party back together, both because it’s been seemingly, at least from the outside, so fractured over the last, let’s say, 6-7 months; but also because, as you pointed out, there’s this election coming up not that long from now?
RICHARD: I think that always our job, I guess, is to predict a little bit. So you don’t really know what’s ahead and what new crises she’s going to be confronting as party chair. But I think that she does have a demonstrable track record of bringing people together.
She led the Democratic caucus in the House, and she has worked across the aisle on a number of issues and really can command respect inside a room and around a table. So I’m extremely hopeful about her ability to lead our party to success in ’26.
BRODIE: So, Marcus, at the risk of asking you to wade into internal Democratic Party politics here: You know, Charlene Fernandez from having spent time at the state Legislature with her. I’m curious about your thoughts of taking somebody as a former legislator and putting them in this role.
MARCUS DELL’ARTINO: She’s got her work cut out for her. Listen, Democratic voter registration’s tanking, and Republicans are picking — it is blocking and tackling of campaigns. It is the one of the most basic things that you can accomplish as party chair. And it’s a huge task for the Democrats to get on task. And just to be clear, operating within a caucus now at the state Legislature, it’s vastly different than being a party chair.
And so, yes, she’s going to have to build a coalition. And I would argue the Democratic Party has to change some messaging and pivot a little bit.
If she is the Yuma legislator that she began her career being and taking sort of that type of messaging into the campaign and voter registration, then I think she’s going to make some movement. If she is, in her latter years, more progressive of the candidate, more progressive of the messaging. I think that doesn’t bode well in Arizona. And I think it’ll cause a problem in registration.
BRODIE: Interestingly, she came in this week for a conversation, and she repeatedly brought up rural Arizona — talking about getting folks in Yuma, getting folks in rural parts of the state sort of on on board with the messaging and talked about needing to talk about issues like the Affordable Care Act, like social Security, things like that.
Marcus, do you think that is the approach you’re talking about in terms of what could be effective?
DELL’ARTINO: I think that you have to hunt the ducks where the ducks are. And look, 10% of Arizona is rural. The ducks are in Pima County, and the ducks are in Maricopa County. And that is where your vast movement needs to happen.
I certainly understand the attractiveness of the messaging going into rural Arizona. Look, here’s the net effect of cuts to Medicaid, and here’s why you want to be part of the Democratic Party. But the fact of the matter is, the votes just don’t exist there. You’ve got to start messaging in Maricopa and Pima counties.
RICHARD: But when you’re hunting birds in Yuma County, they’re doves. So I think perhaps Charlene will bring a softer message. And I think that’s really why you’re starting this messaging and kind of seeing this focus on greater Arizona. Because even though the votes are in Maricopa County and Pima County, I think when you spend enough time in Arizona, you know how important the other 13 counties are to the success of the state as a whole.
And to your point, Marcus, about the progressive or more moderate, I think if you’re looking at our top three statewide offices and Sen. Kelly, Sen. Gallego and Gov. Hobbs, they have all done a really textbook job of carrying Democratic values and progressive values into a space that can be translated to a more moderate audience. And I think that Charlene’s going to kind of take a page from that book.
BRODIE: So it sounds like you’re saying she should take this sort of statewide approach, as opposed to just focusing on Pima and Maricopa?
RICHARD: Absolutely. But what I’m saying is that it’s very much a collaborative effort that you can’t just go. Phoenix will only go as far as Yuma County or the town of Safford or the overall health of the state, our 22, sovereign tribal nations, right? All of that is going to be important. And Phoenix cannot leapfrog the success of Arizona as a whole.
BRODIE: Marcus, we heard this week from state Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) that he would like to rename part of a freeway after Charlie Kirk. Of course, there was a lot of Charlie Kirk activity in the Valley over the last several days. There’s the vigil at ASU, a big memorial service on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
Would you expect that his is a name that we’re going to continue to be hearing specifically in Arizona, for at least the short term here?
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, absolutely. I think Arizona is in a unique position compared to the rest of the nation in that Turning Point is headquartered here. And Charlie Kirk lived here. Charlie Kirk had children here, and his family’s here. And so we have a different sort of perspective on this situation than I think the rest of the country.
I talk to friends in other states who were frankly unaware who Charlie was. And I’m not surprised. He’s just a little bit more familiar to Arizonans.
And so I think this conversation will continue, certainly for a little bit. And the Legislature is going to continue to drive the message. And Turning Point is going to continue to drive the message.
RICHARD: How, Sam, do you expect Democrats to respond to these kinds of things? Because as we’ve seen, it’s kind of a sensitive moment right now. So like, do you anticipate, for example, lots of Democrats coming out against renaming part of the 202 after Charlie Kirk?
RICHARD: I think that will absolutely be a contingency of folks that come out against something like that. But I also think, to Marcus’ point, we’re in this really this important moment right now where we as a community here in Arizona need to process all of these feelings.
And I think introducing ideas such as renaming a freeway are something that we do for key leaders, right? We have the John S. McCain terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We have Piestawa Peak, right? We name stretches of roads and important physical monuments, for people who are luminaries in our society.
I think what we’re doing right now is we’re kind of going through the machinations to see if Charlie is worthy of some type of recognition in that way, and I think that’s absolutely a worthy conversation to have.
BRODIE: Well Marcus, Sam brought Piestawa Peak, and I was interested in that because that was sort of the example of the way that naming is supposed to happen in this state … not always the way that happens.
DELL’ARTINO: No, that one did not go very well, if my memory serves me correctly.
BRODIE: It did not follow the the prescribed amount of time for somebody to have passed. And if my memory serves, didn’t really go through that (Arizona State) Board on Geographic and Historic Names in the way that it was supposed to.
DELL’ARTINO: It was a hardline push by the governor’s office. And also, interestingly enough, it was about the time cellphones came online. And so there was a brand of technology that was evolving, that politics of late did not fit into very well. So things were recorded, things were said, and it didn’t go very well.
And I would just say that — and maybe this is way too conservative of me — but I’m over the naming of stuff. I feel like every time we name something, there’s some controversy that gets associated with it. Whether it was Piestawa Peak, or there was a mountain out west for Charlie Keating, the fourth or the —
RICHARD: Fourth. Yep.
DELL’ARTINO: That turned into a debacle down at the Legislature. There’s just a long list of these things. And at some point, I don’t know whether we’re helping or not helping. Let’s just build the building, for God’s sake.
RICHARD: I think the bottom line here is we’re at a moment where we need to come together as a community and figure out how we are going to remember Charlie and his impact on Arizona and the country. And I think that that is a conversation that will not be over after Sunday afternoon.
