Normally KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond. But today we’ll be taking a look back at Arizona politics over the course of the past year — and a little bit of a look ahead to what 2026 may have in store.
To break it all down, The Show sat down with Chip Scutari of S+C Communications and former state lawmaker Jennifer Longdon.
Conversation highlights
MARK BRODIE: Chip, I want to start with Sen. Mark Kelly, who has been in the news pretty much all year long. Recently though, of course, he was part of the video that a number of Democratic federal lawmakers made, essentially saying to service members, “You are allowed to, and in fact have the responsibility to disobey illegal orders.”
Not really spelling out what that might be or if there have been any. He’s kind of in hot water with the Defense Department. He’s in hot water with President Trump. I’m curious, when you look at where things stand right now — we saw just this week that (Secretary of Defense) Pete Hegseth is saying this has been escalated now to potential discipline — what do you make of where we are right now?
CHIP SCUTARI: Well, I think this is all a result of the strikes on the alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela. Mark Kelly served in the military, was an astronaut. I think is passionate to his core. I do think that video was a very well done, highly designed effort to probably provoke the Trump White House.
And I think they really believe what they were saying. But it has really put him in the limelight. I don’t know if that was his plan. There were six or seven other Democrats.
BRODIE: Yeah, I think six overall.
SCUTARI: Who served in the military or the CIA. One thing about Sen. Kelly we’ve noticed in the last year — we were just talking about off-air — is his public profile has really grown over the last year or so, ever since he was considered for a VP slot for Kamala Harris.
So I think he’s gonna fight this to the end. I don’t think he has anything to lose. I think the legal case is on his side. And who knows if this could be a launch to the 2028 presidential campaign? There’ll be a gazillion folks wanting to have their name on that list.
But I think it’s really put him in the spotlight for the next couple of years, especially next year for the midterms, which will be crucial for both political parties.
BRODIE: Jen, we’ve seen that Sen. Kelly has raised what a lot of folks in politics have called presidential amounts of money. Presumably that ability would be helpful — especially if his name ID is even higher — helping out other Democrats in 2026.
JENNIFER LONGDON: Yeah, absolutely. I think that the news conference he did following the initial backlash from the video, as I watched that, I saw the potential launch of a presidential campaign in that moment where he compared his personal career timeline to that of this president. I think that I can’t believe there is anyone in this nation that doesn’t recognize Mark Kelly as a man of valor and integrity.
And the comments, the video was straightforward. There was nothing in that video specifically that called any member, any service member to an act. It reminded them of their duty. It’s something that happens in boot camp. It’s something that happens routinely. There was nothing wrong with that video.
SCUTARI: And I think the bigger picture here is I don’t know if these Democrats, including Sen. Kelly, would have done this a year ago. I’m not saying they did this because of President Trump’s falling poll numbers. But you see more and more people willing to stand up to Donald Trump, which just six months ago, he had a vice grip on the party.
We saw it with the state senators in Indiana saying “no thanks” to redistricting, even coming under very tough threats about funding for roads and primaries. So we see a fraying of the Trump base a little bit. He’s got nine lives, 9 million lives.
We’ll see. He could bounce back. But this is one of those examples of people pushing back against the Trump presidency.
LONGDON: And remember, this administration is less than a year old. And I think that a year ago, folks were still practicing decorum. Not that everyone has left decorum behind. I think this administration has done that to a certain degree.
But I think that folks came in exercising the standard decorum of the institution, and we’ve recognized that that is not an effective tool for dealing with this administration. And they’re being more blunt than they were a year ago.
SCUTARI: ... Former President Biden fell into the trap of while the metrics on the economy look good, and him and ... Vice President Harris were saying, “Hey, trust us, it’s not that bad. It’s pretty good.” And I think Donald Trump, he usually — if you like him or not, love him, loathe him — he really has a good pulse of the people. And I think he’s falling into the Biden trap of just saying, “Hey, folks, everything is fine.”
He called affordability a hoax, which really backfired. So I think he’s lost touch with the common man, it seems. He hasn’t been out on the road a lot you don’t see him doing a lot of rallies. You don’t see him just go to a school or an event like somewhere in the heartland.
So I think he’s falling into that trap of saying “No, no, no, everything’s fine, don’t worry about it.” And people are like, “Our health care is skyrocketing. We can’t afford a home.” And those issues will define the 2026 elections.
BRODIE: So before we go back to D.C., Jen, I want to come back to Phoenix for a little bit. And I apologize to take you back to the state Capitol, a place where you served for a little while.
I was looking back at some of the stuff that we talked about over the course of the year from the Legislature, and there’s some stuff I totally forgotten about. I suspect that some people had as well.
LONGDON: I try.
BRODIE: You try. So there was obviously issues with Prop. 123, the funding for education, which did not end up happening this year, a renewal of that. There was the bill dealing with funding for repairs to Chase Field. There was the so-called Axon bill, which is still causing waves in Scottsdale. There was a lot of budget drama going on with the chambers sort of each passing their own bill and sort of playing chicken with each other to see which one would get passed. A lot of vetoes.
When you look back at the months and months that state lawmakers were in session, was there a common theme to you or like a common thread that stood out from 2025?
LONGDON: Chaos. Usually, at least, the public facing side is more united within the parties and within the chambers, and all of the inner-party fighting and then across the aisle, it happens. But we’re currently seeing more fighting within each chamber, within each caucus in a way that I’m just glad I’m gone at this point in time.
I don’t think we’re making good public policy. I think we’re performing in some cases.
SCUTARI: Speaking of that, I think there’s a grand bargain to be had on Prop. 123. The Common Sense Institute did a great report about potential state trust land reform. There’s still 9 million acres we are not using, and it could be a trifecta to help out not only education and our kids, but affordable housing and maybe location for data centers.
It’ll be interesting to see if Gov. Hobbs or someone — it’s a, you know, it’s a big lift and a lot of moving parts — but there is a big grand bargain to be held that could really affect the state positively for decades and decades. So I’m anxious to see if someone will take that on. I thought it was a great report by the Common Sense Institute about just laying out the case for how many billions of dollars are out there if we just develop, use that land that was bequeathed to us at statehood in 1912.
BRODIE: Well so Chip, Jen mentioned sort of intra- and interparty squabbles, and we saw even at the end of the session. Right after the Legislature adjourned, Senate Republicans changed out their leadership. What does that portend for 2026, do you think?
SCUTARI: Well, just to that point, we could see a change in the Senate presidency.
So if Warren Petersen is running for Attorney General 2026 next year, if there’s rumors that he may leave and Sen. John Kavanagh, Sen. T.J. Shope will want that position, that could shake up a lot of things because Warren Petersen has been against short-term rental reform, hasn’t been too helpful on affordable housing.
And Sen. Kavanagh, even though he’s very conservative, he’s more pro short term rental reform. So that could tip the balance. So there’s a lot that will happen in the next month or so that could determine how the legislative session looks.
BRODIE: Yeah, it’s going to be about a month or so till lawmakers come in. And Jen, we’ve seen some bills pre-filed already. Is it too early to tell sort of what the tone and tenor might be? Of course, 2026, an election year. All 90 lawmakers, at least those who are running, are up.
LONGDON: Right. The issues that you’ve already mentioned — Prop. 123, we need a good budget. I think we have major water issues yet that haven’t been dealt with that we’re going to have to be talking about. And there’s going to need to be some strong leadership within the Legislature, a willingness to work with the governor.
That has been one of the issues we’ve seen is I think majority has teed up legislation in a way to try and box in the governor and make her look bad. I don’t think they’ve been as successful as they’d like to be. So I’d like to see folks working together to get these things done.
What do you think? Do you think there are any adults in the room?
SCUTARI: No, no, no.
LONGDON: I’m not making any friends. I won’t be able to go down there this year.
SCUTARI: There’s a few, there’s a few. But there will be issues that, you know, I saw one guy just filed a bill to eliminate daytime speed limits.
BRODIE: On some rural highways, not like on I-10 outside the windows here.
SCUTARI: So my point is there will be two or three issues, it’s not even on our radar right now, that will dominate every huge chunks of time. But I wish that there’d be more consensus at the Capitol. But an election year, with the governor up, the secretary of state, attorney general, these congressional swing districts, I don’t think there’s gonna be a lot of collaboration at the Capitol.
I hope I’m wrong, but we’ll see what Gov. Hobbs can, in her State of the State address, really use the bully pulpit to cast a vision for the state. And we’ll see if she takes that opportunity.
LONGDON: Oh, I think she will.
BRODIE: Quickly, before we go to break, was there anything from 2025, from the session that you think will be particularly impactful for Arizonans going forward? ... Crickets, huh?
LONGDON: We’re both looking at each other.
SCUTARI: Oh, I was going to say the “ag-to-urban” bill, I think could be beneficial. I think the Axon bill, if it plays out, could be a huge benefit to Scottsdale and the region. The Diamondbacks bill was a big deal, whether you like it or not.
BRODIE: To renovate Chase Field.
SCUTARI: To renovate Chase Field, to keep the team here and all the economic development downtown in Phoenix.
LONGDON: Oh, I think that worked out. I do. I think. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but the union jobs that are coming out of that, the compromise that didn’t take all of the city revenue away, I think that’s going to end up a win-win.
I’m not a huge fan of sports, and if rich people need somewhere to park their sports team, they should pay for it. Until I became a legislator and started recognizing all of these other issues.
