AzScam bribery sting led to this week's deadline on lobbyist donations to Arizona lawmakers

Well, it’s almost here. Next week, Arizona lawmakers will return to the state Capitol to kick off a new session — one in which they’ll be facing a budget deficit and host of issues that need to be tackled.

And if the Legislature is returning to 1700 W. Washington next week, this means that this week is what's called Hell Week — the last week lobbyists can contribute to lawmakers’ campaign coffers and curry favor for a host of issues. It’s a week packed with fundraisers and schmoozing and hand-shaking.

The Arizona Agenda’s Hank Stephenson wrote about Hell Week and joined The Show to talk more about it.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: So begin with the name here. Like, why do they call it Hell Week?

HANK STEPHENSON: Well, the lobbyists dubbed it Hell Week. It's probably not Hell Week for the lawmakers, who are raking in significant cash for their upcoming campaigns. But for the lobbyists, I mean, one is a really busy week. There are a lot of fundraisers, and they're all, you know, kind of evening time. So it's racing from one thing to another to shake a hand, drop a check in a basket, and go.

And also when you're dropping, you know, a thousand bucks, a couple thousand bucks at each one of these things, it's a super-expensive week for them. So this is probably lobbyists' least favorite week of the year.

GILGER: Right. But it says so much about kind of the inner workings of the state Legislature. So I want to talk to you about what some of the lobbyists you talk to about this had to say. You kept them all anonymous so they could kind of speak freely. And they told you in pretty unfiltered terms what Hell Week is all about.

What did they say?

STEPHENSON: So you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a fundraiser in this town this week. And a lot of complaints about, you know, just getting hit up for money and how tiresome that is and really how exhausting it is to go to all these things. They're none too pleased with this whole process, but it's part of the game.

GILGER: One of the quotes you have here, Hank, is that someone said it'd be hard not to view it as anything other than like a quid pro quo. Is that what it is?

STEPHENSON: Yeah. I mean, you know, it depends on how you look at, you know, campaign finances and the legislative process. But it feels a lot like that, right? I mean, this is not like a campaign donation in the middle of campaign season. This is literally the week before they go in and start voting on your bill.

The whole reason that these exist is because lobbyists starting Monday are prohibited from donating to lawmakers. So this is their last chance.

And the bills, a lot of them have already been pre-filed, the committees are already set. You know who you're lobbying on what. So you know, when you show up three days before, you know, the Legislature gets into session and your bill is going to be heard with a check in hand. Yeah, that feels a lot like bribery.

GILGER: So, right, like you say, there's this whole ecosystem of influence and favors and funding that's playing out this week.

I want to talk about some of the issues that you're watching in terms of what lobbyists might be trying to, you know, curry favor for this week. What's on your radar?

STEPHENSON: Oh, it's literally everything. I mean, this is everything from, you know, school funding to transportation issues to, you know, judicial issues. It is literally every issue that's going to be heard.

And there will be, you know, 1,700, maybe 2,000 bills this year that'll be filed. So it could be any number of things that you're showing up with a check in hand for.

GILGER: Let's back up, Hank, and talk about the history of this. Because there's sort of a sordid Arizona history behind why we have this law that says that lobbyists cannot donate to lawmakers after the session starts. And therefore, that's why they're doing it this week before the session starts. What's the history?

STEPHENSON: So you may remember in 1990s, a little thing called AzScam, which was this fantastic undercover sting operation with a fake mob-guy FBI informant. This is back when, you know, hidden cameras were hidden in suitcases. Not, not some little pin on your shirt. But it was a whole sting operation and it was all over the news because at the time it was so novel to have, you know, just video footage of lawmakers straight up accepting bribes.

Several people went to jail over this. It was a huge scandal in like 1991. And then right after that, the Legislature came in and put in a bunch of new regulations, a bunch of new laws, you know, trying to make sure that this never happens again. And the ban on lobbyists donating to lawmakers during session.

And it is a ban on lobbyists donating to lawmakers, not a ban on lawmakers accepting those contributions. That came about after AzScam as part of this massive wave of reform. And if you haven't heard of AzScam, I linked up to a great documentary about it in the Agenda.

And there's also a fantastic book, called "What's In It For Me?" where you can really see just how this all went down and how petty the bribery was. I mean, I remember in this book, they talk about how one guy got bribed with shrimp, like a shrimp contract. You know, it was like there was a moment where the FBI informant was trying to get them to take more because he just felt bad about how cheaply these people were willing to sell out.

And I've always been of the mind that, you know, if I could play a mob boss, we could pull the same thing off again today. I don't think it's that much has changed at the state Capitol, and this lesson has kind of been forgotten. They've started showing this documentary about it, that one of the Capitol videographers and documentary filmmakers put together, to all the new lawmakers as kind of a cautionary tale.

GILGER: Wow.

STEPHENSON: And I think that's great because, you know, that is the worst thing that you can do with your career: ruin many people's lives. And just reiterating that to the new lawmakers is, you know, a very positive new development that they've started doing in the last couple of years.

GILGER: Super interesting. But you say even with this kind of history, the reason this law exists, it doesn't really work. There are lots of loopholes.

STEPHENSON: Oh, yeah. I mean, any rule there is at the Capitol, there's a loophole through it. One of the big things that they do is lawmakers will pressure the lobbyists to get their clients to donate because their clients aren't the registered lobbyists. And therefore, there's no, you know, there's no prohibition on them donating during the session.

So lobbyists are often expected, asked to go to their clients, get those checks, pass them over, and they feel dirty about it. You know, I don't think I've ever talked to a lobbyist who likes this process, who thinks that this is the way it should be, but they know it's the way it is, so they go along with it.

GILGER: One thing you point out that's super-interesting is that this is not really a partisan affair. Like, maybe one of the only things at the Capitol that's not really partisan these days.

STEPHENSON: It's all money. It's money and access. You know, and I pulled one, and there's a lot like this, but I pulled one flyer from a fundraiser that was a pair of former Democratic lawmakers, all raising money for, like, Republican leadership, which, like, is, you know, if unthinkable, if they were still lawmakers, but that's not the job that they're in.

You know, they're there to represent their clients and to get access. And it does not help them to only lobby Democrats. You know, the Capitol is controlled by Republicans. So if you want their votes on bills, you've got to play ball. Show up with a check in hand, organize a fundraiser for them, and that's what these people do.

GILGER: Yeah. OK, last 30 seconds here or so, Hank, it's going to be another contentious session that we're kicking off next week. What are your predictions? What are you watching for?

STEPHENSON: I'm watching for the state budget primarily. We've got, you know, some federal tax cuts coming down the line that the governor is going to have to accept at least some of. She's already hinted that she likes the middle class tax cuts that are included in the Big Beautiful Bill from Congress, and we've got to conform to that.

We're already in a serious financial pinch right now. So letting go of, you know, more tax revenue is going to really hurt. And watching the governor kind of walk that line between trying to adopt the tax cuts for the middle class but not adopting tax cuts for corporations or rich people has already been pretty fascinating.

And I think that, you know, we're in an election year this year, people are going to want to get out of there early to go hit the campaign trail. And between here and there is this massive budget hole, a whole bunch of new federal tax cuts that are coming down the line, a whole bunch of new strain on our social service net.

And lawmakers are gonna have to find a way to bridge that gap in a bipartisan government. So to me, that's kind of the most interesting top line issue of the year.