I Went to the Arizona Capitol for the First Time.

Here Is What I Saw.

by Josh Worthington

I am an undergraduate at ASU and an intern at Secular AZ. I had never been to the Arizona Capitol before or seen the legislature in session. Jeanne Casteen, the director at Secular AZ, wanted me to see the Senate once and had cautioned me about how bad it would be, but my hopeful expectations about our state government survived the warning.

In my mind, the people in charge of deciding the future of more than seven million people would surely be respectful, professional, and open to having their opinions changed, regardless of the intensity of any debate or the subject of any bill.

Needless to say, this hope proved naïve.

On February 7, Jeanne and I went down to the Capitol to observe the Senate and attended two committee sessions: government and education. When I arrived to observe the Government Committee, I quickly noticed the divide between political right and left. I had expected senators to be dispersed evenly in the spirit of democracy, but instead found them, almost literally, diametrically opposed.

The Republican senators, in the majority, chatted and laughed and came in and out freely, while the Democratic senators sat solemnly looking at their phones or reading. The Government Chair Jake Hoffman sat front and center. In our time observing the Senate Government Committee, we were present for the reading of four bills, but I will only be discussing two.

The first bill was proposed by Senator Kern. It outlines, among other things, preventing the reduction of consumption of meat and dairy products, preventing reusing water that has touched human feces, preventing the reduction of greenhouse gases, and, of course, preventing “furthering Marxist ideologies, including stakeholder capitalism.” If at this point the reader is wondering first, what this string of buzzwords has to do with one another (unfortunately the list goes on; the sum of points mentioned here totals not even half of the items listed in the bill) and, second, how any of these items would actually be enforced, they would not be alone as members of the public voiced their concerns with the bill without one voice in support.

One speaker was a lobbyist who was not even allowed to finish her prepared statement before being aggressively and abruptly forced to stop by Jake Hoffman under threat of removal. Democratic Senators likewise voiced their concerns about the bill’s impracticality and general confusion about its presence in their forum, each being quickly shut down by Hoffman. The bill then passed 5-3 with every Republican senator in favor.

The next bill was called the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. bill, short for “Reject Escalating Satanism by Preserving Essential Core Traditions.” The bill banned the erection of any satanic displays, alters, or any other item “representing or honoring Satan” on public property in the state. In the audience, many people had come to voice their opposition to the bill, mainly consisting of those from a local sect of the atheistic Satanic Temple.

Of those who talked, two members, one of whom was a veteran, said their pieces about the bill with little to no resistance from the dais. An older woman with a walker came up to the stand next. She stumbled on her words initially and apologized for being nervous about speaking in public. She began to say how she felt the bill infringed upon her rights and was quickly interrupted by Hoffman saying that she was still free to practice her religion as she so chose. When she tried to pick up again where she left off, she was interrupted again by Hoffman, saying that he was trying to help her avoid “mistakes” she was making.

Senator Mendez tried to help her finish her thoughts, but was likewise shut down by Hoffman, saying that Mendez was not allowed to speak for her but, by this time, she had thoroughly lost her ability to continue and sat back down. The bill passed 5-3.

The committee took a break to discuss bills with the greater Senate, giving Jeanne and I a chance to catch up with The Satanic Temple members who were accompanied by Senator Mendez. We commiserated the passing of such an unconstitutional bill, and they discussed with Mendez options for amendments that would ensure defeat. They were warm and respectful of others and each other, despite being disheartened by the passing of the bill.

Afterwards, we headed to the Education Committee, chaired by Senator Ken Bennett, where we stayed for the reading of two bills. Bennett was respectful, kind, and led the audience in Arizona trivia while they were waiting for the arrival of one of the Senators.

The two bills we heard, both sponsored by Senator John Kavanagh, targeted transgender youth in school environments: the first was regarding preferred pronouns and the second was regarding showers and locker rooms. After hearing citizen speakers, none of which were in favor of either bill, nearly every Senator on the committee spoke, with the exception of Bolick who was on her phone and Kerr who left for every testimony and only came back in to vote.

With the vote three to three, Bennett gave a teary speech about his connection to trans issues, his trans grandchildren, and sympathy towards the matter as a whole before voting yes on the bill. This exact thing happened the second time, with Bennett saying on the second bill that he could not accept the bill as it was written and would amend it in the greater Senate session. Jeanne and I left the Education Committee hearing after the hearing of the second bill, and I had to leave the Senate to get back to my classes.

I was left extremely disheartened by the day.

Starting off in government and seeing the abuse leveled against those with opposing viewpoints was disgusting. Coming in to the hearing, already more cynical about government than most, I expected at least decorum, at least some level of respect for people regardless of their viewpoints. Instead, it was as though I was shown the extreme of a failure of democracy: not only unnecessary verbal abuses but abuses of power.

As one of the members of The Satanic Temple said afterwards, Jake Hoffman “punches down,” targeting not those who were confident or rehearsed in what they were saying, but those who struggled, like the woman with the walker, who was not only thrown off guard by the comments but left to drown when Hoffman prevented Mendez from trying to help her as well.

As for the display in Education, it was as if Bennett seemed eager to garner the audience’s approval, starting off by emceeing a room full of activists and educators and moving seamlessly into apologetic tears as he betrayed even his own beliefs, as if he was asking the audience to forgive him as well.

Before the committee started, when I asked what Bennett was like, Jeanne told me he wanted to be everyone’s fun uncle, and she was right; Bennett appeared a perpetual people pleaser, unable to stand the crowd disliking him and unable to vote against the intentions of his party, even when it goes against his own (purported) beliefs.

My advice to the reader is as follows: go to the Capitol once, see with your own eyes the things I have described. Then, tell a friend and be ready for them not to believe you. After all, I certainly did not expect to find satanists to be embodiments of respect and courtesy, as much as I didn’t expect to find the people leading our state to be cruel and childish.

To see for yourself, here are the links to watch the two Committee Hearings I attended:

Government Committee Hearing, February 7^th, 2024.

Education Committee Hearing February 7^th, 2024.