PHOENIX — A Saudi-owned farm that's been draining western Arizona's groundwater for years has become a national symbol of the state's failure to deal with the megadrought.
Attorney General Kris Mayes told 12News nine days ago she was close to taking legal action.
But fellow Democrat Katie Hobbs said Tuesday that's not Mayes' job.
That's one of three takeaways from Hobbs' news conference at the state Capitol.
1. Hobbs: Mayes doesn't have the authority to take on Saudi farm
It was one of Attorney General Kris Mayes' top campaign promises.
The newly elected Democrat was going to rein in a Saudi Arabian alfalfa grower that gets free access to western Arizona groundwater through a state land lease.
"I can do something about it," Mayes said during a "Sunday Square Off" interview Feb. 19. "Watch this space in the next couple of weeks. We are going to take action on this."
Mayes was planning to take action some time in March, but Hobbs said that's the governor's job.
"It's a very complex issue, and not something that the AG has the authority to, frankly, do on her own," Hobbs said.
"We are trying to work in concert with (Mayes) on this. But it is much more complex than this one lease. We're going to do ... what's in the best interest of the state."
Hobbs said there are many other leases of state-owned land, and the state could be sued if it singled out just one lease.
A Mayes spokesman responded: "Legal action is not imminent but we are continuing to work with urgency on this issue."
Western Arizona's La Paz County, home to the Saudi operations, has sought relief from the state.
Terry Goddard, a former two-term Democratic attorney general, said Mayes' office faces a potential conflict of interest.
The AG's office is the lawyer for the landlord, the Arizona Land Department. A lawyer in the AG's office at some point in the past would have reviewed the lease for the Saudi farm, Goddard said.
As former Republican AG Mark Brnovich discovered, taking legal action against a client is an ethical quagmire.
Goddard gets the legal and the water issues at play. He is board president of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which oversees Central Arizona Project water deliveries to Arizona's three largest counties.
"It would be far better to let the lease run out and pay whatever compensation is necessary," Goddard said. "I think cities would be delighted to pay the state to take the land out of circulation."
The Saudi operation is drawing down groundwater intended as a future water source for metro Phoenix and other urban areas, according to an Arizona Republic investigation.
2. No, Hobbs isn't taking bribes from cartels
Gov. Hobbs opened her news conference with an attempt at some humor.
"I know you all have one burning question," she told reporters.
"I'm only going to answer it once. No, I'm not involved with the Sinaloa Cartel. I'm not taking bribes from them, and I'm not laundering their money."
Hobbs followed with the punch line, "Just kidding."
Hobbs and other elected officials were the target of a bizarre smear at a Republican-only, all-day elections hearing last week in the state Senate.
A Scottsdale insurance agent who was an invited speaker spun a tale of mortgage fraud by drug cartels that funded election fraud by Hobbs and other elected officials.
#ArrestKatieHobbs trended nationwide on Twitter.
Later in the news conference, Hobbs condemned the "circus shows" in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
"That is a culmination really of two-plus years of defamation of me and other election officials and other leaders," said Hobbs, a former secretary of state.
"It is irresponsible for this to be allowed. It is dangerous. It makes the Legislature, quite honestly, a laughingstock ... I hope folks are held accountable for this."
Hours after the news conference, first-term Republican state Rep. Liz Harris of Chandler, a dedicated election denier, conceded in a Telegram post that the speaker Harris invited didn't provide evidence to back up the far-fetched election conspiracy.
3. Can Arizona Republicans and Democrats get along?
There are concerns that the Capitol's divided government could go off a fiscal cliff if a state budget isn't passed by June 30.
Here's a positive sign: The Democratic governor accepted Republican legislative leaders Warren Petersen and Ben Toma's invitation in a letter Tuesday to sit down and discuss a way forward.
"I'm encouraged that we can move forward on a process of negotiating a budget that we can all agree on," Hobbs said.
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