Here’s what Arizona Gov. Ducey had to say on Rogers’ censure, water, final year in office
Mar 2, 2022, 12:44 PM | Updated: 1:22 pm
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday again condemned comments made by state Sen. Wendy Rogers, the GOP lawmaker who was censured a day earlier by the Senate.
The Republican governor joined KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show and discussed his stance on Rogers’ remarks, his water plans for Arizona’s future and goals during his final legislative session.
Below is a sampling of his responses, which have been edited for clarity:
Q: Wendy Rogers was censured in the state Senate. You were asked for comments and people had been giving you a little heat for your lack of denunciation of this whole thing. Where do you stand on it?
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A: I have condemned racial statements and anti-Semitism the entire time I’ve been in public office and I will continue to condemn them. I put a statement out in response to the censure of Wendy Rogers and the censure basically says that that rhetoric will not be tolerated in Arizona and it won’t be tolerated anywhere. (Editor’s note: Rogers was censured for “engaging in conduct unbecoming of a senator, including publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messages encouraging violence against and punishment of American citizens and making threatening statements declaring ‘political destruction’ of those who disagree with her views.”)
Q: In my opinion, it was just an ugly thing to say and to be associated with white nationalists is not something any of us want in the Arizona Legislature.
A: That’s why I’ve condemned it and I’ve condemned it prior to this as well. This isn’t the first time there’s been a statement like this in public life. Also, I have gone out of my way to focus on getting the job done for the people of Arizona and oftentimes, outside of the conversation we’re having today, people are looking for more attention, more Twitter followers, more Facebook followers. I don’t want to participate in that.
Q: Let’s talk about the billion dollar investment in water allocation and what does that look like?
A: Nobody does water better than Arizona … but there’s more work that needs to be done. We’re due for another generational project … The only place that’s better at water in the world than us is Israel. There’s a technology [there] called desalination. It’s a technology that’s actually existed since biblical times, but it’s become more affordable in our time, so that and some other options are on the table. Arizona is flush with cash and we want to put a billion dollars away to secure Arizona’s water future for the next 100 years.
Q: What do you expect out of this legislative session before it closes?
A: There’s a lot of important things we need to get done. Water is critical for the state of Arizona. Of course, we also want to protect the largest tax cut in the history of the state and the lowest flat tax in the nation at 2.5%. We need additional resources for border security as well.
