Think Tank delves into what Arizona voters really want

Surprised by the results of the 2022 election? If you listened to our Aug. 27 show with the Center for the Future of Arizona’s Sybil Francis and Highground’s Paul Bentz you may not have been surprised at all.

They presented the results of their study of what Arizonans want. Our election results seem to mirror these priorities to an uncanny degree.

Since the results were so prescient, this week’s Think Tank reruns that interview this week. Our original show description follows:

The Center for the Future of Arizona recently commissioned an interesting study about areas of consensus about public issues.

They used an interesting threshold for consideration. To make their priority list an issue needed to get both strong approval by a majority of voters and at least approval by a majority of all significant subgroups.

As a numbers guy, I appreciate the standards they adopted. Voters often “approve” of many things without vehemence. Strong approval requires such vehemence. So, to make the list, an issue had to be vehemently approved by a majority and approved by a majority of all groups.

This struck me as a very reasonable standard and a way, in these contentious times, to help sort out those things that we can forge some agreement over.

And it was striking the extent to which our current public debate only tangentially touches on many of these.

Our guests are Sybil Francis, the president and CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona, and Paul Bentz of Arizona HighGround, the firm that conducted the survey.

This week’s Think Tank looks to the future of the state and the things on which most of us can agree.

The Think Tank airs on KTAR 92.3 FM on Saturday 6-7 p.m. and Sunday 9-10 p.m.

Podcasts are available after broadcast. Older shows are archived at www.mikeoneil.org.