Arizona midterm elections are in full swing. Plus, ASU researchers built a satellite to study water-ice on the moon and a downtown Tempe hockey arena could go to a public vote. Join hosts Sonya Sheptunov and Naomi Dubovis as they explain this week's biggest ASU news stories on "State Press Play."
State Press podcast transcripts are produced by a third-party transcription service and may contain errors. The official record for State Press podcasts is the audio.
Sonya Sheptunov
Hi there, this is Sonya Sheptunov.
Naomi Dubovis
And I'm Naomi Dubovis.
Sonya Sheptunov
You're listening to State Press Play. This week we're talking midterm election season.
Naomi Dubovis
Plus, ASU researchers build a satellite to study water ice on the moon and a downtown Tempe hockey arena project could be greenlit next spring.
Sonya Sheptunov
We've got all this and more for you this week. Tune in for the ASU community's top stories every Wednesday— right here, right now. Coming off a turbulent news week, midterm elections are finally starting to come to a close. State Press politics reporter Shane Brennan is here with us today to talk a little bit about this year's election season. Shane, thank you for being here.
Shane Brennan
Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. How are you guys?
Sonya Sheptunov
Good! The AP called the race for governor Monday night with Democrat Katie Hobbs defeating Republican Kari Lake. Democrat Mark Kelly also defeated Blake Masters in an early call for senator. Has this midterm been unique?
Shane Brennan
So I was speaking to Paul bends of high ground, which is a pollster and like a research thing in Phoenix. So they run a ton of polls and sort of political research all across the state. And this specific election wasn't exactly unique. But the past two are in terms of 2020 2022. Because it used to be the early votes would go crazy read and the in person votes, they would have to play catch up. That happened up until the 2018. But it completely flipped in 2020. Because Trump was saying don't vote it over mail, he was sowing doubt over the whole process. So his basically completely flipped the switch. And so did the Democratic base. So that is completely flipped here in Arizona. This is a big male in state, it always has been. And that was started by Republicans like it was always a big Republican thing to vote early. And then the younger folks would go out and vote but now it is completely the opposite. We saw that in 2020 when Trump took a lead. And then Biden caused them to eke out a win by like 11,000 votes. And then we saw that with Kelly's first race against Martha McSally. Like Kelly got out to a lead and Oh no McSally got to lead and then Kelly smoked her. But this year, it was expected that Kari lake would would catch up with Katie Hobbs. But Katie Hobbs opened up just enough of a lead that Kari Lake couldn't really catch her. And Mark Kelly open up a huge lead and smoked Masters. So there's a lot of there's a lot of intrigue...It's not necessarily why that's not the mystery. But it's very new to a lot of Arizona politicians, political researchers, political scientists, just people in general in Arizona politics. So these past two elections have been just weird.
Naomi Dubovis
So when the governor's race was called Hobbs had won by just under 20,000 votes, does that difference mean anything?
Shane Brennan
That difference doesn't mean much in terms of like, government stuff, like it doesn't mean that they're gonna go to a recount or anything. But what it does mean is that this was a very win a race for Lake. And what happened was, again, this is coming for Paul Bentz from High Ground. I've talked to him all action, good guy. what needed to happen, perhaps when was that independent voter needed to come after her? And it seems like just enough did. That was the strategy to just get out to enough independence. Because Lake's campaign, to be honest, wasn't reaching out to independent voters, moderate voters, because of all especially like she made fun of John McCain. You can say what you want about John McCain, but he's a he's a war hero here. He is a he's an icon is political icon. You don't make fun of John McCain here and expect to keep your voter base. So when you go after John McCain, you lose the moderate the moderate Republicans that were probably going to vote for her just because she wasn't hops. So by doing that was ill advised. By doing that lake completely lost that base that probably would have made up that 17,000 voter difference. I'm looking at it right now. And it's probably gonna get closer before all the votes are counted, but it's not gonna get close enough for anything to change.
Naomi Dubovis
In terms of Kari Lake not really appealing to moderate voters. Do you think that her questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election has anything to do with the fact that she didn't win?
Shane Brennan
1,000,000% Every single Republican that ran in the state that denied and continues to deny the results of the trial Trying to presidential election last. The only Republican the first race I was pretty much called was to Republican Kimberly Yi, the Treasurer and she is a moderate Republican who accepts the results of that election. I guess we'll see what happens with Kris Mayes and Abe Hamadeh. But I mean, that race is razor thin. I saw last week that it was like 47 votes apart. So we'll see what happens with that. I think the sentiments going towards a Mayes victory, but it could just go to a recount. Same thing with a superintendent but the only person who ran as a Republican and didn't do the whole election denial bit, won by quite comfortable margin too. So that definitely hindered not only Lake, not only Masters, but the entire Arizona Republican Party.
Sonya Sheptunov
We saw on Twitter, a lot of predominantly Republican rhetoric promising a red wave or a red tsunami, this midterm election season, where did that come from?
Shane Brennan
So what happens usually is, in a four year presidential term, the midterms, always kind of do a little push back on that president's party. We saw it in the Trump administration, Democrats make gains and midterms. That's just kind of how the political situation in this country just kind of ebbs and flows. But this year, Biden has low approval ratings. He, his the Afghanistan thing happened, like there's a few stains on his presidency. And again, people just don't do the inflation things a big thing, the student loan things a big thing. But it a bunch of things happened. Right. And right before this election happened, and one of them was big. One of them was the abortion rights being taken in a lot of states and the Roe versus Wade being overturned. So that garnered a lot of energy for Democrats. And that kind of, in my opinion, that kind of played a little defense on any red wave that will happen. It certainly played defense here. Not to say that there's as I said, there isn't a Republican Party was trying to reach out to voters who may be like having abortion rights. But yeah, a red wave usually happens with a blue president, but this year, and at this state specifically, it didn't necessarily happen and it could have happened. And it didn't even happen nationally, like Pennsylvania picked up a Democratic senator and John Fetterman. A lot of other Republicans just lost or they didn't win by as much. But yeah, it was more of a read ripple. If anything.
Naomi Dubovis
Yeah. So what sort of response do you expect in the ASU community or Arizona at large? How do you think people are going to respond to these election results?
Shane Brennan
So when in terms of US Senator, I think those results are pretty set in stone, I have a theory that Mark Kelly is a light guy, astronaut, Navy pilot, husband and Gabrielle Giffords. So I don't think anyone's gonna have a problem with that. I do think, well, Lake's not going away. Lakes, not gonna concede there's gonna be lawsuits fire and replace there already has been a lawsuit fired in Cochise County about hand count audits and all that. So right now, I can't really say how the response is going to be because in 2020, it was pretty strong, especially with the Republicans here, like, oh, the election was stolen. You remember all those protests in Phoenix and stuff? It was nuts. But maybe we'll see a little bit of that when in terms of the of the Lake race, but I don't see that going on, like on a statewide level and on campus. I saw a tweet and I don't I personally don't think it's completely real. But I saw a tweet from a Democratic staffer named Erica Marsh, who said that ASU student body voted 96% For Hobbs and 4% for Lake. While I do think that the majority of ASU students would have probably voted Democrat, I don't think it's 96 to four, I don't think 96% of students agree on anything. But I think that on campus, we're going to see the democratic organizations get a little bit of power, I think that they're going to gain a few more members, I think that the abortion rights, again, was a huge topic. And again, student debt relief is obviously a big, a big issue for college students. So I think that this campus is safely going to vote Democrat for a bit just because of those two issues alone, and it's not gonna really matter who's on the ballot.
Sonya Sheptunov
So ASU had voting centers on each campus. What was it like on election day for ASU students?
Shane Brennan
So I hung out in the morning outside of the gym, on the Tempe campus, and it was just kind of quiet people just going in there doing their civic duty bunch of students I talked to that was pretty much their MO is just like, I can vote. I'm registered. I'm going to like they went out on election day. I'll lot of students I know vote absentee in the states that they're from. They're not from Arizona. And even still some like myself who's registered in Arizona, I just mail it in early because, as well as a journalism going to be busy on election day, I'm not gonna be able to go out and vote. But I was surprised to see the amount of students who came out and voted in person. And all of them just kind of centered it on Yeah, doing my civic duty. I have time in between classes. I'm just gonna hop in line do it now. I wasn't around for that big line in the evening, which was nuts. That was good. I guess turnout is really strong this year, turnout was really strong in 2020 60% of the voting population 60% of the 18 to 34 demographic of the population in 2020. Should Arizona. Obviously we don't have data about all that yet. But I think that voter turnout is going to be similar, if not more in terms of young student populations. And being outside of there, it was just people going in and doing their thing. Like there were a few tables out there with like Mission for Arizona, and other like just like go vote type organizations, you know, those, you know, like Rock the Vote type. And, you know, they're handing out cookies to kids who voted. And, you know, there are other media types just like myself chasing down kids who and asking their opinions on stuff, but yeah, I think um, I think kids I think students here just kind of take it as like a thing that they have to do like a civic duty kind of thing.
Naomi Dubovis
What was election season like for you as a politics reporter? Did anything surprise you?
Shane Brennan
It was brutal. It was. So I'm from New Jersey. And being from New Jersey politics, there's kinda boring. It is a true blue state. I mean, sure. We have a few funny moments here and there. Kris Kristie was our governor. But we don't have the intrigue and national attention and importance that Arizona has, because this is a battleground state now. And a really big until like this thing went like this states a blue state now, because in like two and what two election cycles, within two years this thing is gone blue, which is not this is a red state forever. This is the land of John McCain's and Linda Barry Goldwater like it's crazy. So having all that happened, and having this place be a complete center of political tension here and like Pennsylvania, not even Florida anymore. Florida used to be like the big spot. This is the new Florida. I got to go to the rally with Barack Obama. He was at Cesar Chavez High School and Laveen if you told anybody that even two years ago, the Obama would do a rally in Laveen of all places. It'd be it'd be crazy. That is unexpected. That like the national attention and implications in every race, like people write about the Secretary of State race. Back in New Jersey, I can't name my Secretary of State with a gun in my mouth.
Sonya Sheptunov
From New Jersey to Arizona, welcome to quite possibly the most scorched earth campaign state.
Shane Brennan
It's, it's definitely been a learning experience. And while learning about this cast of characters has been fun, it is still important to remember that like, all these people, if they get elected, their ideas will have implications on the voter base. Like sure it's fun to see Kari Lake's little supporters do like chicken stuff. But if she goes in there with like the abortion ban and all her voting reforms, like that's actually dangerous, and it's important to it's important to not lose sight of that, because all the political theater, it makes it, it makes it interesting, but it's important to just like, stay grounded in the policies that a lot of these people are pushing. Absolutely, thank you.
Sonya Sheptunov
That was State Press politics reporter Shane Brennan. Thanks for being here today. You can find Shane on Twitter @shanebrennan36. That's Shane Brennan three six. For more on elections and the ASU community visit the State Press website at state press.com And our Twitter at State Press.
Naomi Dubovis
Up next, we have updates on a hockey arena that could be built in the Phoenix Tempe area and ASU researchers are launching a satellite to detect water ice on the moon stay tuned.
Sonya Sheptunov
The city of Tempe has set a date for a referendum to settle a long standing dispute about a hockey arena. May 16, 2023 may determine the fate of both the Arizona Coyotes and the creation of a new entertainment district in downtown Tempe. As of this year, the coyotes have set up shop at the newly built Mullett Arena on ASU's Tempe campus. The stadium at Mullett is a far cry from the standard NFL stadiums there used to. Last September, the coyotes proposed a plan to build a permanent arena for their team and entertainment district and apartments around it. The rest of central areas are expected to make the project financially feasible. The new site would develop around 46 acres of land on Priest Drive and Rio Salado Parkway. Sky Harbor International Airport and the city of Phoenix strongly oppose this plan, citing an intergovernmental agreement, which outlines how close homes can be built to an airport, in this case, Sky Harbor. So on the one hand, if the arena were to be built, the Arizona Coyotes would have a permanent home and an area of influence, a territory, if you will. On the other hand, the Coyotes would be building homes and an entertainment district in what's considered a high noise area. The issue isn't guaranteed to go on the ballot. There are still several hoops to jump through for Bluebird Development, the company representing the coyotes. For more on the proposed vote, check out the articles by Shane Brennan and Logan Stanley at statepress.com.
Naomi Dubovis
ASU is collaborations with NASA continue with a satellite me to detect water ice on the surface of the moon. This device will be part of NASA's Artemis one mission. The shoebox size satellite is called the lunar polar hydrogen mapper, also known as the Luna H Map. ASU researchers designed Luna H to collect data about water ice found on the moon's shadowed regions. Water ice is exactly as it sounds h2o in solid form, as opposed to ice with other compounds like methane and carbon dioxide. This data will help scientists understand more about the outer solar system since the moon's water ice comes from outside comets and asteroids. On top of that astronauts are looking to use water ice for rocket fuel and even drinking water. The missions deputy principal Director Jim Bell said that these resources can be found on Earth, but they're much more costly. In order for the mission to work, Luna H map has to orbit the moon 300 times before detaching from the capsule and landing on the moon's surface. From there, it will detect the presence of hydrogen which indicates the presence of water ice. For more on this story, check out the article by Kayden Ryback and Tyson Wildman at statepress.com.
Kaden Ryback
The craziest party you've ever been to either at ASU or outside of ASU.
ASU Student
So it was actually last weekend. Last week. It was a frat party and I jumped off a roof jumped off a roof into a into a pool.
Kaden Ryback
Hey, my name is Kaden Ryback. You may have seen me around campus or online. I'm the red pants guy from the State Press Tiktok. red pants guy by day Cytec. editor by night. Speaking of which, be sure to check us out at State Press to hear about all things ASU. And if you see me around campus, I promise I don't bite. Feel free to say hello. Again. You can find us at State Press on Tik Tok.
ASU Student
...over there, and then two of our friends like they just kind of like wrestling and then all of a sudden pared down to that and then it was like the entire front tooth was on the ground. And then everyone's like, get the tooth! get the tooth!
Naomi Dubovis
As we near the end, here are our favorite stories from this last week.
Sonya Sheptunov
We've all heard the phrase starving artist. It's the idea that there's no money in making art. But for a lot of people art is more than a job from our very own State Press magazine Madeline Nguyen spoke to artists who abandoned careers in STEM to pursue their true passions in art, and they've never been happier. This story has everything navigating awkward dinner table conversations, reconciling feelings of guilt with the desire for self actualization and compromise between two fields often thought of as binary opposites. In Nguyen's words, passion may not always equate to pay but for some, passionate alone is enough. For more on this story, check out the article by Madeline Nguyen at state press.com
Naomi Dubovis
ASU has an active League of Legends team and they're hoping to crush the competition this coming spring semester. Cronkite News reporter Jacob Zinder has all the details on how the team is training for the upcoming season. ASU has a developmental league of legends team which is supposed to be a training ground for players who want to reach the varsity level. In fact, four of the five players on the varsity roster played for the developmental team in the previous year. League of Legends team members say that camaraderie and hours of practice will give them a competitive edge come game time. Player Shawn Inez said it helps me a lot because we have probably saved one or two months of learning for them just by having the dev team. The team also has an analyst and coach who guide newer members and improving their gameplay. The new league of legends season starts in the first quarter of 2023 According to the Riot Scholastic Association of America, which is the governing organization of collegiate League of Legends competitions, the 2023 Using will have regional conferences made up of upper and lower divisions. Winning upper division teams advanced to the college championship, and lower division teams can compete at other cross conference matches. For more. You can find ASU's League of Legends team on Twitter at ASU League of Legends, or check out the story at Cronkite news.az pbs.org.
Sonya Sheptunov
Thanks for listening to this episode of State Press Play, but don't pause this just yet, so you don't miss a single episode. Follow the State Press on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. NAOMI DUBOVIS Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at State Press.
Sonya Sheptunov
To learn more about the stories we talked about today. Check out the articles online. You can find all of these stories and more at state press.com.
Naomi Dubovis
Thank you to Shane Brennan for being here with us this week.
Sonya Sheptunov
This show was edited and produced by the State Press podcast desk.
Naomi Dubovis
Thank you to our editor Kate Ourada into our managing team, Andrew Onodera and Angelina Steele. Our music is courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
Sonya Sheptunov
I'm Sonya.
Naomi Dubovis
And I'm Naomi.
Sonya Sheptunov
You've been listening to State Press Play. See you next Wednesday!
Kate Ourada is in her 5th semester as the editor of the podcast desk and is doing her best to spread her love of audio journalism. She works in radio as a reporter and board operator. Kate has a passion for creative writing, her cat and making niche playlists for her friends.
Sonya Sheptunov is a podcast producer at The State Press. They take an interest in data, counterculture, and all things nerdy. In their free time you can find them drinking too much coffee or attempting to crochet.
