AZ/DC

Ducey connects with McCain, Flake

Dan Nowicki
The Republic | azcentral.com
Gov.-elect Doug Ducey, left, has reached out to senior U.S. Sen. John McCain, center, and junior U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake as part of his transition. Ducey and McCain are shown here at a Nov. 3 campaign stop in Flagstaff.

As part of his transition, Gov.-elect Doug Ducey has reached out to U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake to discuss state priorities.

Ducey, a Republican, said he's pleased Republicans retook the U.S. Senate in this month's congressional midterm elections, which means Arizona's McCain and Flake will be part of the new GOP majority and have more clout. Republicans have been in the minority since Democrats clinched Senate control in 2006.

"I think it's going to be very positive, especially when you look at some of the priorities for Arizona," Ducey told The Arizona Republic in an interview.

Those priorities include veterans issues and military affairs, he said, including protecting military installations such Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Southern Arizona. In May, outgoing Gov. Jan Brewer wrote letters to the state's congressional delegation stressing that defense is Arizona's top industry, with an annual economic impact of more than $9.1 billion.

In the new Congress, McCain is set to become chairman of the influential U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Pentagon and the military.

"When we've got the right chairman of the committee specifically when it comes to Arizona and what an excellent state we can be in terms of value to the military, that's a real plus," Ducey said.

A recap of Ducey's transition sent out by his team on Friday said since Election Day he has had "substantive conversations" with McCain, Flake, Brewer and other high-profile officials such as Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild.

"We're focused first and foremost on the transition and putting the best people in the right places in the new administration," Ducey told The Republic. "And getting out among people and talking about what we're thinking about and what we'd like to do."

In other developments:

-- John Sandweg, President Barack Obama's former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, told The Republic that the president's executive action announced Thursday will help ICE focus on deporting "the worst first." Annually, ICE only has the ability to remove less than 2 percent of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, he said.

The president's decision to defer deportation for about 4 million additional immigrants "just shrinks the haystack a bit and allows the officers to focus more on the populations that remain, which will include those who have committed criminal offenses or who pose a threat to public safety," said Sandweg, who helped create the original 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "None of this is a dissipation of the president's willingness to enforce the law. ICE will continue to remove as many people in a given year as it possibly can. The fact is there are far, far more people in this country than they can possibly remove."

-- U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who was re-elected this month to a second term from her Phoenix-area district, will serve as a chief deputy whip in the incoming Congress.

"She will bring dynamism and fresh ideas that will surely enhance the work of the whip operation as it continues to serve our members by bringing Democrats from different backgrounds and viewpoints together as we work to achieve our common mission of creating jobs, investing in the growth of opportunities, and keeping our nation safe," U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a written statement.

It will be interesting to see if Sinema can maintain her centrist reputation while serving as chief deputy whip, traditionally a highly partisan position.

-- U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., last week was elected ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee.

"Our environmental protections will be challenged like never before under the Republican-controlled House and Senate, but under my leadership, Natural Resources Democrats will ensure the protections that took generations to build up will not be torn down," Grijalva, one of the House's most liberal members, vowed in a written statement.

With the retirement of long-serving U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., Grijalva, who was first elected in 2002, is set to become the most senior Democrat in Arizona's delegation.

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki and on his official Facebook page.