Yee may be eyeing run for governor
Because it’s never too early to start looking ahead to see who is setting themselves up to take a run at becoming Arizona’s next governor, keep your eye on Kimberly Yee.
Who, you ask?
Yee, the state treasurer.
Of late, she’s been all over the place, offering up testimonials and tweets and TV ads about her opposition to Proposition 208, the proposal to raise the state’s top marginal income tax to better fund schools.
If this sounds familiar, it should.
Return with me now to 2012, when a guy named Doug Ducey was the state treasurer.
Who (you would have asked at the time)?
Most Arizonans had no idea who Ducey was until he chaired the 2012 drive to kill Proposition 204, a proposal to make permanent the then-temporary 1-cent sales tax to better fund schools.
“This is a bad idea for the economy,” he said, at the time. “It’s bad for attracting business.”
With a little help from the Koch brothers’ Americans for Responsible Leadership — the “dark money” group that put up $925,000 of Ducey’s $1.8 million campaign against Prop. 204 — the tax proposal was soundly defeated and Ducey became a household name.
Two years later, Ducey was elected governor, as dark money groups ran interference every time another candidate appeared to be getting some traction in the race.
Now comes Yee, parroting Ducey’s no-on-Prop.-204 campaign as she joins with the governor, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various other heavyweight business groups in urging Arizonans to vote no on Prop. 208.
“Increasing education funding is one of my highest priorities, but we don’t need to raise taxes to accomplish this goal, particularly now,” she said, in a testimonial for the No on 208 campaign.
She’s right there, sandwiched between Ducey’s testimonial and Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Glenn Hamer’s testimonial urging a no vote on 208.
It seems pretty clear — to me, at least — that Yee, a first-term Republican state treasurer, is borrowing a page from the playbook of another first-term Republican state treasurer who catapulted into the public eye by opposing a tax hike for schools.
Others, however, question whether she’s picked the wrong issue on which to lay a foundation for a gubernatorial run. It could, indeed, be a miscalculation, given that polls show a majority of likely Arizona voters support the Invest in Ed proposal.
“There’s no doubt Kimberly Yee is a rising star in Republican Party and also no doubt that she has potential aspirations of running for higher office,” longtime Republican political consultant Nathan Sproul told me. “That makes going on TV statewide appealing. However, I don’t know that that would be the issue that I would attach myself to if I was considering running for higher office in three or four years.”
Some politicos suggest Yee’s prominence in the No on 208 campaign is Ducey’s doing.
“It’s Ducey’s attempt to anoint somebody in the next cycle because we know he’s not happy with other elected officials in this state,” GOP political consultant Chuck Coughlin told me.
More specifically, not happy with Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who also is expected to make a run at the state’s top job in 2022.
Brnovich has regularly aggravated both the governor and the state’s power set by taking on Arizona State University (sweetheart development deals), the Board of Regents (tuition) and various other heavy hitters.
Most recently, he took a shot at Ducey by siding with bar owners who have sued the governor for forcing them to remain closed during COVID-19 while restaurants can reopen.
Yeah, I’m guessing a Ducey endorsement of Brnovich won’t be forthcoming.
So, yeah, Yee.
Keep an eye on her.