Will Bidwill get Ducey to tackle voter suppression?

A group of prominent Arizona business executives has told state lawmakers they are outraged by the vile slurry of voter-suppression bills swirling around the copper-domed commode on West Washington Street and they want the proposals flushed.

Either that, or these same business leaders are afraid that some of their own businesses could go down the toilet, having taken note of what is happening in Georgia, where citizens outraged by legislative voter-suppression efforts are calling for boycotts of Georgia-based companies who did not more actively try to stop it.

Either way, it's a good thing.

The business leaders in Arizona sent a message to lawmakers saying they agreed with an op-ed that appeared in the Capitol Times under the headline “Disenfranchising Voters is not ‘Election Reform.’ ”

They point to three Senate bills, SB 1485, SB 1593 and SB 1713.

All bad. All aimed at either making it difficult for people to vote. Or making it impossible.

Among the proposals Republican lawmakers have pushed is one that would remove a voter from the early voting list if that voter fails to vote by early ballot in both the primary election and the general election for two consecutive primary and general elections for which there was a federal, statewide or legislative race on the ballot.

There has been no hue and cry for such a thing to happen. No evidence of corruption. Only the apparent desire on the part of the state GOP to have fewer Arizonans voting.

The same is true of the other proposals, like one that would prohibit mailed early ballots postmarked later than the Thursday before the election from being processed.

And another requiring mailed-in ballots to be returned with an affidavit and ID document showing a date of birth.

Again, there has been no indication that any of these things are necessary, unless the Republicans pushing them have decided that the worst aspect of the last election was that a lot of people voted.

They seem to believe that making it more difficult and complicated to vote will reduce the number of votes for Democrats. It’s an ugly, cynical and ultimately racist approach to democracy, a Jim Crow approach.

And a group of Arizona business bigwigs has come out against it. They are all highly accomplished men and women, but only one name on the list will resonate with most Arizonans: Michael Bidwill, owner of the Arizona Cardinals.

Bidwill is close to Gov. Doug Ducey. The Bidwill family has never hidden its support for Republican candidates and conservative policies.

But, unlike Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, the Bidwills aren’t backers of QAnon kooks who spread wild election conspiracies.

Ducey defended the integrity, honesty and safety of Arizona’s election process when it came under attack by former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

But looking to the future and other political opportunities, he also sees how conspiracy kooks like GOP Chair Kelli Ward and all four Republican members of Congress appeal to Arizona's Republican voters.

Bidwill knows that some of those same voters are fans of his team. The team itself, however, is a racially mixed group of wealthy athletes, some of whom have begun to speak out on behalf of voting rights, as have athletes in all of the major sports.

The voter suppression bills could make it through the Legislature, and it will be up to Ducey to sign them or veto them. Will his friend in the football business convince him to do the right thing?

Bidwill and his corporate companions are making what amounts to a goal line stand. Ducey will have to decide if he’s going to join the business leaders defending democracy, or sneak the ball into the endzone for the kooks.