What is going on with Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs? Key staffers are leaving, including her chief of staff, whose resignation was effective immediately. Our friends at RedState had it first, but the Democratic Arizona governor who narrowly beat Republican Kari Lake in 2022 seems to be sharing something with Vice President Kamala Harris: staff turnover. Some departures were admittedly warranted, like her press secretary who tweeted a violent image regarding fighting ‘transphobia’ on the day of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, where a transgender shot and killed six people. Yet, the core of her office is now gone. Brittany Sheehan had more:
BREAKING: Josselyn Berry, the Press Secretary to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, has resigned after posting this image on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/M9zUz84gbd
— Ben Kew 🏌️♂️ (@ben_kew) March 29, 2023
On Thursday, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced that Allie Bones, her Chief of Staff and decades-long friend, had resigned. Hobbs expressed her well wishes for Bones’ future endeavors. The resignation is effective immediately, and the Governor’s Office plans to announce a new Chief of Staff next week. Prior to becoming Chief of Staff to Gov. Hobbs, Bones served as Assistant Secretary of State for four years.
This comes as a wave of other departures pile up, including the resignations of Hobbs’ Communications Director, Deputy Communications Director, and Legislative Affairs Director. Insiders in the state capitol suggest that Bones’ exit represents a loss of confidence in the governor’s leadership.
In April, Hobbs had to replace her Communications Director, Murphy Hebert, as he quit the administration after Hobbs’ former Press Secretary Josselyn Berry’s resignation was requested. Berry’s forced resignation followed a controversial tweet published the day of the Nashville tragedy, where three children and three adults were murdered at a Christian Academy by a transgender school shooter.
Sheehan added the staff departures are just the tip of the iceberg, with numerous nominations being rescinded since the quality of those Hobbs selected to head departments, like child services, was marred by controversy. It’s a circus in Phoenix. But Hobbs is hardly the first Democrat to run her ship aground.
Kamala Harris has a longer and more detailed history of failure, awkwardness, and key staffers fleeing for greener pastures, away from the toxic waste dump that’s reportedly her office. If Harris comes off as unprepared, that's because she chooses to ignore staff-written memos on various subjects to help her. The California liberal would rather go at it alone, and it’s led to disastrous consequences, like freezing up on The Today Show. That’s like bombing a public access television station interview. With all due respect to NBC’s flagship morning news program, this is the easiest of environments to hold an interview. It’s minor leagues regarding difficulty. The anchors are all friendly to Democrats—it’s not a tough assignment. For Kamala, it’s like doing quantum physics. One story is an outlier, but when multiple publications, most non-conservative, start reporting and saying similar things—it’s a trend. I don’t know if Hobbs’ office is allegedly toxic, but it’s not competent. And when everyone besides the lowly interns remains, there’s an issue.