Several prominent Arizona Democrats and moderate Republicans who served in office have a cozy relationship with Arizona State University (ASU), often landing plum jobs with the woke university after leaving elected office. Some of them directed funding or other assistance to the university while serving in office, sparking concerns about a quid pro quo.
A prominent former Arizona official told The Arizona Sun Times that ASU rewards politicians who vote to give the school money with “cushy” positions after they leave office. The former official noted that conservative Republicans are not provided these opportunities.
Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who served in the Arizona Legislature from 2005 to 2012, recently launched the new Spark Center for Innovation in Learning at ASU, which focuses on supporting neurodivergent children. She was a lecturer at ASU’s School of Social Work from 2003 until at least 2021.
As a U.S. Senator, Sinema was a key negotiator on infrastructure and education-related bills, which indirectly supported ASU’s interests, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which provided $550 billion in new spending for transportation, broadband, and water infrastructure.
While in the Arizona Legislature, Sinema consistently supported measures to protect or increase funding for Arizona’s public universities. Despite the recession that affected the state from 2008 to 2010, she backed HB 2001, which preserved university funding, arguing that reductions to student financial aid hurt lower-income students.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes began serving as a faculty associate at ASU’s School of Transborder Studies in the fall of 2023. His office works with ASU on voter education and civic engagement programs, jointly promoting voter registration. When Fontes served as Maricopa County recorder from 2017 to 2021, his office’s election data was utilized in ASU research from its Cronkite News to analyze voter turnout, particularly following the 2020 election.
Election fraud denier Bill Gates, who served as Maricopa County Supervisor for several years, where he fought against election lawsuits, was hired afterwards by ASU as a professor of practice at the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. He also serves as the director of the newly established Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory (MODL). The MODL website states, “We know that elections are run well in this country but because of the misinformation about elections, we face a communications challenge and that’s why at MODL we are partnering with the media…”
As a Phoenix City Council member from 2009 to 2016, Gates supported ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus development with votes on zoning and infrastructure, which carried over into his county role.
Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an election fraud denier, is pictured in photos on the MODL website with Gates. It is unclear what his role is at the school, but he is currently a part-time Ph.D. student in ASU’s School of Politics and Global Studies.
Ousted in the Republican primary last year by conservative election integrity hawk Justin Heap, Richer is now working for a Soros-funded project and activities hostile to election integrity.
Karrin Taylor Robson, who also ran as a moderate Republican candidate against Lake in 2022 and is now running again for governor, served on the Arizona Board of Regents from 2017 to 2023. Robson, who lobbied for progressive groups and held a fundraiser for Chris Christie, created the Regents’ Cup in 2019, an annual debate competition among Arizona’s three public universities. ASU gave her its Alumni Achievement Award in 2020.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Arizona State University Campus” by Beyond My Ken. CC BY-SA 2.0.
