Another year in Arizona politics has come and nearly gone. What might be remarkable elsewhere is almost par for the course in the Grand Canyon State.

The year started with Arizona's first Democratic governor in more than a decade being sworn in on the ninth floor of the executive tower just before a legislative session with Republican majorities in both houses. Gov. Katie Hobbs went on to veto more bills than any other governor in state history.

Election denialism remained a theme. Kari Lake made statements and legal challenges over the year insisting the 2022 election for governor had been corrupted.

More than 1,400 text messages between Cyber Ninjas' CEO Doug Logan and others were revealed by Republic reporters using a simple software trick, uncovering more information about the "audit" of Maricopa County ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

Free speech battles raged on over college campuses, and a community near Scottsdale lost, then found, access to water.

This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by other Republic reporters, many of them Gaggle regulars, to break down the year 2023 in politics.

You'll hear from state politics reporter Stacey Barchenger, investigative reporter Robert Anglen, Maricopa County reporter Sasha Hupka and national politics reporter Ryan Randazzo.

Note: This episode was recorded before the death of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. While O'Connor is not discussed in this episode, The Gaggle has multiple exclusive interviews on her life. Listen wherever you get podcasts or by clicking here.

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