What On Earth Is Ducey Doing?
These recent months have been a test of leadership for Governor Doug Ducey. Between the coronavirus outbreak and the recent nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, he has been handed a chance to flex his executive muscle. The results have been, well — suboptimal.
Following looting at Scottsdale Fashion Square, Ducey announced a weeklong, statewide curfew via Twitter. There was then a significant gap between when Ducey announced the curfew on social media and when the actual text of the order was posted. It seems worth asking if the order had even been fully drafted when he announced it.
There was no communication with the mayors of cities where protests actually occurred. Local leaders were left blindsided. In a meeting with Valley mayors hours before the announcement, Ducey made no mention of the impending curfew. The Mayor of Tucson claimed she had learned of the order via the tweet, with just six hours to go.
Ducey said the curfew was made “at the request of local leaders”, but it turns out that no “local leaders” made the request. The mayors of Phoenix and Tucson claimed they had not even spoken with Ducey for several months. Even Scottsdale, where the looting actually took place, did not request a curfew.
Ducey was admittedly quick to react, but his response was strong-armed and disproportionate to the situation at hand. Arizona, near as I can tell, was the only state to enact a statewide curfew.
Now compare this with his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ducey dragged his feet on issuing a stay-at-home order, waiting until the end of March. He issued an executive order, preventing cities from issuing their own restrictions, while bizarrely keeping businesses such as beauty salons classified as “essential”.
A day before Trump made his May visit to the Valley, Ducey accelerated his plans, despite having given a longer time frame for reopening just days before. Soon after, people were out and about again. Memorial Day weekend saw large crowds (with little social distancing) in popular spots like Old Town and Lake Havasu.
Despite this, Ducey advocated a gentle touch with businesses that violated guidelines, preferring that cities avoid issuing citations.
This is a markedly different tone from the man who bragged over a call with Trump about his “aggressive” approach towards protestors, earning praise from the President. A Governor who seemed initially reluctant to wield his executive authority to prevent a public health crisis was eager to respond when it came to protests over racism and police brutality.
There are serious consequences to this. COVID cases are now skyrocketing and our largest hospital network has warned it is running out of beds. Once again, the Governor is dragging his feet on taking action and now seems prepared to incur whatever costs the virus inflicts, saying “we need to learn to live with” the virus.
It is certainly true that extreme measures to combat the virus are not sustainable long-term. All the more reason for Arizona to take steps that will allow us to open for business without having to shut down again because of skyrocketing cases.
Unfortunately for our health (and economy), the Governor has not been particularly proactive in pushing for things that would slow the spread of the virus and allow us to better “live with it”, such as requiring mask wearing or actually enforcing social distancing guidelines. It feels like we might be past the point-of-no-return
Hundreds health providers agreed, calling in a letter for Ducey to mandate the wearing of masks in public. Not feeling quite up to the task of governance, days later he finally allowed cities to require masks. Perhaps he changed his mind on statewide public safety orders. And all it took was weeks of constant cajoling from the public, healthcare providers, and other elected officials!
It would be great if the Governor would react with the same urgency and might he mustered when he made Arizona the only state to implement a statewide curfew. Maybe this time he should do it for something that is actually killing Arizonans.
