Conservative Republican Steve Montenegro was elected Speaker of the Arizona House in a vote on Tuesday. While the official vote actually takes place on the Legislature’s opening day this coming January, the internal vote within the Republican caucus makes that a mere formality.
Montenegro won with 18 out of 33 votes, over Joseph Chaplik and Leo Biasiucci.
For Montenegro, the election highlights a remarkable political career that began with his upset victory over a powerful Republican incumbent to first get elected to office. He attracted national attention for his stands in favor of SB1070 and other high-profile issues, he introduced the nation’s first Civics Act to require graduating high school students to pass the same citizenship test that new citizens have to pass, he wrote the bill to end affirmative action in government programs in Arizona, and he has been a leader on a variety of conservative issues like life, the second amendment, tax cuts, and school choice expansion.
Montenegro’s family immigrated legally when he was five years old from El Salvador, and he will be the first Latino Republican to serve as Speaker in the state’s history.
The race for Speaker got increasingly nasty in the final few days as allies of Chaplik attacked Montenegro and even tried to change the election rules and toss out the secret ballot, in a transparent attempt to intimidate lawmakers into voting for Chaplik, but those tactics seemed to backfire and solidify support for Montenegro.
“If you’re going to have Merissa Hamilton throwing mud for you, you’re going to lose votes every time.” said one Republican lawmaker, who noted that he had heard from several other lawmakers that Chaplik’s aggressive and often negative tactics turned them off. “We have our disagreements, but we need leaders who are positive and respectful of the members, which is why Steve [Montenegro] did so well.”
Montenegro succeeds Ben Toma as House Speaker. Toma was term-limited in the House and ran unsuccessfully for US Congress earlier this year.
West Valley Representative Michael Carbone was elected House Majority Leader and East Valley Representative Julie Willoughby was elected House Majority Whip.
