Gov. Doug Ducey and his wealthy special interest pals were absolutely gleeful last week when the voter-approved education initiative known as the Invest in Education Act was overturned.

Ducey & Co. worked overtime to ensure that nearly $900 million in additional education dollars will never reach our classrooms and that our tragic underfunding of special education programs, our bottom-of-the-barrel per-pupil funding, and our teacher shortage crisis continue.

But it’s important for Arizonans to understand that schoolchildren and teachers are not the only ones adversely affected by this decision.

Our state constitution and the right of all Arizona citizens to create policy via the ballot has been greatly diminished, as well.

When Karrin Taylor Robson, a Republican candidate for governor, launched her first campaign ad last week, I did a double-take.

Was this the same woman who Republican consultants pitched as the anti-Kari Lake, the “moderate” in the race who wouldn’t peddle Q-Anon conspiracies and Trump fantasies?

If so, we’re in trouble.

In Robson’s first ad, she stands near the border at night, her white face gleaming, her voice a whisper as she speaks of the so-called failures of the Biden administration. The ad cuts to footage of brown people walking behind her during the middle of the day, people she identifies as “illegal immigrants,” (though I highly doubt she or her team questioned any of those individuals) as she promises to “finish the wall.”

For those who doubted whether Gov. Doug Ducey was silently working to undermine public education, doubt no more.

As a lame duck governor, his war on district schools is no longer being waged in the shadows. He put his disdain for public education on full display during his State of the State speech on Monday.

Arizonans know the past two years have been a nightmare for students, teachers and parents. Conflicting guidelines from health and government leaders, coupled with remote learning and children and teens dealing with isolation and family illnesses and death have created a tsunami of loss in our schools.

Test scores have plummeted, and the surgeon general has reported huge upticks in anxiety and depression as well as suicide attempts, creating an unprecedented crisis among our youth.

Raise your hand if you’re excited for the 2022 election!

Anyone?

That’s what I thought.

Arizonans, including political nerds such as me, have little reason for excitement, even though the results of next year’s election could mean the difference between saving or undoing our nation’s democracy.

The reason for the malaise is simple: far too many weak, conspiracy-addled and scandal-laden candidates are running for the state’s top job.

Arizona Democrats are worried. And for good reason.

Katie Hobbs — their frontrunner in the race for governor — has a credibility issue, and it seems to be getting worse with each passing day.

The onus for this problem lies squarely with Hobbs.

She had an opportunity to show real leadership after Talonya Adams won her second, historic jury decision for sex and race discrimination and retaliation by taking responsibility for her role in Adams’ firing, showing genuine remorse, and offering a plan to ensure discrimination and retaliation would never again happen on her watch.

Donald Trump, cancel culture, fake news, critical race theory, border wall.

Those are the soundbite issues Arizona Republicans are focused on for 2022 because they believe those are the issues that will motivate their base.

Meanwhile, Democrats are focused on…well, I’m not so sure what they’re focused on. Unfortunately, the party has never been great at creating a unified messaging strategy around soundbite policy.

But if you look at what happened in the most recent legislative session as well as what’s happening in Congress, you’ll see an obvious dividing line between the two sides that can be summed up with this question: Do voters want more tax cuts for the wealthy or investments in people?

Plenty of APS ratepayers — myself included — have been complaining about our electricity bills for the past four years.

We watched our bills skyrocket after the 2017 rate increase while also having to navigate novel and complex rate plans — plans that few consumers understood and that APS’ own customer service reps had difficulty explaining.

During this same period, ratepayers found out the utility’s parent company spent tens of millions of dollars on political campaigns and lobbying that, among other things, discouraged investment in public education and clean energy and helped elect the very commissioners who are supposed to regulate them.

But now it seems the tide has finally shifted, and APS no longer has carte blanche at the Corporation Commission.

Americans value independent thinking. Competition. Healthy debate. A marketplace of ideas.

Or do we?

If social media is a gauge of what we cherish, I’d say the opposite is true.

These past few years, I’ve watched friends cut ties with family members because they subscribe to different political beliefs.

I’ve seen candidates and elected officials block constituents on Twitter and Facebook for the crime of expressing a different viewpoint.

Move over Tiger King. There’s a new reality show in town that’s even more outrageous than an exotic cat owner’s murder-for-hire scheme.

I call this “show” the Real Politicians of Arizona because, just like the “Housewives” series, there’s plenty of back-biting, sensationalized drama and questionable fashion choices.

Taking center-stage in this made-for-TV reality are Republican gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake and Matt Salmon. Their real-life bickering over who’s the Trumpiest in all the land makes the fist-fight between the Kardashian sisters look tame.

Who’s most likely to imprison their political opponents or spend millions more on another partisan recount?

With Lake securing Trump’s endorsement, she’s the current fan fave.

There is likely no other Democrat that has taken more fire from her party this last year than Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema.

Sinema won the ire of progressives because of her insistence on preserving an archaic Senate rule that has historically been used to hamper civil rights: the filibuster. Democrats fear the filibuster will prevent any hope of passing major election reforms. Reforms needed because of the continued assault on voting rights in conservative states across the country, including Arizona.

I’ve taken a swing at Sinema, as well, commenting on more than one occasion that real mavericks don’t simply say “no” to their party, they get stuff done.

Sinema has the potential to put a huge feather in her cap and show naysayers like myself and other progressives that Congress isn’t broken, and bipartisanship is possible on some issues, such as the infrastructure bill she helped craft and shepherd through the first stages of congressional approval.