Allie Bice

The Republic | azcentral.com

THE MEDIA: Social media.

WHO SAID IT: Kelli Ward.

TITLE: Former state senator from Lake Havasu City and 2018 U.S. Senate candidate.

PARTY: Republican.

THE RACE: U.S. Senate.

THE COMMENT: “As a state senator I was all about action, getting 19 separate bills — many to shrink the size of government and reduce regulations — signed into law during my last year.”

THE FORUM: Campaign ad posted on YouTube Nov. 3.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT: Whether Kelli Ward sponsored 19 bills that were signed into law during her last year as a state senator, and whether many of those shrunk government or reduced regulations.

ANALYSIS: Kelli Ward is hoping to fill the seat that U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake will vacate in 2019. She is currently considered the GOP front-runner, but with Flake's departure, other Republicans are expected to enter the race.

In a campaign ad titled “Effective Leadership,” Ward says she got 19 bills signed into law during her last year as a state senator and "many" aimed to "shrink the size of government and reduce regulations."

“I’ll do the same in Washington,” Ward says at the end of the ad.

According to an analysis by AZ Fact Check, Ward did sponsor 19 bills that were signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey during the 2015 regular legislative session. The bills dealt with a range of issues, from regulation of breweries to online education.

She did not specifically say how many of those bills aimed to shrink government or reduce regulations.

Ward's campaign spokesman, Zachery Henry, pointed to six of the 19 bills that, he said, “directly dealt with either cutting regulations or shrinking the government.”

Of the six, he cites:

Two bills dealt with charter schools and school choice.

Two involved the Arizona Medical Board.

One transferred oversight of behavioral-health services from the Department of Health Services to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

Another altered the role of dental assistants and defines teledentistry.

Experts are divided on whether those bills reduce regulations or merely change them in some way.

For example, one of the education bills, Senate Bill 1074, requires the Arizona Department of Education to publish a list of unused buildings owned by a school district or the state so that charter schools can more easily purchase or lease them.

The bill also prohibits school districts from excluding charter schools from purchasing or leasing vacant or unused district buildings.

Henry said this bill, along with the other charter-school bill sponsored by Ward in 2015, removed "requirements or restrictions that were burdensome on ... charter schools (and) educational institutions."

But experts were split on the bill's impact.

“You actually have rules that are preventing the school district from doing something — that takes rules, that takes regulations,” said Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University politics and international affairs professor.

Lisa Sanchez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona's School of Government and Public Policy, wrote in an email that the bill opens up competition for other schools and transitions “away from the government-controlled public school model.”

The experts also viewed Ward's bill dealing with the Arizona Medical Board, SB 1149, differently.

The board licenses doctors and the bill updates what can and cannot be included in a licensee's published profile on the board's website. Any doctor's FBI criminal record now is excluded, and it deletes the fingerprint requirement for people renewing their licenses.

Ward, an osteopathic physician, practiced medicine during her state Senate terms.

Solop said the bill expands regulation by telling the board what they can and cannot publish in the physician profiles, similar to the Department of Education bill. The bill requires that the board “do something and do something in a certain way,” he said.

Sanchez disagreed, saying it reduces regulation on physicians by "easing things for those with medical licenses that have federal criminal records."

Solop questioned whether the six bills touted as reducing regulation actually lessen government oversight and regulation.

“Not many of them do,” he said. “When I think of reducing regulation, I think of eliminating regulations in the books, streamlining rules from the government.”

However, Sanchez said the bills are “classically conservative” and push to reduce the role of government. “At first glance, they do appear to add regulations … but when you think about them they are classically conservative in aiding the ultimate goal of less government intervention,” she said.

BOTTOM LINE: While Ward did get 19 bills signed into law during her last state Senate term, Ward's campaign press secretary said that six bills, more than 30 percent, were the "many" she was referring to in the advertisement. That exaggerates the share of legislation that cut regulation. And at least two experts disagree on the impact of those six bills and whether they actually shrink government control or reduce regulations.

THE FINDING: Two stars: Somewhat false/somewhat true.

SOURCES: Interviews with Zachery Henry, press secretary for Kelli Ward for U.S. Senate, and Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University politics and international affairs professor; email correspondence with Lisa Sanchez, assistant professor at the University of Arizona's School of Government and Public Policy; Arizona Legislature bills at https://www.azleg.gov/.