By Howard Fischer
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PHOENIX — A bid to strip state lawmakers of their ability to avoid traffic citations during the legislative session has fizzled.

Rep. Quang Nguyen managed to get his proposal to send the issue to voters out of the House earlier this month on a bipartisan 37-20 margin. That sent the Prescott Valley Republican’s HCR 2053 to the Senate.

There, Senate President Warren Petersen assigned the bill to the Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Kevin Payne.

But the Peoria Republican did not place it on his committee agenda for a hearing last week. Ditto for the meeting scheduled for this Wednesday.
What makes that critical is this is the last week for Senate committees to hear measures that were approved by the House. The failure to let his committee even hear the measure means it is dead because it cannot get to the full Senate for consideration.

Payne told Capitol Media Services Tuesday there’s a good reason for his decision: He said there aren’t the votes for the measure in his seven-member committee.

He acknowledged, though, he’s among the opponents.

“It’s in our constitution,” said Payne. “They put it in there for a reason.”
That provision, often incorrectly referred to as “immunity,” says state lawmakers are “privileged from arrest” during the time the Legislature is in session and for 15 days ahead of that.

There are exceptions in cases of treason, felonies and breach of the peace. Those would remain under Nguyen’s proposal.

But he would add another exception: all traffic violations.

The measure comes on the heels of three high-profile cases where state lawmakers were stopped by police but escaped being cited because of the provision. There is a decades-long history of other legislators who have claimed privilege from being ticketed.

Strictly speaking, the privilege does not immunize lawmakers from citations and even arrest.

Police departments remain free to issue the tickets after the end of the session. But there is a mixed record of actual follow-up by police.
Nguyen said the privilege, to the extent it was ever necessary, has outlived its usefulness.

Not Payne.

“I believe in it,” he said.

And what of his colleagues who escaped citations because of the provision.

“I don’t think that a few bad actors should take it out for everyone,” Payne said of eliminating the privilege.

But it wouldn’t be lawmakers who ultimately make the decision. All Nguyen’s measure would have done is put the question on the 2026 ballot.

So, shouldn’t voters get the last word?

“I suppose they could,” Payne responded. “But not this year.”

Nguyen, for his part, told Capitol Media Services he is not giving up. He said another bid could occur next session.

But Nguyen also said he hopes nothing happens before it goes to voters.

“You know, it is only a matter of time before a legislator will run over a child on a bicycle,” he said, noting the number of current and former lawmakers who not only have been exceeding the posted speed limit but actually have been driving at least 20 miles an hour over that, something that is a crime in state law.

Petersen said he didn’t put the House-passed measure into Payne’s committee with the goal of killing it.

“I support the bill,” said the Gilbert Republican, who also is running in 2026 for attorney general.

The issue, he said, is all bills need to be assigned to at least one committee. And Petersen said he thought it would have a better chance getting a hearing in Payne’s committee than others to which it could have been assigned.
Payne, for his part, said his opposition is not based on any personal experience. He said he has never tried to get out of a citation by citing privilege.

The little-known provision came into focus last year when Justine Wadsack, then a state senator, told a Tucson police officer she could not be cited for speeding because of her immunity.

That, however, didn’t keep police from serving her with the citation after the end of the session. And she ended up getting the ticket dismissed by going to traffic school.

More recently, Republican Sen. Mark Finchem told a police officer in his new home town of Prescott he could not be cited for speeding. Still unresolved is whether police will ticket him after the session is over.

And Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman was not ticketed for driving 24 miles per hour over the speed limit on a freeway after a trooper recognized him as a legislator. There is no evidence Hoffman claimed immunity; DPS has decided it won’t issue a new citation when the session ends.

Payne isn’t alone in his opposition.

During House debate, Rep. Rachel Keshel said stripping lawmakers of the privilege could result in a governor — not necessarily this one — sending out state police to stop lawmakers from reaching the Capitol to cast an important vote. That drew a strong reaction from Nguyen.

“That is an insult to law enforcement to say that you’re nothing more than a tool that the governor will be able to use you to interfere with the democratic process,” he said.