An audio vote in the Senate follows last week’s ferocious three-hour confirmatory hearing, in which R-Queen Creek Sen. acted and repeatedly criticized her. COVID pandemic. The committee recommended that she vote 3 to 2 and disapprove of Karen, in line with party policy.

Tuesday’s action also took place, even though Senate Minority Leader Raquel Terran (D-Phoenix) said Gov. Katie Hobbs had removed Karen’s name from consideration. Senate Speaker Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said the message was not received by the Senate Secretary and ordered the vote to continue.

Karen’s final day as county health chief was scheduled for Friday.

“We hired her because she has had a great career and is one of the best public health doctors in the country,” Lesher said Tuesday. “Of course, we would love to have her continue to lead her public health department.”

In a statement, Karen said she was philosophical about what happened and was “honored” that she was being considered for the post of state health director.

“Even though my state job is not going well, I really enjoy being Pima County Public Health Commissioner,” said Cullen. “And we have a lot of work to do to make Pima County one of the healthiest counties in the country.”

Hobbes’ press aide, Murphy Hebert, disputed the notion that the confirmation hearings leading to Tuesday’s Senate vote went awry because Cullen was not properly prepared.

“We were ready for a legitimate hearing,” she said. “That commission hearing was an ambush. And they should be ashamed of themselves.”

In a prepared statement, Hobbes detailed Cullen’s national and international experience in 27 years of public service.

She gave no hint as to who she would hire from now on.

“If the Senate nominating committee is unwilling to recognize Dr. Cullen’s skills and expertise, the states they support may not have public health experts,” Hobbes said.

“As long as Republicans choose politics over the people of Arizona, some of the most talented and capable candidates will choose not to hold public office,” she continued. It’s the people of Arizona who suffer the most because of the political game.”

But Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borelli (R Lake Havasu City) called Cullen a “medical tyrant” in a statement released by the Senate Republicans.

None of the questions posed at last week’s hearing were related to Karen’s experience.

Instead, the Republican lawmaker questioned her about policies in place in Pima County since becoming Pima County Health Commissioner in June 2020. These included things like curfews and masking requirements during COVID. Cullen is only advising the county supervisor who made the final decision, she said.

However, there were some things that were not the decisions of the supervisor.

One was the decision by the county health department to put up a website listing the names of merchants found to repeatedly violate masking and social distancing requirements. said to be equivalent.

Perhaps the Republicans’ biggest concern was school closures.

Karen said those calls were made by district officials, not her, who decided when the school should send the children home.

“Under your guidance, they (students) suffered from poor proficiency in school, poor academic performance, poor socialization, depression, suicide, and countless other consequences.” Hoffman He said children were found to be the least likely to be the worst affected by the virus.

Karen defended her actions, saying she was not only at fault on the part of protecting children, but was trying to prevent more vulnerable adults from carrying the virus home.

In a statement Tuesday, Hoffman said the senators made the right decision.

“Dr. Karen calls for scientifically unfounded and lengthy school closures, lockdowns, curfews, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and public shaming of those who did not follow her discriminatory COVID directives. I have a record of many media publications that said they supported it,” he said. Hoffman noted that in hindsight, when he asked Karen if he believed the benefits of closing schools would outweigh the costs, he replied, “I don’t know.”

What the hearing didn’t make clear was that Pima County’s policy, however enacted, appears to have succeeded.

Arizona has one of the highest COVID rates in the country. But the latest data show that Pima County has the third lowest infection rate in the state, behind only Yavapai and Greenlee counties.

Hobbes drew attention with her statement.

“Even with this mountain of expertise and vast track record of public health success, some lawmakers decided they should instead engage in vicious personal attacks and criticism,” the governor said. “This is not only ridiculous, it undermines the important work at hand.”

Also not mentioned is that Pima County was not alone in the many actions taken in response to COVID. issued an executive order to close schools and direct Arizonans to stay home except for “essential activities.”

Last week’s hearings also got personal at times.

Hoffman accused Karen of being “dishonest” about some of her answers and flatly said he didn’t believe some of her answers.

That rhetoric continued on Tuesday, with Hoffman saying the fact that Hobbes thinks Cullen would be a good fit for a statewide public health role is “just how radical Hobbes is and how out of touch he is with the people of Arizona.” It proves that,” he said.

Senator Sine Kerr of R-Buckeye, who was also on the nominating committee, said her vote against the nomination for state health director was a testament to her record in Pima County that led to her becoming state health director. She said it was based on what she suggested were the policies she would implement in that case. directed by.

“We’re going to have another health crisis, a medical crisis, a pandemic of sorts,” Carr said. It is to be replicated and enlarged in