The newly formed Arizona Senate Committee on Director Nominations held a hearing Thursday to consider whether to accept Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’ nominee for director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, Dr. Theresa Cullen.
State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who chairs the committee, characterized Cullen as “extreme.”
The committee interviewed the former director of the Pima County Department of Public Health, then voted down party lines, 3-2, to recommend not sending her nomination to the whole Senate for a vote.
Cullen tried to repeatedly distance herself from the Pima County Supervisors’ decisions regarding COVID-19. At one point, Cullen said she did not attend their meetings. But Hoffman pulled up a photo of her at one of the meetings.
Pressed some more, Cullen said she didn’t know if the Pima County Supervisors listened to her advice. Hoffman retorted that he couldn’t believe that someone who makes almost $250,000 a year doesn’t know if they heed her advice. It “defies logic and normalcy,” he said.
The committee asked her if she had any association with a website the Pima County government put up to shame local businesses that stayed open during COVID-19. When she said no, she was shown a previous statement she had made promoting the website.
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