Ben Toma | |
---|---|
55th Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives | |
Assumed office January 9, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Russell Bowers |
Member of the ArizonaHouseofRepresentatives from the 27th district | |
Assumed office January 9,2023 Servingwith Kevin Payne | |
Preceded by | Phil Lovas |
Majority Leader of the Arizona House of Representatives | |
In office January 11,2021 –January 9,2023 | |
Preceded by | Warren Petersen |
Succeeded by | Leo Biasiucci |
Member of the ArizonaHouseofRepresentatives from the 22nd district | |
In office April 26,2017 –January 9,2023 Servingwith Kevin Payne | |
Preceded by | Phil Lovas |
Succeeded by | Leezah Sun |
Personal details | |
Born | 1979 [1] Cluj Napoca,Socialist Republic of Romania |
Political party | Republican |
Education | Portland State University Arizona State University,West (BA) |
Benjamin Cornel Toma (born 1979) is a Romanian-American politician serving as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives for the 27th district. Elected in November 2016,he assumed office in January 2017. He was selected to be Speaker of the House in 2022,taking office in 2023. From 2021 to 2023,Toma served as majority leader of the Arizona House.
Toma is a real estate broker. [2] He was appointed on a 5–1 vote to serve as a member of the Peoria,Arizona,city council in June 2014,when Cathy Carlat resigned to run for mayor. However,Toma was defeated in the special election in 2014. [3] He lost again in 2016. [4]
In April 2017,the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed Toma to fill a vacant seat in the Arizona House of Representatives representing the 22nd legislative district,to replace Phil Lovas,who resigned to accept a federal appointment with the Small Business Administration. [5] The Board selected Toma from a list of three nominees put forward by the Republican precinct committeemen. [6] The district includes parts of Peoria,Glendale,Surprise and Sun City West. [5] [7] Toma took his seat in the final days of 53rd Legislature, [7] and was subsequently elected to a full term in the 2018 elections. [2]
In February 2019,Arizona Governor Doug Ducey vetoed a plan,supported by state legislators of his own Republican Party,for across-the-board cuts in the individual state income tax. Toma,as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee,was an outspoken supporter of the tax-cut plan and an avowed opponent of tax increases. [8] Ducey,Toma and other Arizona Republicans subsequently agreed upon a $11.9 billion state budget deal that included $386 million in offsets to tax hikes,angering some Arizona schoolteachers who were supporting higher taxes to increase funding for public schools. [9] Toma had previously voted for historic salary increases for Arizona K-12 teachers,and has voted for increased teacher pay since. [10] In 2021,Toma,as House majority leader,was the key architect of the largest tax cut package in state history,as well as a separate bill that shielded high-earners from a 3.5% tax surcharge for education that had been approved by voters in the November 2020 election (Proposition 208). The package,brokered between Ducey and Republican legislators,passed on a party-line vote. [11] [12] Toma initially proposed a flat tax,but was unable to garner enough votes to pass it after a single House Republican joined with all Democrats in opposing it. [13] [14] A modified version of the flat tax was passed 3 weeks later and has now been fully implemented. Toma defended the plan's focus on tax cuts for high-earning taxpayers,contending that "They're the ones that tend to make the jobs and create the economic conditions that lead to economic improvement for the entire state." [14]
In 2022,Toma wrote and led passage of the nation's largest school choice expansion. Corey DeAngelis,a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children,called the bill's passage "the biggest school choice victory in U.S. history... Families will be able to take state funded education dollars to any education provider that meets their student's curricular needs whether that be public,private,or a home-based educational option." [15]
In 2023,Toma was elected by his peers as the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives,becoming the highest ranking American politician of Romanian heritage. [16]
In 2024,Toma blocked a vote on repealing Arizona's 1864 anti-abortion law,saying "the last thing we should be doing today is rushing a bill through the legislative process to repeal a law that has been enacted and reaffirmed by the legislature several times". [17] He also had earlier confirmed the authenticity of a document with "ideas drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus" in order to defeat a citizens' ballot proposal on abortion. [18]
Toma's family escaped communist Romania after being threatened by the secret police in 1986. [19] After living in Portland Oregon for a time,Toma eventually settled in Arizona where he met his wife Ani while in high school. The couple now has five daughters. [16]
Harold Trent Franks is an American businessman and former politician who served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 8th congressional district from 2003 to 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. During his tenure,Franks served as vice chairman of the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and chairman of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution,Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
The Arizona Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in the US state of Arizona. Its headquarters are in Phoenix. The party currently controls six of Arizona's nine U.S. House seats,sixteen of thirty State Senate seats,thirty-one of sixty State House of Representatives seats,four of five seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission and three Statewide Executive Offices
David Sheridan Schweikert is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative from Arizona's 1st congressional district since 2023. He previously served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party,he first entered Congress in 2011,representing Arizona's 5th congressional district until redistricting. His district includes most of northern Phoenix as well as Scottsdale,Paradise Valley,and Cave Creek.
Douglas Anthony Ducey is an American businessman and politician who served as the 23rd governor of Arizona from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party,Ducey was CEO of the ice cream parlor chain Cold Stone Creamery from 1995 to 2007 and was Arizona State Treasurer from 2011 to 2015.
Michele Reagan is an American Republican politician who served as the 20th Arizona Secretary of State,from 2015 to 2019. She is currently a Justice of the Peace for the Maricopa County McDowell Mountain Precinct.
Thomas Ray "T. J." Shope Jr. is an American Republican politician and businessman who has been a member of the Arizona Legislature from the 16th Legislative District,which covers central and eastern Pinal County and southern Gila County. First elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2012,he was a member of the House from January 2013 to January 2021;in the latter part of his time in the state House,he was Speaker Pro Tempore. Shope was elected to the Arizona State Senate in November 2020,and took office in January 2021. Shope has been a lifelong politician,hitting term limits in the House and then moving to the Senate.
Catherine Miranda is an American politician and member of the Arizona Senate for the 11th legislative district,serving since 2023.
Kelly Townsend is an American author,childbirth educator and birth doula who was a Republican politician. She was a member of the Arizona Senate representing District 16 from 2021 to 2023,and previously was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021,acting as Majority Whip from 2017 to 2018.
Phil Lovas is an American politician and formerly a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 22. Lovas served consecutively in the District 4 seat from his appointment by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors February 21,2012 until January 14,2013,to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judy Burges to take the Arizona Senate District 4 seat.
David Livingston is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 28. He previously served in the Arizona Senate representing District 22 from 2019 to 2023. He also served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. During the 52nd Legislature of Arizona,Livingston was the House Majority Whip. Livingston announced that he was running for State Treasurer in 2022,but withdrew before the primary.
Debra Kay Lesko is an American politician who has represented Arizona's 8th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2018. The district is in the West Valley portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area and includes Glendale,Surprise,Sun City,Peoria,and part of western Phoenix. A member of the Republican Party,Lesko previously served in the Arizona State Legislature from 2009 to 2018.
Venden "Vince" Leach is an American politician from Arizona. A Republican,he was a member of the Arizona State Senate from 2019 to 2023,representing District 11. From 2015 to 2019,he was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11.
A special election for Arizona's 8th congressional district was held in 2018 subsequent to the resignation of Republican U.S. Representative Trent Franks. Governor Doug Ducey called a special primary election for Tuesday,February 27,2018,and a special general election for the balance of Franks' eighth term for Tuesday,April 24,2018.
Sine Kerr is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 25 since January 2023. She was previously appointed to the District 13 seat in January 2018.
Frank Carroll is an American politician and a Republican member of the Arizona Senate representing District 28 since January 9,2023. He was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023,representing House District 22. Carroll was first elected in 2018 to succeed State Representative David Livingston,who instead ran for State Senate.
Abortion in Arizona is illegal except for when it is "necessary to save" the life of the pregnant individual. The legally prescribed sentence for assisting in an illegal abortion is 2-5 years in prison. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9,2024 that enforcement of this near-total ban on abortion can begin from April 23,2024. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes,a Democrat,responded that as long as she is in office,then women or doctors will not be prosecuted under this law. Mayes also stated that the Arizona Superior Court had in a separate case ruled that enforcement could begin from June 8,2024.
Quang H. Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American businessman and politician serving as a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives for District 1 since 2021. The district includes most of Yavapai County and some of Maricopa County.
Juan Guadalupe Ciscomani III is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 6th congressional district since 2023.
Matt Gress is an American politician and Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives elected to represent District 4 in 2022.
Austin Smith is an American politician. He has been a member of the 29th district of the Arizona House of Representatives,alongside Steve Montenegro,since 2023. In April 2024 he withdrew his bid for a second term and resigned as a senior director of Turning Point Action amid allegations he had forged voter signatures on election documents.