Update: Kirk Adams is New House Speaker, Replaces Jim Weiers

By Ray Stern Barrett Marson, spokesperson for Republican legislators, called back to confirm an early report about the new House Speaker, Kirk Adams. Adams replaces Jim Weiers, who has been House Speaker since 2000. Adams is a considered strongly conservative by many pundits, (including the writers of the conservative blog...

By Ray Stern

November 6, 2008

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18478561",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "16759093",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759092",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759094",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        }
      ]

By Ray Stern

Barrett Marson, spokesperson for Republican legislators, called back to confirm an early report about the new House Speaker, Kirk Adams.

Adams replaces Jim Weiers, who has been House Speaker since 2000.

Adams is a considered strongly conservative by many pundits, (including the writers of the conservative blog site that broke this news). He was a champion of reform for the state's Child Protective Services who received an award from the Arizona Newspaper Association last month because of his efforts to make CPS records more available.

Kirk Adams

Marson says Adams was elected during a State Capitol meeting today of the 35 House Republicans. Also elected were John McComish as majority leader and Andy Tobin as majority whip.

John McComish

Andy Tobin

KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.

Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.