It's always a delight to see Arizona in the national news for all the wrong reasons. This time, Talking Points Memo looks at the controversy surrounding HB 2625, which would allow employers to choose to not cover contraception with their health care plans:

At the national level, the Arizona bill isn’t doing its party’s candidates any favors, either. Rep. Jeff Flake, a frontrunner for the GOP Senate nomination, opposed the Obama administration’s coverage rule but has since backed off taking action against it. He was attacked for his position by a Senate candidate on the Democratic side, Don Bivens, who ran an ad asking, “In the GOP war on women, whose side if Jeff Flake on?” Flake was part of House leadership that moved away from the Blunt Amendment. He told Politico earlier this month, “I think the Senate already took action and we’ve got a lot else on our plate.” On his state’s own measure to mimic Blunt, HB 2625, Flake’s office told TPM he “hasn’t had a chance to review the bill yet.”

Richard Carmona, the leading Democratic candidate for Senate in Arizona, says the bill is nonsensical. “I put my surgeon general’s hat on,” said Carmona, who served in that position under President George W. Bush, and “I would say, ‘this is bad for public health.’”