The Daily Agenda: More sanctions for election scofflaws
The Daily Agenda: More sanctions for election scofflaws
Pity the Cochise County taxpayers ... Sinema is ready to run as an independent ... And the bees come for us all.
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A Pima County judge ordered the two Cochise County supervisors who initially refused to certify the 2022 election results to pay the attorneys’ fees and costs for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office and an outside group that sued over to force supervisors to certify.
Cochise Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd wouldn’t sign off on the county’s results, a duty that’s required by state law. Judd eventually did, after a court order, but Crosby didn’t show up to the meeting to do his job.
That attempt to disregard the will of voters could cost the duo more than $36,000, spread across fees and costs for the secretary of state and the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, who separately sued over the refusal to certify.
It’s just one of several legal bills resulting from the fallout of Judd and Crosby’s election-denying crusades since last year. But they may not be required to pay the bill themselves.
The county, which was one of the defendants in the lawsuit, could be on the hook for the cost. Supervisors are meeting on April 25 to discuss.
The lone Democratic supervisor, Ann English, hasn’t voted with Crosby or Judd on any of the election-related issues and was specifically not included in the order to pay fees, the court documents show.
In response to the court order, Crosby continued to insist he had canvassed the election because by reviewing the results, but he didn’t think machines were properly accredited, the Arizona Mirror’s Gloria Rebecca Gomez reports.
“Again, another court case against us, another decision against us,” Judd told the Mirror. “We’re just swimming here in this court of public opinion, that’s all I can say.”
The order is the latest example of an Arizona judge requiring politicians who have embraced dubious election claims to pay for court costs, effectively sanctioning them, a previously rare move in election-related cases.
Failed secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem and losing gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and their attorneys, have faced sanctions and could face more. The Arizona Supreme Court allowed defendants, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, in Lake’s ongoing appeal of her loss to ask for attorneys’ fees and costs. Lake is arguing against paying fees, saying she “honestly believes that electoral misconduct and illegal votes determined the outcome of the 2022 gubernatorial election,” despite a lack of evidence and factual errors in her legal filings.
Meanwhile, Cochise is still in court. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued the county supervisors over Judd and Crosby’s decision to make County Recorder David Stevens the interim elections director. The AG’s office wants a preliminary injunction to prevent Stevens from taking the additional role.
Court cases aren’t cheap, both in costs and public opinion. No matter how the most recent cases shake out, Cochise taxpayers will have footed the bill for at least some of the fruitless quests Crosby and Judd have led the county on.
She’s (probably) running: The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday that U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is prepping for a run for her seat as an independent and had a staff retreat in Phoenix last week centered around the idea, complete with slides that had a timeline of how the run would roll out. Sinema on Thursday headlined an Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry event where she praised her own independence and said changing her party was just a way to recognize how she’s always operated, the Republic’s Ryan Randazzo reports.
"Everyone knows I've always been a pain in the ass to both parties, right? Nothing about that has changed," she said at the event. "I've always been an independent voice for Arizona."
They’re also running: Mark Lamb, the Pinal County sheriff who’s built a national reputation by aligning with Trump, is set to soon announce he will run for U.S. Senate, 12News reports. He’d be the first Republican to enter the race. Over in Congressional District 1, the Democratic primary got more crowded, as former Arizona Democratic Party chair Andrei Cherny announced last week he’s running for the seat held by U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, joining Democrats Amish Shah and Andrew Horne. Cherny previously ran for state treasurer and in the Dem primary for U.S. Senate. And Kari Lake, who is probably running for something in 2024 but we’re not sure what, was in Iowa again.
Another day: Another bill roundup.
After some legislative infighting derailed it, a bill to provide funding to expand I-10 held on through a strike-everything amendment.
Learn more about how magic mushrooms can be used for mental health treatment as Arizona lawmakers consider money to study the issue.
A House bill to create an “exploitation at the border” fund with $43 million is moving in the Senate.
A $10 million pilot program for school safety training, including firearms safety training, contained in a House bill got Senate committee approval.
A bill would allow police departments to charge unspecified fees for records requests of body camera and other recorded footage.
And if you want to catch up on all the vetoes so far, check out this list from KJZZ.
It’s alive: Though the Legislature last year voted to kill the funeral board, the board is still working under a rarely used part of state law that gives a board the ability to continue its work for six months after it was terminated, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl reports. The board will be able to work until September, though lawmakers are working out where to dispatch the board’s duties going forward.
Recommend away: By the end of the year, a newly created Educator Retention Task Force will be required to make recommendations to Gov. Katie Hobbs about ways to improve teacher retention, which could then roll into Hobbs’ 2024 priorities, the Republic’s Madeleine Parrish reports. The task force is one of several created by Hobbs via executive order.
From the opinion pages: The Republic’s Elvia Díaz writes about outgoing Phoenix City Councilman Carlos Garcia’s last meeting, which included a clash with Mayor Kate Gallego over mobile home evictions. Phoenix City Councilwoman Ann O’Brien opines that Phoenix could follow a Mesa community court program for people experiencing homelessness instead of overly criminalizing the issue. Democratic Rep. Analise Ortiz and Sen. Anna Hernandez write in favor of zoning reforms, saying that these proposals should have bipartisan support to confront the ongoing housing crisis here.
Time for some water deals: The City of Tucson said it would leave more than one-third of its supply of water from the Central Arizona Project in Lake Mead to manage ongoing shortages and overallocations on the Colorado River, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. Separately, the Gila River Indian Community reached an agreement with the federal government to forgo some of its water rights on the Colorado in exchange for $150 million and money for an $83 million pipeline project, the Associated Press reports.
More of this: The City of Phoenix is looking for ways to make naloxone, a life-saving medicine to reverse opioid overdoses, more available to residents, KJZZ’s Christina Estes reports. While police and fire employees carry the medicine, the city could expand the number of city workers that are trained to use and supply naloxone.
Not accessible: For blind students and their families, the Empowerment Scholarship Account program isn’t accessible, starting with signup processes that aren’t compatible with screen readers, the Arizona Capitol Times’ Kiera Riley reports. Allison Hilliker, a mother of students who use the program, has run into repeated problems with accessibility and ADA compliance with the state vouchers’ online processes.
Who didn’t get the money: Korean-American business owners in Nogales were left out of COVID-19 relief loans for small businesses, and some have since closed up shop, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. The business owners said they hadn’t heard about the loans, despite the county paying for outreach to people who could use the money. A lot of outreach happened online, which some Korean-American business owners said they didn’t really use, and was in both English and Spanish, but not Korean.
Elsewhere in Nogales: The family of the late Gov. Raúl Castro is suing the University of Arizona over its plan to sell Castro’s former home in Nogales, which the university had previously agreed to turn into a border studies center, the Nogales International reports. The family had donated the house to UA under the agreement that it be used for that purpose.
Help out: Tucson Mayor Regina Romero asked the UA, Pima Community College and local K-12 schools to chip in to help keep the city’s bus system free for riders as the city faces a shortfall of more than $9 million on the fare-free transit plan, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington reports. Students, faculty and staff make up a large chunk of riders on city transit.
Wrongful death: The family of a 24-year-old woman who died by suicide in a state prison is suing the state, saying it and its prison health care provider should have paid more attention to her history of suicide attempts and could have prevented her death, the Republic’s Jimmy Jenkins reports.
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