The Daily Agenda: A rundown of all the election fallout
The Daily Agenda: A rundown of all the election fallout
We're having trouble keeping track of everything ... The former Ninjas lawyer is back ... And a well-utilized Taylor Swift GIF.
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The biggest stories in state politics today are the same ones that have been on the docket for a week or more now.
There’s been a lot going on with Kari Lake suing Maricopa County, Abe Hamadeh suing his opponent and the state and Cochise County refusing to certify the results of its Republican-dominated election. It can be hard to keep track of it all, so we thought we’d round up the updates on all the storylines you need to know in one place.
Certification: Fourteen of the 15 counties certified their elections, but Cochise County is still refusing to do so. The supervisors are set to meet Friday, but two lawsuits — one from the Secretary of State, one from the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans — could force them to come back sooner and canvass. The state’s canvass is set for Dec. 5, though the absolute latest date under law is Dec. 8. The two court cases are set for hearings on Thursday at 1 p.m.
Lawsuits: Once the statewide canvass is done, we can probably expect to see more lawsuits. But a few have already been filed.
Kari Lake: Lake filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County, but not about specific election claims. Instead, she wants a bunch of public records.
Abe Hamadeh: Hamadeh’s lawsuit, which seeks to prevent the certification of the AG race or install him as the winner, went to court on Monday, but was dismissed on Tuesday because it was filed before the elections results were certified. Hamadeh will probably refile.
LD22 write-in bonanza: Attorney Tim LaSota filed a suit over the LD22 Senate seat, alleging that some of the votes for winning candidate Eva Diaz should not have counted because voters also cast their votes for Diego Espinoza, who dropped out of the race too late to be removed from the ballot.
Other legal maneuvers: Some of the legal threats have not actually become lawsuits. Instead, they’re part of a war of letters between lawmakers, attorneys and county officials.
AG’s letter: Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s “election integrity unit” sent a letter to Maricopa County casting doubt on the election, seeking information on Election Day printer problems and procedures. Maricopa County’s Tom Liddy responded with answers to the various legal questions raised by the AG’s letter.
Townsend subpoena: Arizona Sen. Kelly Townsend, who has little time left in her term in the Senate, filed a subpoena to Maricopa County to get a host of election information. Maricopa County said the subpoena didn’t “meet the legal requirements of an enforceable legislative subpoena” in part because it wasn’t tied to a legislative hearing, but that it would provide responses to some of what she asked for.
Recounts: The state increased the automatic recount threshold from 0.1% to 0.5%, resulting in more recounts than normal this year. The recounts won’t start, though, until the statewide canvass is completed.
Attorney general: Democrat Kris Mayes won by 510 votes over Hamadeh, by far the closest margin in a statewide race.
State schools chief: Republican Tom Horne won by nearly 9,000 votes over incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman.
LD13 House: Republican Liz Harris leads Republican Julie Willoughby by 270 votes for the second House seat (Democrat Jennifer Pawlik won first place by a wide margin).
We’re keeping a close eye on all of these storylines as this year’s election month drags into December. The Cochise court cases will almost certainly force the county to certify, hopefully giving officials enough time to meet deadlines so the lawsuits and recounts can get started.
Smooth: Cochise County supervisors refused to certify the results of the county’s election by Monday’s deadline, claiming they had questions about whether the machines used to tabulate ballots were properly certified. But Supervisor Peggy Judd admitted to the New York Times that the machine issue was mostly a pretext for a certification delay since it’s “the only thing we have to stand on.” Meanwhile, the county hired Bryan Blehm, who previously lawyered for the Cyber Ninjas, to represent it in court. Blehm will be paid by private funds, which county officials warned may be against the law, assuming Blehm actually wants the job, which nobody seems to have bothered confirming. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in both lawsuits against the county.
Never went away: COVID-19 is making a comeback, the Associated Press reports, though these days it’s far less deadly than it was in 2020. The Arizona Department of Health Services says eight Arizona counties are currently seeing “high COVID-19 community” levels, and the department recommends people again start wearing masks indoors.
“It’s been quite a while since we needed to have Covid wards,” Phoenix-area emergency physician Dr. Nicholas Vasquez told the AP. “It’s making a clear comeback.”
It’s 2024 now: The Hill is already listing the most vulnerable U.S. Senators of 2024, and an Arizonan is again on the list. This election cycle, it’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who may not even make it to November 2024 if Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego follows through with his much-hyped but never-confirmed challenge to her, the paper notes. And in other signs he’s running, Gallego received some hate-praise from the Republic’s conservative columnist Phil Boas, who said Gallego’s recent praise of a handful of non-extreme Republicans shows he’s not a political zealot, he’s “just a workin’ guy dropping bombs on Republicans, because that’s what Democrats do.”
Strong words: Outgoing Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers went on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” to discuss the right-wing outrage over Maricopa County certifying its election — or as he called it, the “residuals of the carpet bombing that Donald Trump did on the Republican Party and on Arizona and a lot of other states.” He called on Kari Lake to accept defeat and said statewide Republicans lost because of their embrace of the Big Lie.
“You just need an opinion and you need to be able to yell it loudly and crassly and maybe lace it with some biblical references… it’s sad, but I can’t say it’s totally unexpected,” Bowers said.
In other Bowers news: He also told 12News’ Joe Dana that another outgoing lawmaker, Michelle Udall, has polled lawmakers and the House has enough votes to lift the school aggregate expenditure limit, should Gov. Doug Ducey call a special session before he and a bunch of lawmakers leave office in January.
Free education is a popular idea: Use of Arizona’s school vouchers, known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, has predictably spiked since lawmakers opened it up to any student, the Republic’s Yana Kunichoff reports. Last year, about 12,000 kids had vouchers. As of Sept. 30, there are more than 30,000. The program will cost the state more than $300 million to fund this year.
She is a prolific fundraiser: Arizona’s “looniest legislator” Wendy Rogers is fundraising off the fantasy that she can get a re-do of the election in Maricopa County (and perp walks), just the latest grift from one of Arizona’s most well-tuned election money-making machines, columnist Laurie Roberts writes in the Republic.
There’s a new principal in town: Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Tom Horne detailed his eight-point plan to make schools great again in an op-ed in the Republic. Among other priorities, he wants to take over failing schools, reinstate high-stakes standardized testing requirements to graduate high school, restore discipline and put a cop in every school. And, of course, nix critical race theory and social emotional learning.
Lobbyists lobby: Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin lobbied for the Saudi Arabian corporation that is pumping huge amounts of water to feed an alfalfa farm that ships its product back to the Middle East in a sweetheart deal that has come under intense scrutiny from public officials in the last year, the Intercept reports. Galvin is a partner at Rose Law, which represents the Saudi company, and testified against a bill on the company’s behalf back in 2017. He told the Intercept that lobbying was a small part of his job, and he was one of many attorneys at Rose Law tasked with representing the company.
They’re border Democrats: Arizona’s U.S. Senators, Sinema and Mark Kelly, signed onto a letter to the U.S. Department of Health Services warning of their “deep concerns” about ending Title 42. The two wrote that a sharp end to the policy would “significantly increase the number of migrants apprehended along the Southwest Border,” the Republic’s José Ignacio Castañeda Perez writes.
Before the door hits you: Attorney General Mark Brnovich is trying to execute one more condemned person before he leaves office in January. It would be his fourth, still far below his goal of executing all 21 people on death row who have exhausted their appeals, the Phoenix New Times’ Katya Schwenk reports.
AZLEG vs. Tucson, round 2,018,382: Arizona House Speaker-elect Ben Toma filed a 1487 complaint with the AG’s Office asking Brnovich to declare a Tucson ordinance unconstitutional. The ordinance bans landlords from discriminating against people who use housing vouchers, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez reports. The city has until the end of the week to respond to the complaint.
Moooooove, cows: People keep crashing into cows on one stretch of road near Coolidge, and the carcasses are piling up, Pinal Central’s Taylor Griffith reports. Removal of dead cows is the owners’ responsibility.
“It is kind of strange, I’ve been reading a little bit about this over social media the last week and people are talking about aliens and everything else,” Coolidge City Manager Rick Miller told the paper.
A Republican National Committee … committee will do an autopsy on the party’s poor performance this year. And that committee will include Blake Masters, who lost Arizona’s U.S. Senate race on behalf of Republicans, according to Politico. Masters’ solution is to “modernize” the GOP.
“We’re fighting against Big Tech, the media, and now, the Democrats’ GOTV early voting machine,” he said.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego tweeted the news, saying he’d help Masters figure out the problem. He added a Taylor Swift GIF of the lyrics “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” Masters then responded with “enjoy losing to Sinema in the primary,” prompting Gallego to hit back with a deep cut about Masters’ focus group results.
Please watch the "EMERGENCY MEETING" following the regular BOS Cochise CO. regular meeting. They took the item #8 off the agenda so none of the people that came to speak against using taxpayers' money to pay for their attorney fees, off, as it was paid by private funds. Turns out THAT TOO is illegal! Katie Hubbs' suit goes to hearing tomorrow at 1 PM against Crosby's wishes! There are 2 more suits to come https://youtu.be/QOG7Z2m6-X0