By Matthew Holloway |
After an alleged error cost the Republican Party’s favored candidate for Maricopa County Recorder the chance to participate in a televised debate, Arizona PBS is reportedly trying to make amends with Arizona State Rep. Justin Heap and his supporters.
As reported by The Arizona Daily Independent, the June 11 debate made headlines for all the wrong reasons when just two of the three candidates in the GOP Primary were invited, namely Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Don Hiatt. Heap’s absence was notable, public, and embarrassing for the public broadcaster.
Both Richer and Hiatt capitalized on the State Representative’s absence, taking rhetorical shots at Heap and moderator and “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons. Simons, who severs as Managing Editor of the platform, failed to acknowledge the error before the debate commenced.
Sources near the Heap campaign told ADI that they weren’t contacted by Arizona PBS until an hour before the event was to take place. Heap himself only became aware of it after seeing it on Richer’s X feed. Producers from Arizona PBS asked at 3PM on the 11th if he could get to the studio by 4PM… from East Mesa… in rush-hour. He replied that he could get there by 4:15PM at the earliest, and Arizona PBS informed him that would be too late.
It wasn’t until later that a request was found emailed to Heap’s official legislative email account. And had he replied to it, political consultants advised, he could be prosecuted for violating state law by using public resources for a partisan campaign.
After contacting Heap with a formal apology, Arizona PBS will air a one-on-one interview with Heap Thursday at 5 PM, an hour before the CNN Presidential Debate. In a letter to Heap, Arizona PBS political news producer, Grace Provenzano, apologized to the candidate.
In the letter obtained by the Independent, Provenzano wrote, “I want to apologize, once again, for our failure to reach you in a timely fashion in advance of the Maricopa County Recorder debate event yesterday. We know that it placed you and your campaign at a disadvantage and for that we are truly sorry.
In order to provide equitable airtime, we would like to schedule a one-on-one interview with you and Horizon host Ted Simons to offer you the opportunity to discuss your campaign platform and issues for our viewers. The interview would be pre-taped to air during the regular broadcast of Arizona Horizon the same day it is recorded. We would like to schedule the on-set interview as soon as possible so it can be seen prior to the beginning of the early primary voting.”
The outlet reported that the interview will be aired Thursday, June 27 at 5 PM.
In a post to X, Heap answered his opponents’ comments on his absence from the debate, writing in part, “The desperation from my opponents & their supporters is just embarrassing at this point They’re laughably trying to claim I’m too ‘scared’ to debate them in the government-subsidized PBS debate. Let’s clear something up, we’ve already debated once, and I won easily. We also have a Clean Elections Debate coming up. In fact, tonight’s debate is yet another example why we shouldn’t have state-subsidized media outlets like PBS. Their incompetence is so glaring that they couldn’t even manage to properly contact me or my campaign about the debate. …or maybe they just wanted to help their preferred Democrat-friendly candidates. Whatever the reason, it’s PBS with their total of ~53 viewers. FWIW, I made a good faith effort to rearrange my schedule and attend; however, it simply wasn’t possible without disrespecting the voters who had already made plans to come and meet with me about my plans for the Recorder’s office.”
Heap would later participate in the forum presented by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission on June 24 and made serious accusation against incumbent Stephen Richer saying that election rules were not followed and that Arizonans have a right to be skeptical about election results. He said that legal safeguards weren’t followed according to 12News and that the signature verification process for mail-in ballots was “inadequate.”
“I do not trust the system as it is currently being operated,” Heap added.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.