by Matthew Holloway | Feb 15, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The 16 prominent Republicans prosecuted for their participation in creating an alternate Electoral College slate for the 2020 presidential election are one step closer to having their charges dismissed. Earlier this week, a Maricopa County Judge ruled that Attorney General Mayes may have been politically motivated to charge them.
On Monday, Maricopa County Judge Sam Myers ruled that the defendants successfully demonstrated that the charges against them could comprise an attack on what he deemed is “at least in part some arguably lawful speech.” This ruling could trigger a dismissal through Arizona’s Anti-SLAPP law, a statute designed to prevent legal action launched to suppress free speech. In the text of Arizona’s Anti-SLAPP law, the prosecution must now establish “the legal action on which the motion is based is justified by clearly established law and that the responding party did not act in order to deter, prevent or retaliate against the moving party’s exercise of constitutional rights.” As reported by Courthouse News, Judge Myers said that a statement from Arizona Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, while announcing the indictment of the 16 Republicans that “this should never happen again,” could potentially show a political motivation to the prosecution.
As the outlet noted, Arizona prosecutors led by Mayes, have 45 days from the date of the ruling to respond to the judge’s ruling and prove to the court that the charges were brought in order to enforce existing Arizona laws and not to suppress the freedom of speech under the First Amendment. Myers said he will rule on the motion to dismiss once he’s received and considered the response. Responding to the ruling, Mayes promised an appeal in a press release saying, “We disagree with this ruling, and we will pursue an appeal.” She reiterated her claim adding, “It is not the lawful exercise of free speech to file forged slates of electors to deprive Arizona voters of their right to vote.”
The defendants in the case include former AZGOP Chair Dr. Kelli Ward, Dr. Michael Ward, former executive director of the AZGOP Greg Safsten, former Arizona State Senator Anthony Kern, former Senate Candidate Jim Lamon, former Cochise County Republican Committee chair Robert Montgomery, former Cochise County Republican Committee chair Samuel Moorhead, Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman, Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer, and attorneys John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Christina Bobb, as well as President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Campaign Aide Boris Epshteyn, and director of Election Day operations Mike Roman.
Following the ruling, Eastman posted to X, “Major ruling in the Arizona electors case this a.m. The new judge just ruled that I met the prima facie case required to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP statute — that is, 1st Amend. rights implicated, & substantial evid. that the prosecution was to retaliate or deter those rights.”
Eastman added, “Just to clarify. The AG now has to prove that she wasn’t motivated by desire to retaliate or deter 1A rights. Their brief is due March 25. The judge also rejected the AG’s claim that the anti-SLAPP statute is unconstitutional.”
Fellow defendant Dr. Kelli Ward explained on X, “The court found sufficient showing in the defense’s arguments to warrant moving to stage 2 of the process in AZ’s criminal anti-slapp statute. Now the state has to prove that this case was not politically motivated and they must show that they’re using established precedent and not interpreting the law in new ways.”
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.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 10, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap lacks key elections powers, thanks to late decisions by his predecessor and the former Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS).
Reportedly, Heap is operating without a full budget, staff, IT support, access to county buildings, and confirmation of his deputy recorder selection. State lawmakers with the Arizona Freedom Caucus blamed BOS Chair Thomas Galvin for these ongoing limitations to Heap’s authority.
State Senator Jake Hoffman urged Maricopa County residents to contact Galvin over the changes.
“Supervisor Thomas Galvin has STRIPPED Recorder Justin Heap of his control over our Elections and is REFUSING to reinstate it,” said Hoffman.
Much of these developments occurred back in October, when the outgoing BOS members and former Recorder Stephen Richer approved changes to the powers of the recorder’s office. The changes took effect in December.
Under that agreement, the BOS assumed control over the recorder’s $5 million budget and IT staff.
Additionally, the BOS appoints the early ballot processing board. Prior to that agreement, the recorder oversaw early ballot processing.
In a statement issued at the time of the agreement, a county spokesperson said the county made changes to make the recorder’s office more efficient.
“In Arizona, elections are administered by the County Board of Supervisors and the County Recorder. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder’s Office have had agreements in place to manage these administrative functions since the 1950s,” said the spokesperson. “The update to the current agreement will adjust administrative responsibilities to create efficiencies, most notably in Information Technology-related services.”
Ultimately, Arizona law empowers county boards of supervisors with authority over election administration.
Despite these limitations, Heap has continued to work around the restrictions on his position.
Last week, Heap announced his office’s policy change allowing bipartisan election observers into the signature verification room.
Heap has done more than that his first month in office. In an update issued on Friday, the recorder recapped other accomplishments from his first days: removing a record number of inactive voters from voter registration rolls, preparing for impending upgrades to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) process for military personnel on deployment, and eliminating the salaries and positions of six external communications officers to free up resources for elections databases and systems.
In that update, Heap addressed the allegations against Galvin and his predecessor. Heap disclosed that he anticipates a new agreement with the BOS will emerge soon reinstating his authority.
“I am currently working with the members of the Board of Supervisors to replace this agreement with one that serves the people and the mission they gave me to ensure future elections in Maricopa County are fully secure, efficiently operated and, above all, accurate. I am hopeful that we will have a new agreement in the near future that helps us all achieve those aims,” said Heap.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 16, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
An outgoing Arizona legislator is running for Republican Party Chair.
Last week, Republican State Representative Cory McGarr announced his candidacy for Chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona (AZGOP).
In a statement posted to his X account, McGarr said, “Thanks to our Party’s incredible grassroots and the most robust ballot chase operation in the history of the Republic, Arizona delivered a resounding victory for President Donald Trump and Republicans at nearly every level of the ballot.”
McGarr added, “During these crucial first two years of the incoming Trump administration it is imperative that we have an AZGOP Chairman committed to the job and committed to ensuring President Trump has the support he needs and deserves in this critical swing state. If you entrust me with your vote for state party Chairman, I promise to further empower the grassroots, fearlessly advocate for the America First agenda, maintain our focus on doing more to secure our elections, grow our Republican numbers in the midterms, and most importantly FIRE KATIE HOBBS, KRIS MAYES AND ADRIAN FONTES.”
Former Arizona Republican Governor and Senate nominee, Kari Lake, reacted to the news, posting, “Cory is a grassroots legend and he will work tirelessly to achieve true Election Integrity in Arizona. Thanks for getting in this race, Cory McGarr.”
McGarr revealed that both Arizona National Committeeman, Jake Hoffman, and National Committeewoman, Liz Harris, supported his candidacy.
The one-term Republican legislator narrowly lost his seat, when Democrats ran a single-shot candidate in State House District 17. McGarr’s seatmate, Rachel Jones, finished second to Democrat Kevin Volk.
Representative McGarr’s entrance into the AZGOP race potentially sets up a match-up with incumbent chair, Gina Swoboda, who was pressed into duty at the beginning of this year when the position became vacant. Swoboda was responsible for raising money for the party and ensuring that President Trump and Republican candidates up and down the ballot achieved victory. Under her leadership, Trump won Arizona with a greater margin than he did in 2016; Republicans expanded their majorities in the state House and Senate; incumbent Republican U.S. Congressmen held their seats, and a key border security measure sailed to victory.
Swoboda was endorsed by President Donald J. Trump prior to her runaway win for chair in January’s AZGOP meeting. She made his victory in Arizona her primary mission, and was successful with her goal there.
As McGarr stated, the AZGOP chair for the next election cycle will be critical for Republican efforts to take back major statewide offices – Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Arizona Republicans will have the chance to decide who is the best fit to lead them forward when they reconvene in the new year at the annual AZGOP meeting in Phoenix.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Nov 24, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
One of the Arizona Governor’s chief nemeses will be returning for duty in the upcoming legislative session.
Last week, it was reported that Senator Jake Hoffman would be reprising his role as the Chairman of the Arizona Senate Committee on Director Nominations (DINO).
“We’ve seen the tragic fallout from Katie Hobbs’ fake director scheme and its impacts on Arizonans in recent months, including the death of a child in DCS custody and a major $2 million fraudulent transfer of taxpayer dollars from DOH,” said Chairman Hoffman. “These heartbreaking or otherwise incredibly serious incidents could have been avoided had she followed the law and taken the Senate confirmation process seriously. When her illegal ploy didn’t work, she spent millions of dollars trying to flip control of the Legislature to get her radical nominees approved by Democrats and failed miserably. The committee invites Katie Hobbs to come to the table with sane, nonpartisan, qualified nominees, and we will approve them. What we won’t do is rubberstamp unqualified radicals.”
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen told AZ Free News, “I formed the DINO committee to make sure nominations are competent and nonpartisan. In the past, we have seen Governor nominees get approved with very little vetting. With a thorough review of each nominee, we will assure that our citizens have the best directors possible.”
On February 2, 2023, Petersen announced the formation of the Senate Committee on Director Nominations, tasking this panel “with gathering information and evaluating qualifications on the governor’s executive appointments in order to recommend a course of action for the Senate to take on each individual.” The Senate President appointed five members to serve on the committee – three Republicans and two Democrats.
Over the next several months, the committee held multiple hearings for Hobbs’ nominees. Although Hobbs was upset that not every one of her nominees received a passing grade, Petersen reminded observers that the process chosen by the Senate had “approved 70 percent of her nominees,” adding that “we are not a rubber stamp.”
In September 2023, Hobbs sent a letter to Petersen, informing him that she would “withdraw all director nominations that remain pending before the Senate and pursue other lawful avenues of ensuring State government can continue to function for Arizonans.” The governor blamed Senate Republicans for not “fulfilling (their) statutory obligations in good faith.”
After receiving Hobbs’ correspondence, Petersen stated, “This move by the Executive Branch showcases another prime example of an elected official who believes they’re already above the law and will go to extreme measures to bypass the requirements of the law when they don’t get their way.” Petersen also warned of the consequences of Hobbs’ unprecedented actions, saying, “Without directors fulfilling these obligations, the legality of every decision made by these state agencies is dubious, and litigation against the state would surely prevail.”
It didn’t take long for Petersen’s warning to come to fruition. One day after his statement, Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee held a Board of Investment Meeting and refused to recognize “employees from the Department of Administration or the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions as legally participating members.”
The Arizona State Senate then filed a lawsuit in the Maricopa County Superior Court against Hobbs in December 2023 over her refusal “to nominate agency directors, bypassing the Senate’s advice and consent processes.” The lawsuit asked the Court to declare that the Governor has violated state law and to require her to nominate directors to any of the agencies missing Senate-confirmed heads.
Earlier this year, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott A. Blaney issued a ruling in the lawsuit, concluding that the Governor “has improperly, unilaterally appointed de facto directors for these 13 agencies, [and] must comply with the procedures and deadlines in ARS 38-211 (B) & (C) for appointment of the agency directors.”
In his ruling, Judge Blaney wrote, “It is also not lost on the Court that the Executive Deputy Directors are the same individuals that the Governor previously nominated and forwarded to the Senate for review, but withdrew when she grew frustrated with the Senate…Under Arizona law, directors run the respective administrative agencies and are appointed to their important positions through a statutorily defined process. That process requires oversight by the legislative branch. Here the Governor willfully circumvented that statutory process and eliminated the Legislative branch from its oversight role.”
Judge Blaney also asserted that “if the Court were to agree that the Governor can side-step applicable statutes in this manner to arrive at her desired end state, it would render meaningless [all statutes governing this process].” The judge stated that “the Court therefore cannot arrive at any statutory interpretation that results in elimination of the Senate’s consent role from the statutory scheme.”
Blaney ended his ruling by expressing his desire for both the Governor’s Office and Senate Republicans to come together to resolve the matter between them. He wrote, “The Court will set a separate evidentiary hearing or oral argument for a date in late July or early August 2024. This will give these co-equal branches of government an opportunity to meet and confer in an attempt to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of this dispute.”
Both sides were able to reach an accord soon after the court decision. In August, Arizona Senate Republicans announced that “Governor Katie Hobbs admit[ted] she violated state law through her scheme to circumvent the Senate confirmation process for director nominations and has agreed to submit new candidates for consideration, as required by law.”
Many of those new nominees from the Governor’s Office are expected to be sent to the Arizona Senate at the start of the 57th Legislature in January, setting up potentially contentious battles over their qualifications with legislative Republicans.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 23, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Republicans raised serious allegations Thursday around Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs’ approval of a $700,000 upgrade of the state logo by Urias Communications, owned by the brother of Office of Tourism Director Lisa Urias. On Friday morning, the Governor’s office announced that Urias would resign. Hobbs told reporters, ”This appearance of conflict is not acceptable.”
Arizona State senator Jake Hoffman laid out his allegations in a lengthy post to X in which he cited a report from Arizona Agenda. The Agenda reported that the Arizona Office of Tourism spent a sum of $700,000 originating from COVID-19 federal relief funds “on 57 in-person and digital listening sessions across the state, not to mention the $27,500 that went to the brother of the CEO of Urias’ marketing agency. He helped work on the logo with a separate graphic design company.”
Hoffman wrote, “’And of all the artists in the state who could have drafted that logo, the contract just happened to go to one who has close ties to the Office of Tourism Director Lisa Urias’—her brother.”
Hoffman added, “Katie Hobbs continues to exploit her office, break the law, and take advantage of the people of Arizona. This is what it looks like when Democrats are in control of your government.”
Senator John Kavanagh, when briefed by the outlet, reportedly called the matter “clearly an ethical violation. Whether or not it’s a legal violation is another issue.”
According to the report from Arizona Agenda, Urias’ mandate upon taking office included the hefty rebranding of Arizona to include “elements of Arizona’s Native American cultures in the design.” To that end the Office of Tourism engaged the services of Urias Communications, a company that is still owned by the director, although she “doesn’t have any role in its day-to-day operations,” as claimed by the tourism department’s communications director Josh Coddington.
The outlet noted that the Office of Tourism under Urias is leveraging a tax-funded budget of $8 million to woo tourists to come to Arizona, adding, “The appointment seems to have been an economic driver for Urias Communications as well.”
The Agenda concluded, “But even if she isn’t involved with the day-to-day operations of the company that she founded, Urias seems to be financially benefiting from the state’s contract with her company at the same time she is pulling a salary from the state.”
The report added that over a year after Urias became Director of Arizona’s Office of Tourism, her firm went on to win a $250,000 five-year contract from the Arizona Department of Education. This led Hoffman to remark that Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne “is wrapped up in this scandal too.”
However, Horne refuted this in a response posted to X saying “Senator, we paid $15K on an expiring 1-year contract with Urias. ADE does not, nor will it, have a $250K contract with Urias. Get your facts straight.”
Hoffman replied, “Public reporting says otherwise. Send the receipts to back up what you’re saying to my Senate office. Would be glad to find out the public reporting is wrong. Need the receipts though.” Horne followed up that the documentation had been sent to Hoffman’s office, even posting an image of the documentation. He added, “Documents are at your office. Unlike the Governor we don’t know Urias personally. Next time ask first.”
In a letter to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, Majority Whip Sen. Teresa Martinez called for an investigation into the allegations. Within twenty-four hours, Urias’ resignation was announced.
Urias responded to the allegations in a statement Friday saying, “In light of the Senate Confirmation members making it clear they will not confirm me as Tourism Director—despite the recent allegations being untrue and unfounded—I have tendered my resignation to the Governor.”
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.
