Republicans in the Arizona Senate are looking for answers about a new rule from the Clean Elections Commission.
Last week, State Senator Jake Hoffman sent a letter to the Arizona Clean Elections Commission about the adoption of a “new rule blocking certain qualified Arizona candidates from participating in general election debates for statewide and federal offices.” In his letter, Hoffman writes that “this rule was not submitted for approval to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC) under the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act,” potentially violating Proposition 306, which was passed by state voters in November 2018.
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate Government Committee Investigates Unlawful Rule Change Blocking Qualified Candidates from Participating in General Election Debates
The issue that prompted the inquiry by Hoffman was the confirmation from the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission that Eduardo Quintana, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, would not be allowed in the upcoming October debate with Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego. The rule from the Commission stipulates that candidates for public office must obtain at least one percent of all ballots tabulated in primaries for their specific office in order to maintain eligibility for general election debates. Quintana received 282 votes in the primary – far less than the one percent threshold established by the Commission.
“At best, the Clean Elections Commission seems to be creatively, yet intentionally, blocking some candidates from participating in the debate, not to mention subverting the will of the voters to require proper transparency in agency actions through the Administrative Procedures Act,” said Chairman Hoffman. “At worst, the taxpayer-funded Commission has knowingly broken the law. Either action offends the non-partisan intent of the Clean Elections Act. Voters deserve an explanation from the Commission as to why the intent, or the actual text, of the voter-approved Prop 306 was ignored by the Commission.”
Senator Hoffman gave credit to KJZZ for its reporting that appeared to alert him to this issue.
According to the letter, “Under Prop 306 in 2018, Arizona voters required new rules of the Commission to be subject to the statutory rule-making requirements under the Administrative Procedures Act.”
The letter also explains that “had the Commission followed the Administrative Procedures Act as voters mandated under Prop 306, the Arizona Green Party would have had the opportunity to protest the unreasonableness of a rule that effectively precludes their participating based on party registration numbers.”
Quintana posted a note of gratitude to Hoffman on his X account, writing, “A big THANK YOU to Republican Senator Jake Hoffman for standing up for democracy by challenging Az Citizens Clean Elections Commission for refusing to invite the Green Party candidate (me) to the televised debate between candidates Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego October 9.”
A big THANK YOU to Republican Senator Jake Hoffman for standing up for democracy by challenging Az Citizens Clean Elections Commission for refusing to invite the Green Party candidate (me) to the televised debate between candidates Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego October 9.
— Eduardo Quintana for U.S. Senate 🌻 (@Quintana4Senate) September 10, 2024
The Green Party candidate also appealed to the Arizona Attorney General to intervene, adding, “Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission is discriminating against the Green Party in their televised debates. We think this is illegal. Let’s see what the attorney general has to say about this.”
Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission is discriminating against the Green Party in their televised debates. We think this is illegal. Let's see what the attorney general has to say about this.
— Eduardo Quintana for U.S. Senate 🌻 (@Quintana4Senate) September 10, 2024
Last month, Kari Lake contacted the Commission to ask for Quintana’s inclusion in the October Debate. She stated that “Clean Elections said they will approach Ruben Gallego & see if he agrees to have him on the debate stage.”
Our campaign has contacted @AZCCEC & asked that @Quintana4Senate be included on the debate stage.
Eduardo will be on the ballot in November, & I believe we need to ensure that every candidate & every voter is heard & respected.
As of last week, however, it does not appear that Gallego had responded to Quintana’s and Lake’s appeals – or at least not in any positive manner.
I’m no fan of @KariLake, I’ll assure you. I think her particular brand of Trumpism is dangerous and bad for Arizona.
That said, the fact that she, of all people, has stood up for our democratic right to be included in the @AZCCEC debates and @RubenGallego has not speaks volumes. https://t.co/DSRbg9HFkN
— Eduardo Quintana for U.S. Senate 🌻 (@Quintana4Senate) September 4, 2024
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona Senator Jake Hoffman recently responded to the launch of an Arizona chapter of “Republicans For Harris” with a blistering comment.
In his scorching post to X, Hoffman quipped “Strange… I thought prostitution was illegal in Arizona.” He advised his fellow Republicans to “Ignore these whores,” and asserted confidently, “Donald J. Trump will win Arizona.”
Strange… I thought prostitution was illegal in Arizona
In the image shared by Delaney Corcoran, Communications Director for the Harris campaign, Mesa Mayor John Giles is shown headlining the rally. “Our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out their American Dream,” he wrote, in his endorsement of Harris according to The Hill.
“But since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to course correct,” Giles claimed. “The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms.”
Expressing a similar sentiment, former Maricopa County GOP Chair Tyler Bowyer wrote, “For those not aware— John Giles is not a real Republican. He sold out in exchange for switching his party later to run for Congress next term to replace Democrat Greg Stanton in CD4. This is simple backroom politicking. He is supporting the most radical leftist ticket ever.”
For those not aware— John Giles is not a real Republican. He sold out in exchange for switching his party later to run for Congress next term to replace Democrat Greg Stanton in CD4.
This is simple backroom politicking. He is supporting the most radical leftist ticket ever https://t.co/dwz92oRyBO
In the aftermath of his initial comment, Hoffman addressed concerns over his choice of words from one commenter Kenny Jacobs, writing, “This commie is crying because I used textbook definitions to describe fake Republicans who’ve decided their virtue signaling and future pay day is more important than your future[.] Sorry losers Pimp yourself out to the Left at the expense of hardworking Americans… you’re a whore.”
This commie is crying because I used textbook definitions to describe fake Republicans who’ve decided their virtue signaling and future pay day is more important than your future
He cited The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 5th Edition definition of “Prostitute” which reads, “A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.
Hoffman is currently one of several defendants in an ongoing organized lawfare campaign by Arizona’s Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes. He is being prosecuted for his 2020 role on the GOP slate of alternate electors who prepared documentation to be presented to Congress in the event that the slate favoring President Joe Biden was rejected.
In a more recent post, he has also revealed a letter from an Instagram whistleblower with nearly 150k followers, “exposing a sophisticated Astroturfing effort underway by the Harris-Walz campaign. Social media users are being PAID to post pro Harris-Walz content on Instagram.”
The famous poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson from the 1800s once quipped, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying.” This is especially true when observing how our elected officials operate our government.
Per several posts on X, voters recently received a text blast referencing Vice President Kamala Harris as the “presumptive Democrat nominee” and chiding her “radical” left election policy positions, including “same-day voter registration, no voter ID, and more federal control of our elections.” The text blast made a policy commitment on behalf of the current Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer to protect us from these extreme policies.
How is he going to defend against Kamala's radical policies if he's voting for her!? pic.twitter.com/nplbCEi7d1
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) July 29, 2024
But when presented with the opportunity to codify such protections into law, the Maricopa County Recorder’s track record tells a different story.
In the 2022 legislative session, State Representative Jake Hoffman introduced bill HB2237, which would have made same-day voter registration illegal in Arizona.
It was a very simple bill that just stated:
Same-day voter registration is a scheme from the left to overwhelm County Recorders with thousands of registrations on Election Day or during a voting period. This makes it nearly impossible to confirm if someone is actually a legal citizen resident of Arizona before providing them with a ballot.
Currently, throughout the year, but especially at the last minute right before voter registration election deadlines, many groups in Arizona, especially from the left, have generous paid programs to register voters. They often don’t submit completed forms, creating complications for election workers. Jen Fifield from Vote Beat recently reported on the issues caused by this.
NEW: Hundreds of Arizonans who tried to register to vote just before Tuesday’s primary election were blocked from the rolls because of a problem with their paper forms, @VotebeatUS analysis found.https://t.co/Rye0LtDxmV
As the article mentions, these same extreme left groups advocate for same-day voter registration, and many pushed their members and lobbyists to sign in against HB2237 in 2022. Even Katie Hobbs’ Secretary of State Office signed in against the bill, while conservative groups like the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Heritage Action signed in favor of banning same-day voter registration.
You would think that at such a moment as this bold, simple bill, the Maricopa County Recorder could take a strong stand and defend his employees and the voters from such an insane policy from the left. Unfortunately, neither the Recorder’s Office, his office’s lobbyist, nor the associations for the recorders and counties took a position on the bill. The Maricopa County Recorder didn’t show up to testify for or against the bill either.
Complete silence.
When it comes to voter ID, it gets much worse.
The Arizona Legislature added Proposition 309 to the 2022 ballot, which would have added a voter ID requirement on early ballots. It was a simple proposal that the Recorder’s Office was previously on record as supporting in principle, per public records.
When the bill was brought before the Legislature, the Arizona Association of Counties opposed it. There is no record of the Recorder or his lobbyist associations taking a position on the bill or offering amendments.
When the proposition made it to the ballot, the Maricopa County Recorder not only publicly opposed voter ID for early voting but also used government resources to do so.
The Arizona County Recorders (people who oversee early voting) OPPOSE Proposition 309.
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) October 11, 2022
I found this strange since all my previous interactions with Recorder Richer, from working on his 2019 “election integrity” report to conversations with his office on policy to a coffee meeting I had with him one-on-one in 2021, all indicated that his position was that signature verification alone wasn’t sufficient to secure elections and that some sort of voter ID mechanism was needed to secure early ballots.
It's interesting that you flipped your position on the effectiveness of signature verification, @stephen_richer, because last we met you affirmed that our findings from our election audit report still remained & signature review process is not sufficient to secure our vote pic.twitter.com/rHtEpIzleW
July 23, 2021, @stephen_richer told me at a coffee meeting his department has no way to legitimately verify signatures and the voter rolls were a complete mess
He said he needed at least two more identifiers to confidently confirm voter identity and stop ballot harvesting https://t.co/FXGjnqAvb2
— Merissa Hamilton 🗳 ⛽ 🗽🔥 (@merissahamilton) May 9, 2023
The Arizonans for Voter ID organization sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General admonishing Recorder Richer for violating the law by using his government office resources to advocate against the ballot referral.
.@stephen_richer did this to voice his feelings on #Prop309 which ensures everyone shows ID, and wrongly claimed unanimous support for his letter, which doesn't exist. We hope @GeneralBrnovich protects our elections from the inappropriate influence of the Recorder's Office. pic.twitter.com/ifbsVfRZkT
The voter ID proposition ended up failing by 18,488 votes and only by 2.5% in Maricopa County.
Fast forward two years. The Maricopa County Recorder’s letter on Prop 309 is scrubbed from the internet now that he’s running for re-election, and text blasts are going out stating he will defend voter ID.
To be clear, the current Maricopa County Recorder not only has multiple associations at his disposal to advocate for or against policy, but he also has his own lobbyist for his office. With all these lobbying resources, his opponent Rep. Justin Heap was recently featured on the Mike Broomhead show as stating that although he’s served on the Legislature’s House Elections Committee for the last two years, he’s never seen the Maricopa County Recorder at the Legislature. Heap says Recorder Richer has been a “hindrance” in passing needed laws, such as those to fight radical left policies.
When it comes to federal laws, as I mentioned in my piece on AZ Free News last week, the current Recorder has also been silent on his award-winning X platform in advocating for the Speaker Johnson-supported SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship for voters in federal elections.
One thing is for certain, while the current Maricopa County Recorder has taken a back seat when it comes to defending voters from radical left policies, Maricopa County voters are certainly desperate for our county recorders to use their resources to give us a stronger voice in standing up for policies that would strengthen the security and trust in our elections.
Merissa Hamilton is the founder and chairwoman of the nonpartisan nonprofit organizations Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and Strong Communities Action, also known as EZAZ.org, which are focused on making civic education and action as easy as pie. She’s an elected Member at Large of Congressional District 1 for the Arizona Republican Party and previously ran for Mayor in 2020. Merissa is also the Director of Integration and Policy at The R.O.A.R. PAC, which is on a mission to restore our American Republic.
Arizona Senator Jake Hoffman (R-LD15) has raised a potent legal challenge to the politically driven prosecution that he and 17 other prominent Republican alternate electors have faced at the hands of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes whom he referred to as “zealously partisan.” Hoffman released a scorching statement to accompany a legal motion to dismiss the case on July 2, along with his official mugshot taken after his indictment “in response to Kris Mayes political persecution campaign against the 2020 Republican electors.”
Hoffman wrote,
“In war, only leaders are targeted for assassination.
This is a political war.
You can persecute us.
You can attack us.
But you will never silence us.
Truth will always prevail.
NEVER SURRENDER.
Before an investigation had even been conducted and with no evidence, Kris Mayes declared that she believed electors such as myself were guilty of a crime, that it was her job to get Biden re-elected, and that she would control the timing of the indictment.
Let me be unequivocal, I am innocent of any crime, I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this naked political persecution by the judicial process.”
Hoffman’s attorney Tim La Sota filed the motion citing Arizona state law that allows for rapid dismissal of cases under special circumstances to protect citizens from legal action for exercising a constitutional right known as “SLAPP” or “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” according to the Arizona Republic.
La Sota called the charges against Hoffman “politics by other means,” describing it as, “an effort by an overtly partisan elected attorney general to shame and punish her political opponents and critics for exercising their constitutional rights.”
In the motion, La Sota added, “The attorney general’s novel, overzealous, and retaliatory prosecution is also tied to Sen. Hoffman’s Republican colleagues’ efforts to conduct oversight of her office.”
Hoffman’s attorney pointed to multiple examples of extra-judicial speech from Mayes and her Chief Deputy Dan Barr for prejudicial statements posted to social media, such as a July 2022 post in which Mayes wrote she “would have immediately investigated the fake electors” stating they “videotaped their crime for all to see.” He also pointed to an August 2022 post from Barr who wrote, the alternate GOP electors were “criminals” claiming they “should be prosecuted as such,” according to AZCentral.
La Sota wrote in the motion, “Attorney General Mayes’ and Chief Deputy Attorney General Barr’s extrajudicial statements demonstrate a strong animus against those who questioned the 2020 election and particularly the alternate electors, including Senator Hoffman, and a desire to prosecute them before any investigation had taken place.”
In an email to the outlet Tuesday, he explained that Mayes’ and her surrogates had effectively branded his client and his co-defendants as criminals before any investigation into their actions began. “It was more than a mere pledge to investigate whether or not they committed a crime, which would have been ethical.”
Executive Director of Save Arizona and Chairwoman of Strong Communities Action Merissa Hamilton reposted Hoffman’s post to X supportively writing, “Future generations will look back on this dark time in our nation’s history and remember those that stood in the gap to save our freedom! Please keep @JakeHoffmanAZ and his family in your prayers! They have backbones of steel! Every day wake up and ask yourself what you can do to save Arizona today! Then go forth like your freedom and life depends on it!”
Former Arizona state Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita called on Rep. Jake Hoffman, founding chairman ofthe Arizona Freedom Caucus, to amend a bill involving sexually explicit materials in schools to include the Maricopa County Library District.
Senate Bill 1007 proposed by Hoffman, a Republican, makes it a class 5 felony for a public school to show a student sexually explicit materials or use it in the classroom in any way.
“I would like to encourage the bill sponsor, @JakeHoffmanAZ and my former colleagues to amend this bill to include the Maricopa County Library District since @ThomasGalvin won’t do anything to stop county libraries from facilitating a liberal woke agenda by promoting sexually graphic and sensitive material to children,” said Ugenti-Rita, a Republican who represented Arizona’s District 23 from 2019 to 2023.
The bill prohibits Arizona public schools to refer students to sexually explicit material unless “the material possesses serious educational value for minors or serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” or “the public school requires written parental consent, on a per-material basis, before referring a student to or using the material.”
The public school must also provide students whose parents do not consent for them to see the material with an alternative assignment that does not contain sexually explicit material.
Sexually explicit materials include “textual, visual or audio materials or materials accessed via any other medium that depict sexual conduct, sexual excitement or ultimate sexual acts,” the bill says.
Charter schools can require parents to waive the right to object to learning materials or activities as a condition of enrollment if the charter school provides a comprehensive list of books and materials used for instruction each school year before the student enrolls.
The parent keeps the right to object to those materials if they are altered after the students’ enrollment.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
