Senate candidate Kari Lake sustained several blows in court this week: a withdrawal of her appeal for access to Maricopa County’s 2022 election ballot envelopes, and the denial of her petition to dismiss Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s defamation lawsuit.
The former gubernatorial candidate filed the withdrawal on Monday in her case seeking access to Maricopa County’s ballot envelopes from the contested 2022 election (CV2023-051480). A similar, separate lawsuit from the Glendale-based nonprofit We the People AZ Alliance (WTPAA) remains active.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer expressed relief to AZ Free News that the county attorney’s office had one less election dispute case to manage, though he noted that other cases involving Lake remain. The attorney for both Lake and WTPAA’s cases, Bryan Blehm, didn’t respond to our request for comment by press time.
“She lost. We won. The same could be said of every case Kari has brought against my office or the Board of Supervisors (and there have been many). We follow the law. Period,” said Richer. “For anyone curious about allegations of election or public records misconduct, and who’s following the law and who’s not, these cases offer a very clear answer.”
Three other cases have been filed by Lake involving Richer, none of which have yielded any wins: CV2022-014827, which sought remedy for those disenfranchised by the mass ballot equipment malfunctions on Election Day, was voluntarily dismissed in November 2022; CV2022-015519, which sought access to Election Day voting records, was dismissed without prejudice; and CV2022-095403, which challenged the validity of the 2022 election declaring Lake’s opponent, Gov. Katie Hobbs, the winner. In the latter, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected most of Lake’s claims last March, with the trial court rejecting the remaining claim in May. Lake promptly filed an appeal.
Monday’s action came after several months of waiting on the candidate’s next move, after she promised an appeal. Last December, the Maricopa County Superior Court denied Lake’s petition to obtain the 2022 Maricopa County ballot envelopes. Judge John Hannah said that the release of the ballot affidavit envelopes would result in harm to individual voters, such as voter fraud, harassment, and identity theft, due to the inclusion of voter signatures alongside voters’ names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
“Disclosure of the ballot affidavit envelopes therefore would create a risk of widespread fraud where none exists at present,” said Hannah.
Another legal battle persists between Richer and Lake. On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court allowed Richer’s defamation lawsuit against Lake to proceed to trial.
Richer sued Lake last June, alleging that the Senate candidate had “falsely and with actual malice” accused him of intentionally printing the wrong size of ballots and inserting 300,000 illegal or invalid early-vote ballots during the 2022 general election.
In her unsuccessful motion to dismiss, Lake argued that her claims constituted legitimate concerns about the 2022 election.
In response to the development in his defamation case, Richer posted on X that Lake had made specific, easily falsifiable claims that she knew were false.
“Words matter,” said Richer. “[T]hose false claims — broadcast to millions of people, often while seeking donations — had, no surprise, a very material impact on me and mine.”
Words matter.
Anyone who followed any of the court cases, anyone who paid any attention to the news, anyone who knew even a smidge about how elections work, should have known these HIGHLY SPECIFIC, easily falsifiable, claims were, in fact, false.
And those false claims –…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) March 5, 2024
Richer later declared that his team of over 15 attorneys had built a strong case with favorable precedence.
Editor’s Note: This column was co-authored by Dean Riesen and Steve Twist.
As we are now in high political season, we propose a thought experiment before too many decisions are frozen in amber too early on. For Republicans and Independents, and even Democrats whose fond memories of the party run back to the ideals of the 1960s: How extreme is it to support a strengthened and secured U.S. border to keep dangerous people and products from flowing into the country?
A few more questions to satisfy the experiment: How ideal would it be for the United States to be energy independent? Who among any of us does not want to see our homeless population housed, free of addiction, and treated of their mental health issues? Who among us does not think that for the $900 billion Americans spend on elementary and secondary education, our scores and achievement levels should be much higher? Who here thinks the drug poisoning problem—at historically record highs—cannot be addressed and reversed? Who among us thinks our deficits and government spending priorities are keeping us on the track of economic prosperity and financial health?
Nearly any candidate that shares the obvious answers to the foregoing questions would be the kind of candidate nearly every Republican, Independent, and commonsense Democrat would take seriously and support. Especially against someone who answers each of those questions wrongly.
Now make the candidate who got the answers right a possible United States Senator in a nearly evenly divided United States Senate where the right answers to those questions have been frustrated and opposed by the modern Democratic Party.
The candidate who gets the answers to the commonsense questions above right is Kari Lake. While we did not support her in the primary in 2022, we have zero problem supporting her for the Senate seat she is running for today, here, in Arizona.
For those who disagree with some of her previous quips and misstatements, we urge thinking about any candidate who never uttered misstatements or mistaken views here and there. That candidate does not exist.
But, what you will find in Kari Lake is someone running hard against a representative and supporter of the values of today’s Democratic Party.
And that party has a Governor in Arizona that has called Republicans neo-Nazis. It is a party that turns a blind eye and deaf ear toward rioting and elevated to Vice President someone who encouraged such rioting and helped bail out the rioters. It is a party that nominates and defends Justices to the Supreme Court who will not answer the question “What is a woman?” It is a party that supports efforts to encourage children to physically change their biological sex and supports concealing those efforts from their parents.
Today’s Democratic Party is a party that believes 1776 was not our founding date and a party that believes people should be judged for the most sublime positions, privileges, and immunities based on their most crude characteristics, like their race, rather than their most refined and human characteristics, like their brains and their morality.
It is a party that supports the legalization of dangerous drugs and a party that thinks it just fine to teach 5-year-olds age-inappropriate lessons and behaviors. It is a party that believes it OK for men to compete in women’s sports and for men to enter and use women’s bathrooms and showers and locker rooms at every age.
Today’s Democratic Party is a party that shoveled hundreds of billions of dollars to the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world while it thinks we should create another official carbon copy of Iran or Syria in the Middle East, while, at the same time, stripping the rights and power of the United States’ greatest ally in the Middle East.
Today’s Democratic Party is a party that wants to secure other nations’ borders with weapons and taxpayer dollars but does not want to protect its own border. It is a party that wants to strip First and Second Amendment rights from law-abiding Americans but wants to elevate the rights of violent criminals above those of their victims.
Finally, as we view possible scenarios that could include a Democrat in the White House, a small Democrat majority in the House of Representatives, and a Senator Ruben Gallego as part of a one-seat majority in the Senate, the following could be enacted within six months: 1) Elimination of the filibuster, 2) Appointment to the Supreme Court of four left-wing Justices, 3) Admission of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. as states, giving the Democrats a lock on the U.S. Senate with four additional Democrat senators, and, 4) An open U. S. border with unlimited immigration, and citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. This platform is what is “extreme,” by any definition.
We can rest on our own self-important codes of personal distaste for a candidate that stands athwart all this and abstain supporting her, or we can get over statements made in the past that, to borrow from Thomas Jefferson, “neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg,” and get serious about defeating a much greater threat than one to our own moral superiorities; the greatest of threats to the greatest of nations. Ours. If one cares about something greater than their own self-interest, and if that “something” is this country, we ask you to support Kari Lake, as we are. Her opponent, after all, answers wrongly all the questions we raise above and supports the nightmare agenda we raise here. A vote against Kari Lake, just as a decision not to vote for or support her, is a vote for all that. Those who take their Republican Party, and this country, seriously, cannot allow that to happen.
On Tuesday the legal team for former GOP gubernatorial candidate, now Senate candidate, Kari Lake argued for the dismissal of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s defamation lawsuit against her.
Richer filed his defamation lawsuit against Lake in June over her claims of his administration of the 2022 election. Lake filed a motion to dismiss in August.
In his amended complaint, Richer alleged that Lake had “falsely and with actual malice” accused him of intentionally printing improperly-sized ballots and inserting 300,000 illegal or invalid early-vote ballots during his administration of the 2022 general election. Richer said that the accusations have caused him and his family real harm, including threats of violence and death.
I'm suing Kari Lake.
I'd hoped the defamation would stop after the election. I waited.
I'd hoped it would stop after the first election trial. I waited.
I'd hoped it would stop after the appeal. I waited.
I'd hoped it would stop after the second trial. I waited.
I'd…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 22, 2023
Lake’s motion to dismiss argued that she voiced legitimate concerns about the 2022 election, and that Richer’s lawsuit amounted to retaliation following two failed attempts at obtaining sanctions against her. In those denied requests for sanctions, Maricopa County Superior Court found that Lake’s claims weren’t groundless or brought forth in bad faith.
“The types of statements that Recorder Richer complains of are the types of statements directly related to his job performance that political foes and constituents critical of elected officials ordinarily make,” read the motion.
During Tuesday’s arguments in the Maricopa County Superior Court, one of Richer’s attorneys, Cameron Kistler, said that Lake’s speech wasn’t hyperbole, but a statement of facts.
“She’s making statements where she’s asserting these are actual facts that happened in the world, these are actual accusations of falsifiable criminal conduct,” said Kistler.
Jen Wright, the former assistant attorney general serving on Lake’s team, countered that Lake did believe her speech to be true based on the facts at hand: the county’s admission that there were ballots that lacked chain of custody, and that printer problems did occur for some, still unknown reason.
“I don’t think it’s a question of fact as to whether or not the printers malfunctioned, it’s a question of opinion as to how they characterized them,” said Wright.
Richer accused Lake of issuing dozens of defamatory statements.
Jessica Banks-McDowell, an Arizona State University (ASU) law student on Lake’s team, said that court precedent clarifies that Richer’s intent via his filings is to stifle Lake’s speech. ASU’s First Amendment Clinic signed onto Lake’s defense.
“There is very clear intent of his motivation to deter, retaliate against, or prevent Kari Lake’s lawful speech,” said Banks-McDowell.
Richer seeks an injunction that would force Lake to delete the allegedly defamatory statements.
Banks-McDowell further argued that Richer hadn’t met the burden of proving defamation occurred as required by A.R.S. 12-751, Arizona’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law.
Kistler said that the anti-SLAPP law didn’t apply here because Lake’s team didn’t provide evidence to prove Lake’s disputed statements as true.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is most favorable among voters for the 2024 Senate race according to a new poll, beating out incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and challengers Kari Lake and Mark Lamb.
Gallego led with a 19-point net positive favorability. Lamb and Sinema both trailed at a 10-point net positive favorability, and Lake had an eight-point negative net favorability among voters.
Noble Predictive Insights (NPI) conducted the poll, their Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP). NPI surveyed over 1,000 registered voters in late October, estimating a three percent margin of error. NPI said in a press release that a three-way race with Sinema in the mix as an independent was “anyone’s game.”
NPI Founder and CEO Mike Noble speculated that Gallego’s strength came from branding, while Sinema’s weaknesses came from her divisive voting record.
“It’s interesting to see that Gallego is still ahead even as Republicans lead in the presidential and generic House races (R+8),” said Noble. “Part of that may be the presence of Sinema scrambling things for voters. But part of it may be Gallego cultivating a strong personal brand.”
In a hypothetical matchup between Gallego, Sinema, and Lake, Gallego led by a single digit. Democratic respondents expressed the highest preference for Gallego over Sinema. Republican respondents expressed a similar, though slightly lower, preference for Lake. Sinema had a near-equal division across Republicans, Democrats, and Independents for favorability.
In a hypothetical matchup between Gallego, Sinema, and Lamb, Gallego captured more voters. NPI noted that Lamb had “more room to grow” since 44 percent of voters had no opinion or had never heard of him.
With Republican voters carved out from the pack to determine Senate primary frontrunners, Lake led with 40 percent favorability. 33 percent were undecided, 14 percent expressed preference for Lamb, 10 percent expressed preference for Blake Masters, and four percent expressed preference for Brian Wright.
Masters is running for Congress, not Senate; the poll was conducted prior to Masters’ announcement of his congressional run. Noble said that Lake would likely pull most of the voters that expressed a preference for Masters.
“With Blake Masters no longer in the mix for the Arizona Senate contest, Lake is likely to benefit the most as his 10% share of support gets distributed,” said Noble. “Lake is in the driver’s seat in the GOP primary contest, meanwhile, Mark Lamb needs to step up his fundraising if he wants to mount a serious challenge to Lake.”
I'm running for Congress, to fight for Arizona's 8th.
Biden has failed. We need Trump back. We need to stop inflation, Build the Wall, avoid WW3, and secure Arizona's water future. We need to fight for our families.
Independents now lead the state in terms of registered voters: over 1.45 million voters (34.6 percent). Republicans are second with over 1.44 million voters (34.3 percent). Democrats are third, with over 1.25 million voters (29.7 percent).
Libertarians and the new No Labels Party each have less than one percent of voters: over 33,700 (0.8 percent) and nearly 18,800 (0.45 percent), respectively.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is amping up his energy on fundraising efforts for his 2024 Senate campaign.
As part of his efforts, Gallego is leaning into memes to gin up support. Although embattled Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake hasn’t officially announced a run, Gallego cited Lake as a reason to support his campaign.
Gallego issued his tweet warning about “Senator Kari Lake” a day before Lake revealed to Breitbart that she was considering running to challenge incumbent Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). However, Lake disclosed that she had a “lot of options” to choose from, though she didn’t offer details as to what those might be.
“I am contemplating running for office again,” said Lake. “I may run for Senate, I’m considering that.”
Lake convened with the U.S. Senate GOP’s campaign team in May to discuss a possible Senate run. The visit was a follow-up to a February meeting with the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Gallego again relied on a meme to issue an end-of-quarter plea for more funding several weeks ago.
POV: it’s EOQ, and it all adds up when we're all chipping in. Let’s win this!https://t.co/QPMeFHJYUz
According to the latest Federal Election Commission (FEC) data through March, Gallego has raised over $3.7 million since January. Only about 2,200 of his 11,818 contributions have come from Arizona, totaling about $500,000.
Top donors include Evan Goldberg, executive vice president for global technology giant Oracle Corporation; Andrew E. Beck III, managing director for global investment giant D.E. Shaw; and George Pla, CEO of construction engineering giant Cordoba Corporation.
Over $7,000, the single-highest donation, came from the Swallego Victory Fund: the joint committee between Gallego and fellow Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA-14).
Gallego also received thousands of dollars in early support from a number of national unions: United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; National Beer Wholesalers Association; National Association of Letter Carriers of U.S.A.; National Air Traffic Controllers Association; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; International Association of Sheet, Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers; International Association of Firefighters Interested in Registration and Education; International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers; International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers; Communications Workers of America
Gallego also received some support from political action committees (PACs) associated with major corporations: Synchrony Financial, Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, Northrop Grummanm, General Dynamics, and Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association.
Several PACs also issued thousands to Gallego: VoteVets, The Next 50 PAC, and Poet PAC.
Since their inception in 2006, VoteVets brought in over $102.6 million. The Next 50 PAC, registered in 2019 and based out of New York, has brought in over $730,000. Poet PAC, established in 2008 and based out of South Dakota, has brought in over $6.3 million.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
