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In closing days, Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh embrace Wendy Rogers
Top Arizona Republican candidates Kari Lake and Abraham Hamadeh, who are running for governor and attorney general, respectively, spent the final days of the campaign praising a GOP state legislator who has embraced white Christian nationalism, racist conspiracy theories and baseless election fraud claims. “I love you so much,” Lake said as she embraced state […]
The Arizona Republican Party is imposing strict rules on the media for its election night party
To ensure the “comfort” and “safety” of candidates, donors and party activists, the Arizona Republican Party is barring journalists from mingling with the crowd at its election night watch party and interviewing attendees, instead corralling reporters in the back of the room and imposing restrictions on who they can speak with. “We don’t want the […]
Mark Finchem has found more campaign support from outside Arizona than any other candidate
Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, has been a minor player in Arizona politics since becoming a state legislator in 2015. But in the past two years, he’s built a national profile as one of the most ardent backers of baseless claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud — […]
The ‘most important person’ on Kari Lake’s campaign mocked Native Americans in racist tweet
Kari Lake’s campaign manager likened all Native Americans to bloodthirsty savages who engage in human sacrifice in a racist tweet mocking the concept of Indigenous People’s Day. “Happy Indigenous People’s Day!” Colton Duncan wrote on Twitter along with an artist’s rendering of a human sacrifice by an ancient Mesoamerican civilization that lived thousands of miles […]
AZGOP chair Kelli Ward pleaded the Fifth when the Jan. 6 committee questioned her
Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, refused to answer questions from the congressional committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 insurrection aimed at overturning the 2020 election and instead asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The disclosure was made Tuesday in federal court by an attorney for the House Select Committee to […]
Campaign to stop AZ universal school vouchers expected to fall short on signatures
The leader of a volunteer group of public school advocates said Monday that the effort to block universal school vouchers and let voters decide the program’s fate in 2024 is likely short of the number of signatures required to refer the new law to the ballot. “I think we will end up short, yes,” said […]
The J6 committee can get phone records for AZGOP leader Kelli Ward and her husband
The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has the right to see phone records for Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The subpoena from the House Select Committee on January 6th sought phone records from T-Mobile between Nov. 1, 2020, through […]
Judge temporarily blocks AZ law that would ban recording video of police
An Arizona law that would make it illegal to create video recordings of police in certain circumstances will not go into effect Sept. 24 as planned, after a federal judge temporarily blocked its enforcement. The judge on Friday morning granted a temporary injunction of the law, essentially putting the law on hold while a court […]
No one wants to defend the new AZ law that makes filming police officers a crime
All three of the defendants in a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition of news organizations and civil libertarians say they won’t defend a law set to go into effect later this month that would make it a crime to take video of police officers in some situations. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including […]
The Senate can use legislative privilege to shield some ‘audit’ records: Arizona Supreme Court
If the Arizona Senate provides more detailed explanations for why it says some records related to the partisan election review it conducted in 2021 are privileged and can’t be made public, those records should remain secret, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. In a long-running legal battle over records related to the so-called “audit” of […]
Finchem, Gosar and Kern must pay ex-Dem lawmaker’s $75,000 legal fees for ‘groundless’ lawsuit
Republican secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar and former GOP state legislator Anthony Kern must pay $75,000 in attorney’s fees to a former Democratic state lawmaker they sued after a judge said the lawsuit was “primarily for purposes of harassment.” In February 2021, the three Republicans filed a lawsuit against Charlene […]
Arizona Supreme Court keeps sweeping election ballot measure in limbo
A ballot initiative that would overhaul Arizona election and campaign finance laws is tentatively approved for voters to consider in the November election — but that could change Friday if the Arizona Supreme Court doesn’t like how a trial judge counted the initiative’s signatures. Nearly two hours after the 5 p.m. Thursday deadline that Maricopa […]