State Representative Justin Heap Enters Race for Maricopa County Recorder, Cites 300,000 Disenfranchised Republican Voters in 2022

Justin Heap

State Representative Justin Heap (R-Mesa) announced at the State Capitol during a press conference on Wednesday that he will enter the Republican primary race for Maricopa County Recorder, challenging incumbent Stephen Richer.

Richer has come under extensive criticism for maintaining that there were only minor problems during the 2022 election, fighting back through the courts against attempts to obtain public records about the election and other related election integrity lawsuits.

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D.C. Court of Appeals Panel Gives Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark a Unanimous Victory on Subpoena Violating His Fifth Amendment Rights

A panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Monday that the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) unconstitutionally subpoenaed documents from former President Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.

In addition to facing ODC disciplinary charges for his role in assisting Trump in handling the 2020 presidential election irregularities, Clark was indicted along with Trump and others in Georgia and is an unnamed co-conspirator in another case. The court issued its decision immediately after a hearing on Friday.

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Cochise County Supervisors Fight AG Kris Mayes’ Prosecution Over Delaying Vote Certification; File Motions to Dismiss, Request New Grand Jury

Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd

Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd are fighting back against Attorney General Kris Mayes’ prosecution of them for voting to delay certification of the 2022 election by three days. The pair filed motions last week requesting that the case be dismissed and challenging the grand jury’s finding of probable cause against them. 

In Crosby’s Motion to Dismiss, which Judd joined later, Crosby’s attorney Dennis Wilenchik said, “The criminal statute involved is vague and ambiguous and overbroad, and unconstitutional as applied here to a member of a Board of Supervisors of a County voting in his official capacity. The case was brought purely for political purposes by the Attorney General and is an egregious abuse of her powers.”

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Maricopa County Judge Recuses Himself from Election-Related Case Due to Activist Brother’s Social Media Posts Denigrating Republican Election Lawsuits

Judge

Opposition is increasing to the judges assigned to handle election related lawsuits in Arizona, as their biases are being revealed. After Arizona Senate Majority leader Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) requested that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan recuse himself from their lawsuit challenging the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) because of his progressive activist older brother’s posts on X, Ryan voluntarily recused himself. 

The Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus issued an announcement praising the recusal. “His brother, Tom Ryan, is a liberal attorney who plagues social media with his contempt for the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature with an incessant number of juvenile posts,” the statement said. “There is no way anyone who has witnessed the antics of Judge Ryan’s brother, which included case-specific criticisms and commentary, can credibly believe that Judge Ryan could give the Legislature a fair trial.”

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Opposition Increasing to Eliminating Road Lanes in Scottsdale

Bike Riders

The Scottsdale City Council (SCC) has been approving plans to eliminate lanes on roads in the city and replace them with bicycle lanes, known as “road diets.” This is causing a wave of concern from Scottsdale residents over the increasing traffic congestion. A road diet that was approved last March particularly angered residents since it was located in the city’s popular Old Town entertainment district. Mason Gates, one of the candidates running for the SCC this year, has made opposition to them a priority.

Gates spoke at an SCC meeting on February 20 against road diets. He said he had a discussion with a business owner located near the Old Town road diet, who said he was not consulted in preliminary talks before the SCC decided to construct a road diet there. Protect Scottsdale reported that 23 business owners in the vicinity signed a petition opposing the road diet, but their concerns were dismissed. According to Gates, Rich Bonura, the owner of BEG Bakery, told him “he often sees buses, semi-trucks, and other vehicles parked in the bike lane that is intended for cyclists. This can pose a grave danger for cyclists who need to avoid parked vehicles by swerving into traffic lanes where drivers may not expect to see them.”

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Goldwater Institute Sues Department of Education over ‘Unprecedented’ $37 Million Fine Assessed Against Arizona’s Christian Grand Canyon University

Grand Canyon University

The Goldwater Institute (GI) sued the U.S. Department of Education last week over fining Grand Canyon University (GCU) almost $40 million.

The fine was purportedly for “insufficiently inform[ing] PhD students that they may have to take continuing courses while completing their doctoral dissertations,” GI said in a press release. GI noted that the $37 million fine against the Christian university “is 10 times bigger than penalties the Education Department assessed against Penn State and Michigan State for covering up the sexual crimes of Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar.”

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Deer Valley Unified School District Board Member Paul Carver Offers Insights for Parents Concerned with K-12 Issues Today

A couple of Arizona’s largest school districts have been rocked with scandals lately, mainly over administrations trying to implement woke agendas.

However, the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD), located in northwest Phoenix and surrounding cities, has escaped much of the controversy. Paul Carver, who sits on the governing board, said he believes it is because his district stresses transparency and teamwork. He said the superintendent has regular interfaith meetings, which have been transferred to Zoom since COVID-19, and the superintendent and many board members try to include everyone regardless of demographics.

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Abe Hamadeh Files Response to Arizona Election Officials’ Motions to Dismiss His Quo Warranto Action to Remove Kris Mayes from Office

Abe Hamadeh

Abe Hamadeh continues his election litigation challenging his 280-vote loss to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, including filing a Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto to remove Mayes from office. This past week, he filed a response to the Arizona officials’ Motions to Dismiss that lawsuit.

Represented by Ryan Heath of Heath Law, Hamadeh laid out the status of the case in the opening of his 43-page Response. “Respondent Kris Mays, Defendant Fontes, and the Maricopa County Defendants seek to deny Petitioner and many other voters their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Arizona Constitution for the sake of expediency,” he said. “The Maricopa County Defendants also seek to avoid accountability for their failures, which plausibly resulted in thousands (and likely hundreds of thousands) of illegal votes affecting the results of the 2022 General Election for the office of Attorney General (the ‘Contested Race’). Due to Maricopa County officials’ lack of candor, the circumstances permitting Petitioner to bring this action were not known — and could not have been known — until more than half a year after the official canvass was taken for the Contested Race.’

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes over ‘Illegal’ and ‘Most Radical’ Elections Procedures Manual in Arizona’s History

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit last week against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, accusing him of making illegal changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). Represented by the America First Policy Institute, Davillier Law Group, and Grand Canyon Legal Center, AFEC said the revisions improperly place protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and have an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech.

“Secretary Fontes has produced one of the most radical elections procedures manuals in our state’s history,” said Scot Mussi, AFEC’s president. “If the illegal provisions of this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of state elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. We hope the court agrees with our arguments and forces the Secretary to adhere to state law.”

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We the People AZ Alliance Introduces AVII Ballot Hand Count Method to Senate Elections Committee, Already Adopted by Maricopa County Republicans

Shelby Busch

The Senate Elections Committee heard a presentation from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) co-founder Shelby Busch on Monday regarding its plan for restoring trust in elections by including hand counts of ballots.

Both the Arizona Republican Party, the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC), and Arkansas Republicans have already implemented the AVII method, which is known as the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, in its party elections. Republicans in Arkansas want to make the AVII method law by putting the question to voters as a constitutional amendment.

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Gina Godbehere Jumps into Maricopa County Attorney Primary Race Against Incumbent Rachel Mitchell

Gina Godbehere

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell will face the same challenger in the Republican primary this year as she did in the 2022 special election Gina Godbehere.

Godbehere announced her campaign last week. The Maricopa County Supervisors chose Mitchell in early 2022 to replace the previous county attorney, Alistar Adel, who resigned from office due to health issues. Adel passed away in 2022. Mitchell has accumulated considerable criticism from Republicans for actions such as representing the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) twice, asking for sanctions against Kari Lake’s election attorneys.

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America First Legal Lawsuit Against Maricopa County Over Election Illegalities Raises Issues Other Judges Previously Found Had Merit in 2020 Election Cases

America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Maricopa County, alleging numerous violations of election law since 2020. Some of the issues raised in the complaint were brought up in similar lawsuits brought around the country challenging irregularities in the 2020 election, where judges found they had merit.

The AFL listed eight issues in its complaint, and mainly asked for declaratory judgment to stop the county from repeating the wrongdoing and comply with law. The first was lack of chain of custody for tens of thousands of ballots, a class 2 misdemeanor. The second was failure to conduct reconciliation as required by law, which refers to comparing the number of votes cast at polling centers to the number of voters who checked in. The third was the failure of the voting center printers, disenfranchising voters. The fourth was the racially discriminatory location of vote centers, disadvantaging Native Americans and whites who lived farther from the locations than others. 

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The Pima Integrity Project and CONELRAD Group Expose ‘Malfeasance,’ ‘Maladministration’ and Possible RICO Violations in Pima County’s Recent Elections

The CONELRAD Group, a team of mostly former intelligence and military officers located primarily in southern Arizona that exposed what it believes is malfeasance in Pinal County’s 2022 election, has teamed up with the Pima Integrity Project (PIP) to expose similar malfeasance in Pima County’s elections. Led by database expert Tim Laux, the group of election researchers in PIP said it believes it found doctored canvassing reports and large numbers of newly registered voters who voted before they were eligible, among other illegal activities.

Jack Dona of CONELRAD told The Arizona Sun Times the findings could rise to the level of criminal racketeering. Dona holds 43 intelligence and technical certifications and diplomas from civilian colleges, technical schools, and military academies and served in military intelligence, retiring as a master sergeant/first sergeant.

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Kari Lake’s Attorney Bryan Blehm Files Answer to the State Bar of Arizona’s Disciplinary Charges, Addresses Issue Regarding 35,563 Unaccounted for Ballots

Arizona State Bar

The State Bar of Arizona (SBA) is proceeding with two counts against Kari Lake’s attorney Bryan Blehm for referencing in a brief that 35,563 ballots were unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Maricopa County’s third-party early ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services, and for criticizing the Arizona judiciary. Representing himself, Blehm filed a 94-page Answer to the SBA’s charges on January 25. 

In Count 1, the SBA accused Blehm of “misleading” the Arizona Supreme Court. The first half of the SBA’s case against Blehm consists of claiming that he lied when he stated in a pleading that both parties in Lake’s election challenge agreed that there was a discrepancy of 35,563 ballots unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Runbeck. Blehm asserted in the Lake brief, “The record indisputably reflects at least 35,563 Election Day early ballots, for which there is no record of delivery to Runbeck, were added at Runbeck….” 

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Abe Hamadeh Calls on Blake Masters to Leave Congressional Race Due to ‘Fake Fundraising Numbers’

Abe Hamadeh Blake Masters

Abe Hamadeh called on Blake Masters this week to drop out of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District (CD8) race due to “intentionally misleading voters” about raising $1.3 million.

“I’m officially calling on Blake Masters to drop out of this race,” Hamadeh posted on X. “Blake needs to stop paying his Nikki Haley consultants on a losing endeavor, and stay in his hometown of Tucson to rally behind President Trump this November.”

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Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark Gets Closer to Disciplinary Bar Trial After Status Hearing Reveals Double Standards

A pre-hearing conference was held last month in the bar disciplinary proceedings against Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official under President Donald Trump.

He is being disciplined over a memo he drafted that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options for addressing the illegalities in the 2020 election.

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Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould Sues AG Kris Mayes over Her Threats to Prosecute Him for Voting to Hand Count Ballots

AZ AG Kris Mayes and Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould

Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould filed a lawsuit against Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes over her threat to prosecute him if he voted in favor of conducting a hand count of the 2024 election. He asked the court in the complaint, which was filed on January 19, to rule “[t]hat Plaintiff should not be subjected to threats and intimidation by the Attorney General for voting to have hand counting be the primary initial method of vote tabulation.”

Represented by Wilenchik & Bartness, Gould described the threat, “This case is about an elected official potentially losing his liberty and being jailed as a criminal, if Defendant Mayes is correct, for voting according to his conscience, and pursuant to the will of his constituents, based on election statutes that appear not to bar his intended support for vote counting based on hand counting and not the use of electronic voting machines.”

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The New York Times Fails to Report Accurately on Election of New AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda, an Election Integrity Champion

Election integrity champion Gina Swoboda was elected chair of the Arizona Republican Party on Saturday, prompting negative coverage from the mainstream media. Endorsed by both Donald Trump and Kari Lake, she won the election in a landslide over another MAGA conservative, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor, but The New York Times portrayed the election as chaotic and evidence of the party’s “yawning ideological divide.” 

The article said Swoboda “runs a nonprofit group that has falsely claimed to have found huge discrepancies in voting records in a number of states.” The article linked to a piece by ProPublica which reported on the work of Swoboda’s Voter Reference Foundation (VoteRef). VoteRef discovered discrepancies between the number of voters and the number of ballots cast in numerous states. ProPublica cited objections to the report from several election officials as evidence the work was invalid. 

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Donald Trump and Kari Lake Endorse Election Integrity Leader Gina Swoboda for AZGOP Chair, Election Tomorrow

Gina Swoboda

Donald Trump and Kari Lake announced their endorsement Friday of the Voter Reference Foundation’s Gina Swoboda for Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) chair. Jeff DeWit was forced to resign this past week after a recording was released of him attempting to convince Lake to stay out of politics for two years by offering her a well-paying job instead. The election will be held on Saturday at the AZGOP’s annual mandatory meeting for state committeemen.

Lake announced the endorsements on X Friday evening. “I am proud to join President Trump in endorsing Gina Swoboda to become Arizona GOP’s next Chair at tomorrow’s vote,” she said. “Gina has never backed away from working for honest elections, and she is respected in the Republican Party. I am confident that Gina will help deliver Arizona for President Trump and flip control of the U.S. Senate.”

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Newly-Resigned AZGOP Chair Jeff DeWit Told NBC ‘No One Believes Kari Can Attract Independents’ and Win Senate Race

Jeff DeWit

Information regarding a recorded conversation between newly-resigned Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit and Kari Lake continues to trickle out as speculation increases regarding who the “very powerful people” “Back East” were who told him to offer her a job to keep her out of politics for two years. An inside source told The Arizona Sun Times that it was the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which was denied by NRSC Chair Senator Steve Daines (R-MT).

DeWit told NBC News after resigning that the offer “had everything to do with her being a drag on the ticket. There are people who want to make sure we win the election and that’s it. No one believes she can get across the finish line, particularly with independents.” Lake is running for U.S. Senate and is a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, with some circulating her name as a possible vice presidential candidate. She flew to New Hampshire before the primary on Tuesday.

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NRSC Silent on Whether It Was Behind AZGOP Chair’s Offer of Money from ‘Back East’ for Kari Lake to Stay Out of Politics

Jeff DeWit

Jeff DeWit, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP), resigned on Wednesday after an audio recording was leaked revealing him offering Kari Lake money and a job if she stayed out of politics for two years. Now, questions are arising as to who told DeWit to make the offer.

The former chair of AZGOP said “very powerful people” “Back East” were behind it. A source knowledgeable of the situation told The Arizona Sun Times that it was the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), naming Political Director Tim Edson. However, when The Sun Times asked the NRSC if this was true, the organization did not respond.

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Kari Lake Holds Press Conference Discussing Newly Resigned AZGOP Chair’s Financial Offer to Get Her Out of Politics

Kari Lake held a press conference on Rumble Wednesday evening to discuss revelations from a newly released recording of a conversation last March between herself and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit, who was forced to resign after it came out. In the recording, DeWit is heard attempting to convince Lake to drop out of politics for a couple of years in exchange for a well-paying job, prompting an outcry that forced his resignation on Tuesday. Lake fielded questions from both reporters and other viewers during her talk, which lasted around half an hour.

One of the questions asked of Lake was whether she knew who DeWit was referring to when he told her “very powerful people” “Back East” were behind the offer. Lake said she didn’t know, but said D.C. was so corrupt it would be possible to come up with a list of 400 to 500 people or groups that could be behind it.

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Audio Recording: AZGOP Chair Jeff DeWit Allegedly Attempted to Offer Money to Kari Lake to Stay Out of Politics

Dewit Lake

The Daily Mail released an audio recording of Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit allegedly trying to convince Kari Lake to stay out of politics for two years by suggesting he could find her a well-paying nonpolitical job in the private sector. He said during the call, which was reportedly recorded at the beginning of March last year, “So the ask I got today from back East was, ‘Is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll to keep her out?’”

Lake responded and declined, ”’This is about defeating Trump and I think that’s a bad, bad thing for our country.” Later, he brought it up again, “Just say, is there a number at which….” he began. Lake cut in, “I can be bought? That’s what it’s about.” DeWit responded, “You can take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you’re doing.” She continued to object, “This is not about money, it’s about our country,” and said she wouldn’t even take a billion dollars. She said she would not be “bought,” calling it “immoral.” 

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Concerns Arise over Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer Using Taxpayer Funds to Feature Himself in Election Year Ad Campaign

Stephen Richer

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer launched a taxpayer-funded ad campaign about voting featuring himself earlier this month.

The ads discuss the county’s voter dashboard, beballotready.vote, and assert that his office will clean up voter rolls. The ads were placed on broadcast TV, radio, and YouTube — including during conservative podcasts — Facebook, X, Instagram, and Reddit.

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Arizona Supreme Court Intervenes in Recorder’s Defamation Case Against Kari Lake; Puts Proceedings on Hold to Consider Early Appeal

The Arizona Supreme Court has placed a defamation lawsuit that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed against Kari Lake on hold. The court said no more proceedings in the lawsuit can take place in the trial court until Richer responds to Lake’s Petition for Review she filed with the higher court. While higher courts don’t usually intervene until a case has made its way through trial court proceedings, Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law  First Amendment Clinic joined Lake in her defense requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed, a sign the clinic may believe Richer’s lawsuit is without merit. 

Lake told The Arizona Sun Times, “This is a censorship case — pure and simple. The government official suing me is being represented by Obama- and Soros-linked attorneys. Stephen Richer ran banana-Republic style elections in Maricopa County and he doesn’t want to be held accountable. His use of tyrannical lawfare is an assault on our freedom of speech and is election interference designed to distract me from the very important United States Senate race where I am the leading candidate. He is OK with the First Amendment being trampled so he can save face.”

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Almost 40 Percent of New Hampshire Voters are Unaffiliated, Can Vote in GOP Primary and Possibly Skew Results

With efforts to close New Hampshire’s presidential primary likely failing, the state’s primary could be determined by the state’s independent voters, who make up nearly 40 percent of the state’s electorate.

Republicans make up significantly fewer voters, 29.82 percent, and Democrats slightly more, at 30.28 percent. Since President Joe Biden has no significant challengers in the state’s Democratic primary, many Democrats were expected to register as independents — known as undeclared voters in the state — to sway the Republican primary.

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New Hampshire Republican Officials Suffer Setback in Effort to Close State’s GOP Presidential Primary, Assert That Previous Open Primaries Violated the Law

People Voting

An attempt to close the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary election to allow only Republican voters has failed so far, even though opening it to all voters may have violated the law. Karen Testerman, who serves as chair of the Merrimack County Republican Committee, unsuccessfully ran for governor, and whose husband is New Hampshire State Representative David Testerman (R-Franklin), drafted a resolution that was adopted by the New Hampshire Republican Party a year ago demanding that New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan close the primaries. She also sued him last fall, but the lawsuit was dismissed on January 9, with the judge stating Testerman and the other plaintiffs did not have standing.

According to The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism (NHCPIJ), Scanlan said he couldn’t close the primary until he received a letter from the New Hampshire Republican Party (NHGOP) chair instructing him to do so, citing RSA 659:14-2 in Special Provisions for State and Presidential Primary Elections. 

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Republicans at Annual Maricopa GOP Meeting Pass Resolution Asking Arizona Legislature to Conduct 2024 Election by Hand Count

Maricopa County Republicans voted to pass a resolution last Saturday at the annual mandatory meeting for precinct commiteemen demanding that the Arizona Legislature conduct the presidential election in November using election integrity measures such as voting in-person only with only limited exceptions. The resolution states that the legislature has the authority to implement this under the U.S. Constitution. By doing so, they could get around Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoing bills to accomplish these measures. Legislative District (LD) 3 Republicans passed the resolution unanimously on November 30 last year.

The resolution, authored by grassroots activist Josh Barnett, who is running for state senate in LD 2, strongly urges the legislature to use the authority provided in the U.S. Constitution’s Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1, and Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 to select the time, place and manner of federal elections — specifically the presidential election. It asks the legislature to conduct the November 5, 2024 election for president with “voting in-person on Election Day only, requiring proof of U.S. citizenship, Voter ID, precinct-based voting and hand counting, no mail-ins, no machines, allowing absentee ballots only under appropriate mitigating circumstances.”

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Outcomes of the 92 Election Cases from the 2020 Election Reveal Widely Divergent Decisions by Judges: Part 1

The Arizona Sun Times examined the outcomes of the 92 cases challenging problems with the 2020 election and discovered many of the rulings were opposed to each other despite the facts and laws being very similar.

The analysis was based on a comprehensive report compiled by physicist John Droz and a team of statistical PhDs, which refuted the mainstream media’s claim that were 60 lawsuits thrown out on the merits. The report found that only 30 of those cases were decided on merit, and of those 30, Trump and/or the Republican plaintiff prevailed in 22. This analysis, Part One, examines some of the divergent opinions on standing, fraud, and injury.

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Fulton County DA Fani Willis Under Fire for Paying Alleged Married Lover to Prosecute Trump, Bar Complaint Filed

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others connected to him, is facing accusations she violated attorneys ethics rules by appointing her married lover as chief prosecutor on the case. The accusation was raised in a pleading filed on Monday by a lawyer for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staff member who also faces charges in the case along with 13 others. A bar complaint was filed with the State Bar of Georgia.

On Tuesday, Trump reacted to the news, calling Willis “totally compromised” and stating that the case “must be dropped.” He added, “It’s illegal. What she did is illegal. So we’ll let the state handle that, but what a sad situation it is.” 

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Riley Gaines, Other Prominent Female Athletes Protest NCAA Convention in Phoenix For Allowing Transgenders in Women’s Sports

Some of the top female athletes in the country, including swimmer Riley Gaines, attended and spoke at a protest Thursday outside the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) convention in downtown Phoenix. Organized by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and numerous other groups, the athletes demanded that the NCAA stop allowing transgender females to compete against women in collegiate sports, and each one spoke about their own experiences.

Gaines opened the event, which took place at the Marvin A. Andrews Plaza outside Phoenix City Hall. Gaines is a 12-time All-American swimmer and IWF ambassador. She said allowing men who identify as women to compete against women “is not progressive, it is regressive. It’s taking us back in time at least half a century. … Title 9 was enacted and enforced to protect women and girls, not men who want to be like us.” She repeated a line featured on the signs the women held, “We have come too far to be erased.”

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Public Records Request Reveals Cochise County Attorney Had Even Higher BAC Level, Pleaded to Only Simple DUI

A public records request revealed that Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre had a BAC level from a blood test higher than he originally blew on a breathalyzer the night he was arrested for drunk driving. McIntyre agreed to a plea deal, which was reported in the media as an Extreme DUI, but the plea agreement, which The Cochise County Record obtained, reveals he pleaded guilty to a regular DUI.

The plea agreement, which was signed by McIntyre and accepted by the court on February 16, 2023, cited the lowest level of a DUI, A.R.S. 28-1381, which is a class 1 misdemeanor.

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Democrats Target Election Integrity Champion State Sen. Jake Hoffman, Drive Billboard Around His District

Democrats are targeting State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), a champion of election integrity, by driving a truck around his district with a lit-up billboard apparently referencing him. It said, “Arizona’s fake electors tried to steal your voice in 2020. Don’t let them do it again in 2024.” Hoffman was one of 11 Republican electors chosen by Arizona Republican leadership as a possible alternate slate after the 2020 election due to concerns about election illegalities. The truck was seen driving on January 6, the anniversary of the J6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.

Hoffman responded and posted photos of the truck on X. “Extremist Democrats in Arizona think that driving a billboard around my district lying about me and defaming me will scare me into resigning,” he said. “IT WON’T. IT STRENGTHENS MY RESOLVE. It makes me fight harder for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to save this country.” 

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Arizona Father of Five Arrested Twice for Protesting COVID-19 Restrictions Continues His Efforts to Protect Children

Kelly Walker, a journalist and father of five in Tucson, is expanding his efforts to protect children from bad policies in schools despite being arrested and prosecuted after one school pushed back. Since the bad experience, he’s built a platform of advocacy for parents and children harmed by school policies at Real Freedom Talk. He now produces videos about abuses in schools and appears on major talk shows to discuss his experiences and expose what is happening in Tucson schools.

Walker said what prompted his activism was observing the increase in mental health problems among children due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. A student committed suicide near his home, and the suicide rate among children in Pima County increased 30 percent. A nearby school admitted they had locked students in closets and forgotten about them. He said parents from the community came to his former coffee shop, Viva Coffee House, and asked him if he could do something about it.

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Radio Host Bradlee Dean Speaks to Arizona Tea Party Activists About His Ministry to High School Assemblies and More

Bradlee Dean, founder of the nonprofit Christian organization You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide International (YCRBYCHI) and host of the radio show Sons of Liberty, spoke to the Grassroots Tea Party Activists of Arizona Thursday evening in the West Valley. Dean, an ordained minister and drummer for the Junkyard Prophet, a Christian rock band, founded YCRBYCHI in 1997, which gives presentations to students at school assemblies across the country. 

The fiery, entertaining Dean started his radio show in 2002, which is now nationally syndicated. He produced a mini-series documentary in 2011 titled My War, where he “slings rocks at the political, social, and immoral giants of our time and confronts society’s ills.” He said his band has “purposely turned down 5 record deals in order to maintain control of their uncompromising message.” The Minnesota native wrote a regular column for WND until 2017.

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Censorship Concerns Rise over State and Local Governments Registering Their Domain Names with CISA

Pinal County’s website, Maricopa County’s website, and other government websites across the country recently switched their registrars from the federal government’s General Services Administration to a new registrar started by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

CISA has come under heightened scrutiny in recent years for targeting “disinformation” through its Disinformation Governance Board. The board works with Big Tech to shut down unpopular information about COVID-19, elections, and other controversial topics.

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Abe Hamadeh Files a Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto to Remove Attorney General Kris Mayes from Office

Republican Abe Hamadeh, who is still contesting his election loss to Democrat Kris Mayes in the attorney general’s race by 280 votes, filed a Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto & Writ of Mandamus Civil in Maricopa County Superior Court on December 28 asking to remove Mayes from office. He also asked to purge Maricopa County’s voter registration records of any “inappropriate signatures” from vote-by-mail affidavit envelopes, void its canvass in the attorney general’s race, and either order the county to redo signature verification from the election using voters’ signatures on their voter registration or order a new election.

Hamadeh posted on X, quoting his attorney Ryan Heath, “NEW LAWSUIT FILED. Arizonans deserve JUSTICE. My legal team has filed a writ of quo warranto to remove Kris Mayes from office. ‘Kris Mayes, has usurped, intruded into or unlawfully holds or exercises the public office of Arizona’s Attorney General.’ – @Ryan_L_Heath”

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Judge Allows Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Kari Lake for Accusing Him of Election Improprieties to Proceed

A defamation lawsuit that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed against Kari Lake is being allowed to proceed, despite the fact Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law  First Amendment Clinic joined Lake in her defense requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed.  Richer’s lawsuit, which is being paid for by the Protect Democracy Project,  accused Lake of falsely stating that he intentionally sabotaged the election. Approximately 300,000 ballots in the 2022 election lacked a chain of custody, a class 2 misdemeanor, but the county has strenuously fought litigation efforts to allow Lake to inspect the ballot affidavit envelopes and other requests from her and voter integrity groups related to the election anomalies.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman, who heard oral arguments on Lake’s Motion to Dismiss on December 19, issued his ruling denying the motion that same day. He indicated he already found Lake guilty without putting on a trial first. “In the Court’s view, Defendant Lake’s statements are ‘provably false’ under prevailing Arizona law,” he said.

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State Bar of Arizona Suspends License of Former Maricopa County Prosecutor April Sponsel for Two Years Over Prosecuting Antifa

The State Bar of Arizona’s disciplinary judge Margaret Downie, along with a hearing panel of two others, suspended the law license of longtime Maricopa County prosecutor April Sponsel on December 19 mainly for prosecuting multiple people at an Antifa riot that took place in downtown Phoenix on October 17, 2020 after the death of George Floyd. The 71-page Decision and Order Imposing Sanctions also faulted her decision to charge a thief accused of assaulting police officers. The Arizona bar has come under increasing criticism in recent years for targeting conservative attorneys.

The trial was held in October, with over 8,100 pieces of evidence, including documents and videos, and 30 witnesses testifying. In February 2021, then-Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel made a decision to dismiss all the charges. ABC-15 credited their reporting with the reason for the dismissal. “On February 12, 2021, MCAO dismissed the gang charges against protesters following a week of intense scrutiny because of ABC15’s reporting,” the news site said. The station interviewed the rioters and portrayed them as peaceful protesters.

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New Documentary ‘State of Denial’ Goes Over Election Illegalities in Maricopa County’s 2022 Election, Reveals ‘Intentional Conduct to Sabotage the Election’

State of Denial Arizona

A new documentary released on Wednesday, reveals the full extent of the chaos on Election Day last fall in Maricopa County due to voters unable to feed their ballots into the machines for tabulation. Speropictures released “State of Denial” in a viewing hosted by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) at Pollack Cinemas in Tempe, which is now available free online. The documentary interviewed the key people involved with figuring out how the problem arose, and why nothing happened in the courts to rectify it.

WPAA, which is working with the Kari Lake campaign, posted the documentary on X, along with the statement, “The movie of what the government knows, but will never admit. Kari faces defamation charges for telling the truth, while Scott Jarrett, Stephen Richer and Bill Gates continue to gaslight and lie to the public.”

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Election Fraud Denying Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre Hit with Another Bar Complaint over ‘Super Extreme’ DUI

Brian McIntyre

Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, a Republican, was arrested for a Super Extreme DUI last January and pleaded guilty to Extreme DUI but has received no discipline from the State Bar of Arizona. He blew a .20 percent when arrested, more than two times the legal limit of .08 percent BAC. On Thursday, a concerned Arizona resident filed a bar complaint against him, just three days after State Representative Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) and Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller filed an election-related bar complaint against him.

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AIG Travel Guard Insurance Refuses to Reimburse Families Forced to Cancel Trips to Israel, Claims the Conflict Isn’t an ‘Act of Terror’

Hathaway Family

At least two families were denied reimbursement by their travel insurance company when their trips to Israel were canceled due to the attacks by Hamas. AIG Travel Guard Insurance representatives told the would-be travelers that its policy didn’t cover war, or acts of war, only “acts of terror.” Arizona’s Family On Your Side (AFOYS) interviewed the families and aired coverage of a video showing that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referred to the violence as a terrorist attack, specifically distinguishing it from war. However, AIG will not backtrack on what it told the families, even after AFOYS contacted the company.

Sheri Hathaway, who was denied reimbursement along with her husband and children, told The Arizona Sun Times that she would never use AIG again. They spent nearly $12,000, excluding airfare. “Hamas is a terrorist organization,” she said. “This happened as a terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas and clearly states in their policy that they do cover terrorist incidents, which this clearly was.”

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Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jonathan Isaac Conclude Last Major Day of TPUSA’s Third Annual AmericaFest

Turning Point USA’s third annual AmericaFest ended its third full day on Monday, featuring speeches by Tucker Carlson, Democrat-turned-independent and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and NBA star Jonathan Isaac. Candace Owens was scheduled to speak, but due to giving birth to her third child, she submitted a short speech on video instead.

In her speech, Gabbard criticized “neocon” Nikki Haley, who has positioned herself in the Republican presidential primary race as a moderate. Gabbard lambasted the “Democratic elite” repeatedly.

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Kari Lake, Steve Bannon, Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Headline Second Day of TPUSA’s Third Annual AmericaFest

The second day of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest featured several more prominent conservative speakers Sunday evening. Kari Lake, Steve Bannon, Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-AL-14) riled the crowd up denouncing the Republican establishment and the far left. 

Greene began her talk by observing that “Joe Biden has been in office longer than I’ve been alive.” She said she is “constantly surrounded by people that serve the rest of the world and America last and it makes me so d*** angry every single day that I wrote a book about it.” She said, “They seem to forget that there’s 50 states of the United States of America; they think Ukraine is the 51st state.” 

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Charlie Kirk, Roseanne Barr, and Glenn Beck Headline Opening Night of TPUSA’s AmericaFest to Full Crowd of 13,000

AmericaFest 2023

Turning Point USA’s third annual convention, AmericaFest, opened Friday night at the Phoenix Convention Center featuring headline speeches by founder Charlie Kirk, actress Roseanne Barr, and political commentator Glenn Beck. Kirk told the audience it was their largest conference yet, as well as the largest conservative grassroots multi-day conference ever in U.S. history, with 13,000 in attendance, completely filling the auditorium.

Kirk told attendees that the country is in the midst of a “top-down revolution” led by elites, a cultural revolution that is similar to Mao Tse Tung’s cultural revolution. Those at the conference are the “bottom-up resistance,” the grassroots response. 

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State Rep. Alex Kolodin Sentenced to 18 Months Probation by Arizona Bar for Filing 2020 Election Lawsuits

Alex Kolodin

The State Bar of Arizona has been aggressively pursuing disciplinary charges against attorneys who challenged alleged election irregularities and illegalities in 2020 and 2022. Proceedings against State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) recently concluded with Kolodin accepting an agreement that would allow him to keep his law license, instead serving probation for 18 months.

The Arizona Bar charged Kolodin (pictured above) with several rules often used to disbar conservative attorneys. As part of the agreement, Kolodin admitted his actions violated Rule 42, ERs 3.1 and 8.4(d) of the Arizona Bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct. ER 3.1 prohibits attorneys from bringing “frivolous” lawsuits, and 8.4(d) prohibits attorneys from “engag[ing] in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

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State Bar of Arizona Finds Probable Cause Against Kari Lake’s Three Election Attorneys, Gives Them Opportunity to Admit Guilt

The State Bar of Arizona announced that it found probable cause to pursue disciplinary charges against three attorneys representing Kari Lake in her election-related cases. The attorneys are Bryan Blehm, Kurt Olsen, and Andrew Parker. The charges relate to election lawsuits the three filed for Lake. The Arizona Bar has increasingly come under criticism for targeting conservative attorneys.

Blehm, who is accused by the Arizona Bar of criticizing the Arizona Supreme Court for setting up a disinformation task force, told The Arizona Sun Times, “If the ethical rules can be interpreted such that lawyers must remain silent in the face of unconstitutional conduct by the very courts they serve then I question the validity of those ethical rules and/or the veracity of those interpreting them. We are duty bound as attorneys to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and that is the proper function of the courts. When the courts themselves violate the Constitution somebody must say something because there is nowhere left for the people to turn. When our courts fail us, we are no longer a constitutional republic.”

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Arizona Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on Dispute over the State’s Two Restrictive Abortion Laws

The Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case involving challenges to Arizona’s 1864 law that mostly banned abortion. The Arizona Legislature passed a law in 2022 banning abortions after 15 weeks, anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson. The reversal also revived the older law, which was initially passed when Arizona was still a territory. In October 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals found that the two laws were in conflict, and placed an injunction on the older law from going into effect as to physicians, effectively allowing abortions to take place up to 15 weeks under the new law.

Since Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to pursue the case after the appeals court ruling, Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, an obstetrician and medical director of Choices Pregnancy Center in Arizona, filed a petition in March asking the state’s high court to review the ruling and the injunction, which it agreed to do. Former Attorney General Mark Brnovich had initially asked a court to reinstate the original pro-life law, which was blocked in 1973 due to Roe, but the trial court’s revival of the law was quickly reversed by the appeals court. 

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