Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican (pictured above, left), is in hot water with Republicans after representing the Maricopa County Supervisors (MCBOS) twice, asking for sanctions against Kari Lake over her election lawsuits. A judge dismissed the second request a couple of weeks ago, prompting the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) to censure Mitchell this week.
Brian Ference, a member at large with the MCRC and behind many of the group’s recent censures, told The Arizona Sun Times, “The recent censures show an unprecedented level of unity of Republicans holding their elected officials accountable. Just like with Rusty Bowers, the critical part is to take them as a call to action to door knock and inform the voters and then primary them.”
Bowers was the Speaker of the House until 2022 when he lost reelection in the primary by over 20 points due to an immense effort to oust him by America First and MAGA Republicans. Bowers frequently killed election integrity bills and voted against many of them.
The censure resolution stated in part, “Whereas Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a registered Republican, officially authorized filing a specious motion — No. CV2022-095403 — with the Maricopa County Superior Court, cosigned by former MCRC Chairman Tom Liddy, to ‘impose sanctions for attorney misconduct before the court, moving] for an award of sanctions against Plaintiff-Contestant’ Republican Governor Candidate in the 2022 General Election ‘Kari Lake and her counsel,’ a motion ultimately and completely rejected by the court…”
BREAKING: At tonight's official meeting of the Maricopa County Republican Committee Executive Guidance Committee (MCRC EGC), the MCRC EGC formally censured Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.#MCRC #EGC #Stands #Strong for #ElectionIntegrity pic.twitter.com/T9wkpnjFt7
— Maricopa County Republican Committee | MCRC (@MaricopaGOP) June 7, 2023
The resolution alluded to other objectionable actions Mitchell took: “Whereas Maricopa County Government and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office generally persist in a wide-ranging multitude of ongoing dishonorable behaviors directly and dangerously undermining the integrity of Maricopa County public elections…”
In addition to censuring Mitchell, the resolution “strongly encourages interested, motivated, and qualified Republicans — who commit to honor and uphold the founding documents identified in the MCRC Objective — to run in the 2024 Primary Election for the Office of Maricopa County Attorney.”
Mitchell was not required to represent the MCBOS in the requests; she could have recused herself. Maricopa County has a long history of the Maricopa County Attorney disagreeing with the MCBOS, resulting in MCBOS hiring its own outside counsel to represent it in controversial litigation. Alternatively, Mitchell could have also asked a DA from another county to represent the MCBOS.
Mitchell first represented the MCBOS requesting sanctions against Lake and Mark Finchem over their lawsuit attempting to stop using electronic voting machine tabulators in the 2022 election. U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, sanctioned the pair and their attorneys last December, unlike similar lawsuits objecting to the tabulators filed around the country, where judges declined to award sanctions.
Mitchell next represented the MCBOS asking for sanctions against Lake for challenging the gubernatorial election results. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who twice ruled against Lake after holding two brief trials of limited scope, issued a short ruling dismissing the sanctions that didn’t even address most of the defendants’ arguments.
Thompson said, “Plaintiff’s failure to establish her claim by clear and convincing evidence does not equate to bringing a claim ‘without substantial justification’ as ‘groundless’ and ‘not made in good faith.’ Even if her argument did not prevail, Lake, through her witness, presented facts consistent with and in support of her legal argument.”
He criticized the defendants’ motion.
“This view mistakenly looks beyond trial to the ultimate resolution of the merits and does not allow for presentation of evidence to prove a disputed claim.” Lake has since filed her appeal of Thompson’s second rejection of her case with the Arizona Court of Appeals,” Thompson said.
Mitchell ran on a platform calling herself a conservative in campaign emails and obtaining endorsements from some of the most conservative state legislators. One of her campaign emails was titled “George Soros is at it again!”
However, when Mitchell was first being considered to replace previous Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel, she responded to a questionnaire provided to candidates by the MCBOS asserting that the MCBOS did not err in certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Since the MCBOS got Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas disbarred, succeeding DAs have hesitated to challenge the MCBOS.
Possible names being circulated to primary Mitchell include Gina Godbehere, who ran against her in the primary last year; Abe Hamadeh, who is still challenging his 280-vote loss to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes; and Jen Wright, who is representing Hamadeh in his lawsuit and who served under Brnovich as his Election Integrity Unit civil attorney.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rachell Mitchell” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo “Kari Lake” by The Kari Lake. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol Building” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
