Republican precinct committeemen in Legislative District 23 voted unanimously Wednesday evening to censure 24 Republicans for their roles in the ouster of State Representative Liz Harris (R-Chandler). Eighteen were state representatives who voted to expel Harris, three (including one of the 18) served on the House Ethics Committee, which found that Harris had violated House Rule 1 prohibiting impugning other members, and the other four were the Republican members of the Maricopa County Supervisors (MCBOS) who chose her replacement.
Harris (pictured above) was expelled from the Arizona Legislature in a 46-13 vote by the house for putting on testimony from Jacqueline Breger, who worked for John Harris Thaler of Harris/Thaler Law Corporation. Breger accused several elected officials, including state legislators, of orchestrating fraudulent deeds associated with the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. No evidence appears to have been provided conclusively proving that the officials were complicit.
The censure accused the House Ethics Committee of focusing “on illegally obtained private text messages that were negligently allowed into the hearing,” even though “a cease-and-desist letter was submitted to the committee chair prior to their ruling.” Thaler sent the letter after text messages between himself, Breger, and Harris were provided anonymously to the House Majority General Counsel’s desk in an envelope.” It’s disputed who dropped off the text messages.
The censure also stated that the House Ethics Committee failed to propose a Code of Conduct as required by A.R.S. 38-519(b). That section of the statute provides, “Each ethics committee shall propose, and each house of the legislature shall adopt, not later than thirty days after the beginning of the first regular legislative session, a code of ethics and conflict of interest requirements as part of the rules of the respective house in the same manner as other rules are adopted.” The censure also cited House Rule 37, which contains similar language. The censure accused the committee of “committing Disorderly Behavior themselves” for not doing so.
State Representative Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale), who chairs the Ethics Committee, did not vote to expel Harris, and had the Ethics Committee leave the discipline up to House leadership. He told The Arizona Sun Times, “The Ethics Committee is not responsible for creating the code of conduct. Also, House Rule 37 mentions a Code of Conduct but does not require the House to have the Code of Conduct approved by members by any particular date.”
He explained, “The Ethics Committee does not make the Code of Conduct or House rules. The speaker and leadership does. The House complied with that statute by enacting House rule 33 (Code of Ethics).”
In regards to the house members who voted to expel Harris, the censure stated that members of the house failed to do their own investigation outside of the ethics committee, did not “understand their own rules or lack thereof and apply the Arizona Constitution correctly.” It also said they committed disorderly conduct by failing to adopt a code of conduct.
The Republicans on the MCBOS were censured for failing to investigate “the legitimacy of the expulsion” and not taking steps to undo the expulsion.
All 24 of the censured Republicans were accused of violating Article 2, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution, which requires “[a] frequent recurrence to fundamental principles, and Article 2, Section 1, which states that “[a]ll political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
They were also accused of violating Article 2, Section 5, which provides for the right to petition and peaceably assemble, and Article 2, Section 6, freedom of speech.
The censure banned the 24 from LD 23 meetings, said LD 23 PCs would no longer assist them with political campaigns, and urged the 24 to resign and withdraw their candidacies for reelection.
Multiple anonymous sources told The Sun Times previously that house leadership did not agree upon a lesser punishment because it would likely lead to Republicans losing their slim 1-vote majority in the house. Democrats didn’t want expulsion, the sources said; they wanted to censure Harris and then start a recall of her in order to replace her with a Democrat.
Since Harris represented a swing district, if the Democrats conducted a heavily funded campaign, a recall could be possible. In 2011, Democrats ousted popular Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) from his Republican-leaning district due to his sponsorship of SB 1070, a bill that comprehensively cracked down on illegal immigration.
Several other legislative districts have also censured the representatives who voted to oust Harris, but some of the legislative districts where the censures were proposed did not vote to pass them.
Censures can hurt elected officials’ chances of reelection. After former House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa) was heavily censured for opposing election integrity bills, he was defeated in the 2022 primary election by over 20 points. Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, who was also heavily censured for vocally criticizing election integrity efforts related to the 2020 and 2022 elections, recently announced that he will not be running for reelection. The 24 censured Republicans are listed below.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
- Chairman Clint Hickman
- Vice Chairman Jack Sellers
- Thomas Galvin
- Bill Gates
House Ethics Committee
- Chairman Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale)
- Speaker Pro Tempore Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert)
- Gail Grifffin (R-Hereford)
Representatives who voted yes on expulsion
- Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu)
- Selina Bliss (R-Prescott)
- Michael Carbone (R-Buckeye)
- Lupe Diaz (R-Benson)
- Tim Dunn (R-Yuma)
- John Gillette (R-Kingman)
- Speaker Pro Tempore Travis Grantham (R-Gilbert)
- Matt Gress (R-Phoenix)
- Laurin Hendrix (R-Gilbert)
- David Livingston (R-Peoria)
- David Marshall, Sr. (R-Snowflake)
- House Whip Teresa Martinez (R-Casa Grande)
- Steve Montenegro (R-Glendale)
- Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott)
- Michele Peña (R-Yuma)
- Beverly Pingerelli (R-Peoria)
- Justin Wilmeth (R-Phoenix)
- Speaker of the House Ben Toma (R-Peoria)
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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 “Liz Harris” by Liz Harris. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Wars. CC BY-SA 3.0.
