Know what the two election-denying counties in AZ have in common? Republican former legislators in significant elected offices.

Not that there are any insignificant ones...though Katie Hobbs might argue that some are more significant than others. :)

Two Arizona counties, Cochise and Mohave, have proclaimed that they won't certify their election results until the last minute, if even then.

The two counties are located in diametrically opposite parts of the state, with Cochise being in the southeast corner of the state while Mohave is in the northwest corner. 

From the University of Arizona -

While the counties are in opposite parts of the state, they do share something in common....aside from being dusty and rural Republican strongholds.

In Cochise County, the elected Recorder is David Stevens, a former state representative.  He was in the lege from 2009 thru 2016.  He regularly earned failing grades from organizations like the Sierra Club and laudatory grades from organizations like the Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Small Business Association when there.  He also regularly sponsored or cosponsored a litany of anti-voter and anti-choice bills.

In Mohave County, one member of the board of supervisors there is Ron Gould, a former state senator, one who makes Attila the Hun look like a bleeding heart liberal.

To be sure, the election-denying extremism in Arizona isn't limited to *former* legislators:

Outgoing state senator Kelly Townsend has issued a baseless subpoena to Maricopa County over the 2022 election.

Returning state senator Ken Bennett was the face of the "fraudit."

Newby state representative Alexander Kolodin is an attorney who has not only represented Anthony Kern in a January 6th-related lawsuit, he's repping Cochise County in this matter.

While I expect the two counties to certify their election results (else the votes wouldn't count and a number of races would flip and become Democratic wins), I also expect that there will be a lot of self-righteous pearl clutching and foot stamping before that happens.

Glad-handing, self-dealing, hypocrisy, and more: The Goldwater Institute unmasked

Arizona Working Families and The Center For Media and Democracy have just released the results of a joint investigation into the activities of the Goldwater Institute.

Many local observers think of GI as a deep-pocketed corporate lobbying group pretending to be a non-profit "think tank" dedicated to protecting the interests  and "liberty" of Americans.

Turns out that many observers think correctly.

Among the findings of the investigation:

- GI took nearly $2 million of organization funds and loaned it to the company of one of its directors (a little eyebrow-raising at for-profit organizations,  treads perilously close to stepping over the line into legally actionable at non-profits) 

- GI purports to be non-ideological, but hides the name and nature of its donors.  However, many of those donors have to report their expenditures.  And many right-wing corporate front groups report giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to GI.

- GI, always claiming to act the interest of "protecting liberty" has no problem with taking liberties with and promoting corruption on, the taxpayers' dime.  After winning a lawsuit to overturn part of Arizona's Clean Elections law, making it easier for their donors to buy elections again, GI billed the state's taxpayers for the time and effort that it took to screw over the people of AZ.  GI received approximately $1 million in public money for their activities, and promptly paid their already highly-paid employees tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses.


The report also spends a lot of space highlighting and explaining GI's close ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, the shadowy group that works to bring corporate lobbyists together with state legislators, all for fun and profit (the corporations', not the states').

The report isn't terribly long (a little less than 40 pages) but it is a must read for anyone who cares about how laws are actually made in Arizona, and what has truly been behind some of the looniest of the loony measures in the AZ legislature.