Geez, I wonder if Cheeto's PAC is going a fork over dough for Fann's and Townsend's legal fees

Probably not - as of now, they're not going before the January 6th committee..plus they're women that he isn't boinking.

I was going to ask if witness tampering is a Cheeto thing, but I wanted to fit a Fann/Townsend reference into the title.

First, AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona has a post up that references an AZ Mirror article written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy.

From the article -

The FBI subpoenaed Karen Fann and Kelly Townsend for information on the January 6 insurrection

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Mesa Republican Senator Kelly Townsend were subpoenaed by the FBI for an on-going investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on state officials to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. 

“President Fann received a FOIA in the form of a subpoena by the FBI as part of the Biden Administration’s political theatrics as they look into ‘January 6,’” Kim Quintero, Director of Communications for Arizona Senate Republicans said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. “Nonetheless, President Fann is fully cooperating in releasing whatever emails and text messages they are requesting.” 

Then, on the money/witness tampering thing:

From ABC -

Trump PAC paid nearly half a million to law firms representing allies subpoenaed by Jan. 6 committee

Former President Donald Trump's political action committee has paid nearly half a million dollars to multiple law firms that employ attorneys representing close allies of Trump who have been targeted by the Jan. 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to a review of financial records by ABC News -- an arrangement that committee members say raises concerns about the possible coercion of witnesses.

Trump's Save America PAC began paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiple law firms and lawyers connected to his allies in the committee's crosshairs after the panel was first formed last summer, and continued the payments as the committee's investigation began issuing subpoenas throughout the year, according to multiple sources and a review of Federal Election Commission filings.

ABC News has identified payments to at least five law firms that are connected to lawyers representing Trump allies subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee, totaling $471,000. None of the firms were paid by the PAC prior to the committee's formation last summer, according to FEC reports. The payments continued until as recently as May of this year.

Ginni Thomas: albatross

And not just around Clarence Thomas' neck.

From CNN -

Ginni Thomas pressed Arizona state lawmakers to upend Biden's win by choosing Trump electors instead

Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed two Arizona state lawmakers after the 2020 presidential election to upend Joe Biden's popular vote win in that state by ensuring "a clean slate of electors" was chosen, according to emails released Friday.

The emails -- which started with what appear to be pre-generated form letters from conservative activist Ginni Thomas to Arizona state representatives Russell Bowers and Shawnna Bolick -- show that she encouraged both lawmakers to "fight back against fraud" and exercise what she characterized as their constitutional authority to unilaterally choose the electors rather than accepting those based on popular vote results.

The article *did* raise a couple of questions (aside from the obvious one of why is Clarence Thomas still a member of the Supreme Court when his wife is a traitor) -

1.  Why didn't the article mention the fact that Rep. Russell Bowers is, in fact, Rusty Bowers, and is Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives?

2.  Why didn't the article mention the fact that Rep. Shawnna Bolick is, in fact, married to Clint Bolick, a member of the Arizona Supreme Court, and is also a candidate for the Republican nomination for Arizona Secretary of State, the person who oversees Arizona's elections?

3.  Pardon my cynicism, but I have a sneaking suspicion the Senate president Karen Fann has a similar email from Ginni Thomas.  Of course, Fann has email issues of her own.

The R disdain for society is not new; Cheeto just made it fashionable for his adherents

Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Ted Cruz, and even Cheeto himself (and others) didn't invent Republican hatred of society; others did it before them.

In June of 2013, in a special session, the Arizona legislature voted to expand eligibility for AHCCCS, what Arizona calls Medicaid.  The vote was not unanimous (not hardly).

The special session bills were HB2010 and SB1009.  HB2010 was later substituted for SB1009 and the AZSenate ended up voting on HB2010.

Every member who voted against it didn't even pretend to represent their constituents (because it helped them) or even Arizonans as a whole (because the expansion benefited them, too), they just argued that "good Republicans" wouldn't vote for it.

In other words, the people opposed to the measure favored their party and ideology over the folks they (allegedly) worked for.

Some of the people are out of the legislature/politics; some are still there; others have moved on to other political positions - Kimberly Yee was the a state senator but is now the state's treasurer and is running for governor, Nancy Barto and Judy Burges are still in the legislature, Michele Reagan was a state senator but then be Arizona Secretary of State and now a Justice of the Peace in north Scottsdale; Kelli Ward was then a state senator and is now chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party; Andy Biggs was then president of the AZSenate and is now a (presumed) treasonous member of Congress; Brenda Barton and Paul Boyer are still in the legislature; Karen Fann is now president of the AZSenate; David Gowan, David Livingston, and Rick Gray are still in the legislature; J.D. Mesnard and Warren Petersen are still in the legislature; Justin Olson was then a state representative and is now a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission; and Kelly Townsend and Michelle Ugenti (now Ugenti-Rita) are also still in the legislature.  Ugenti-Rita is now running for AZ Secretary of State.

Townsend and Ugenti-Rita famously dislike each other, but they are united in their dislike for Arizonans.

In case someone doesn't believe me, or are simply gluttons for punishment, video recordings of previous legislative meeting can be found here.

To watch these meetings, set the dropdown menu to 2013, 51st Legislature, 1st Special Session.

The highlighted vids are the relevant ones.

Cue up "Another One Bites The Dust". Person who fronted the fraudit retires from the AZSenate.

The website of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is here.  Comments on preliminary maps can be submitted there.

From KJZZ -

Arizona Senate chief Karen Fann who led election audit retiring in 2023

The Republican who has served as president of the Arizona Senate for the past three years and oversaw an unprecedented review of 2020 election results in the state's most populous county announced Monday that she will not seek reelection in 2022.

Sen. Karen Fann said in a statement that after nearly 30 years serving in local government and at the Legislature, she will retire. The move comes as the Republican-controlled Legislature prepares for a 2022 session where the results of the election “audit" will be a key issue. The review found President Joe Biden did win Arizona, but it raised unsubstantiated questions about aspects of the election.

Other folks have already discussed the fact that the current iteration of redistricting favors Republicans and is bad for the people of Arizona.  I'll leave that up to them; they can do that more eloquently than I can.  I'll just discuss some of the "horse race" aspects of redistricting.

From the AZMirror -

Some lawmakers are poised to lose out in redistricting draft maps

A number of incumbent lawmakers find themselves facing suddenly unfavorable electoral prospects under the proposed legislative map drawn by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

Some lawmakers who were previously in politically advantageous districts may now have to run in districts controlled by the other political party. Others remain in friendly territory from a partisan standpoint, but face potentially tough primary elections after getting lumped in with other incumbents who had previously been in different districts.

[snip]

[snip]

The first pic, courtesy the AZMirror, is of the current, but preliminary, district lines.  The lines may move after the upcoming comment period and before the district maps are finalized.

The second pic, also courtesy the AZMirror, is of the incumbents in each district in the preliminary map.

The current district 5, Fann's district, *does* include Prescott, Fann's hometown and is heavily tilted in favor of Republicans, so Rs will almost certainly win there, but Fann may have looked at the results of the fraudit that she fronted and the complete insanity (and anti-reality bias) of her own caucus in the AZSenate, a (potential) challenge from Burges, and thought to herself "I don't need this shit*".

Courtesy the AZMirror

* = "shit" is my word; she may not have used that word, even to herself.

My guess (and it's only that, since I don't know the internal politics of the GOPers in that area) is that Judy "Birther" Burges will run for the Senate seat while other GOPers in the area will fight over her vacant House seat in the primary..

Of course, Burges may face a primary challenge.  While she's nuts, someone in her district may think that she's not nutty enough.

Apparently Ken Bennett has had his fill of Kool-Aid

 From Newsweek -

Arizona GOP Audit Director Barred From Recount After Sharing Data Supporting Trump Loss

The Republican overseeing the controversial GOP-backed election audit in Arizona has 

reportedly been banned from entering the building where the recount process is ongoing, 

after he shared some data with experts that showed the results match the officially 

certified numbers in Maricopa County.

The Arizona Republic reported on Friday evening that Ken Bennett, Arizona's former 

Secretary of State who has been described as the audit's "director," was barred from 

entering the building on the state fairgrounds where the audit is moving forward. The 

newspaper reported that Bennett had shared some of the audit data with outside 

experts showing that the ballot recount was tracking "very closely" with Maricopa 

County's certified results.

With the fraudit's barring of Ken Bennett, a former AZSOS and president of the Arizona Senate, this particular threat to Arizona's democracy is now all on Karen Fann, the current president of the Arizona Senate.

GOP mantra, apparently: If at first you don't succeed, hide it all from the public

Maybe we should just demand that our ballots be returned, and returned undamaged.

After all, they're ours, and the AZLege and its contractors/employees are supposed to represent us, right?

Apparently, my idealism is running wild tonight. :)

From KJZZ - 

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann's Attorney: The Public Has No Right To Know Who's Paying For The Maricopa County Ballot Audit

On Wednesday, the attorney for Senate President Karen Fann told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp that the public has no right to know who is paying for the audit of the 2020 election the Senate is conducting.

However, Kemp questioned the attorney’s arguments. 

"Isn't the public entitled to know who is paying for this, what President Fann referred to as [a] constitutional and legislative function, this important constitutional duty? Isn't the public entitled to know who's paying for this?" Kemp said.

The attorney for Fann is Kory Langhofer, an R fixer of long standing, and he's the kind of lawyer that gives other lawyers a bad name.