Federal Committees update - special edition

By "special", I mean "CD8".

Two updates, with both candidate running for the CD8 currently held by Republican Debbie Lesko, who's not running for re-election in 2024.

Kern is currently an AZ state senator who is looking to return to the U.S. Capitol, where he was on January 6, 2021.

Of course, according to an AZ Mirror article written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, he's facing a complaint that alleges that he may have used campaign funds to attend the insurrection. 

Complaint alleges GOP lawmaker illegally used campaign cash to attend J6

An Arizona GOP legislator who was among the rioting crowds at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is facing a campaign finance complaint alleging that he illegally used cash from a failed re-election bid to attend the insurrection.

The complaint against Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale claims that Kern improperly used campaign funds from his failed 2020 re-election to travel to Washington, D.C., to attend the events of Jan. 6, 2021, including airfare and a hotel stay. 

“These travel expenses occurred during the same time that Senator Kern traveled to Washington, D.C. for a rally at the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021 – a rally that ultimately turned violent and led to the death of seven people,” the complaint filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office by Peoria resident Josh Gray says. 

His activity only begs the question: Will his CD8 campaign cash be funneled to Cheeto's defense?

According to his contribution record with the AZSOS, Lewis is a project manager.

According to the website of the Arizona Secretary of State (AZSOS), 13 people have filed statements of interest for the race (it's NOT a requirement; people don't have to file one in order to appear on a ballot or even to form a committee - Lewis did file one, but Kern did not.)

Lesko filed one, but she filed it in January, well before she bowed out of the 2024 race.

Would-be insurrectionists lose appeal and have to pay an intended victim's court costs

Evidently, objecting to being referred to as possible traitors can be the opposite of lucrative.

From KJZZ, by Greg Hahne, Jill Ryan, and Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services -

Gosar, Finchem, Kern lose appeal, ordered to pay court fees

The state Court of Appeals has ruled that Congressman Paul Gosar and two former GOP state lawmakers will have to pay the legal fees of another representative they sued for defamation.

The appellate decision was unanimous.

The story is a *little* wrong about one thing - Finchem is currently a former legislator, but was a member at the time, but Kern, while a former legislator when the suit was filed, is currently a member of the Arizona legislature.

From the court's pdf of the decision, emphasis added by me -

"Irrelevant", "groundless",  and "bad faith"?

Sounds like Gosar, Finchem, and Kern learned something from Cheeto, and their lawyers learned from his.

MI AG charges fake electors there; AZ AG is investigating the ones here

Certain people here should be afraid, very afraid.  Because the next knock they hear may not be a welcome one.

From CNN -

Michigan AG charges participants in 2020 fake elector plot

 

Sixteen fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming President Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election have been charged with multiple felonies, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.

This is the first time any of the fake electors have been charged with a crime related to the scheme, versions of which took place in multiple states.

In Arizona, the fake electors scheme is being investigated by the current AG here, Kris Mayes.

From AZ Mirror, dated 3/3/2023, written by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy -

Kris Mayes is investigating Trump’s ‘fake electors,’ focusing on threats to election workers

While her predecessor used a dedicated election crimes division to investigate hundreds of bogus election fraud claims, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says she will redirect the unit’s focus to prosecute election-related threats and protect voting rights. 

“We are almost at a crisis situation in our state, in the sense that we now have a third of our counties experiencing the loss, or should I say the resignation, of a high-level election official due to death threats and harassment. That is unacceptable,” Mayes said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror. 

Certain people here should be worried; in light current developments, they may want to make the best deal that they can.  At least, I would suggest that if I had any legal knowledge at all, but since I don't, I'll encourage them to keep whistling past the graveyard.

Those people?

From another AZ Mirror article, dated 2/1/2022, written by Kira Lerner (as the article is from 2022, some of details of their non-fraudulent activities have changed in the interim) -

[snip]

(A * indicates a person who was listed as chairperson or secretary of their state group and who was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee.)

ARIZONA (11)

Nancy Cottle*: Cottle is the first vice president of programs for the Arizona Federation of Republican Women. She has been active in Arizona politics for the past decade and holds various other positions on the Maricopa County Republican Committee and the AZGOP executive committee.

Loraine B. Pellegrino*: Pellegrino has served as president of Ahwatukee Republican Women.

Tyler Bowyer: Bowyer is the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative values in schools. He has previously worked for the Republican National Committee and the Maricopa County Republican Party.

Jake Hoffman: Hoffman is an Arizona state representative for the 12th District. Hoffman also runs a conservative digital marketing company, Rally Forge, that was banned from Facebook and suspended from Twitter for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on behalf of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA. The company was enlisting and paying teens to share comments with right-wing opinions, including that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and that coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated. Experts told the Washington Post in 2020 that the effort was “among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle.”

Anthony T. Kern: From January 2015 until January 2021, Kern was an Arizona state representative for the 20th District. He is currently running for election to the Arizona state Senate to represent the 20th District. Kern participated in the January 6 riots in D.C. and has lied about breaching the U.S. Capitol building

James Lamon: Lamon is running for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Arizona. He is a veteran and was previously CEO of DEPCOM Power, a solar energy contractor, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Robert Montgomery: In 2020, Montgomery served as the chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee. 

Samuel I. Moorhead: Moorhead serves as the second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party. 

Greg Safsten: Safsten is the executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona. He previously worked for Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep. Matt Salmon, both of Arizona, in their U.S. House offices, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Dr. Kelli Ward: Ward is an osteopathic physician who has served as the chair of the Arizona Republican Party since 2019. Following the 2020 election, Ward aided Trump’s efforts to invalidate the election results and filed a number of lawsuits to nullify Arizona’s results. In 2016, she challenged the late U.S. Sen. John McCain in the Republican primary but lost with 39 percent of the vote. She previously served in the Arizona state Senate. 

Dr. Michael Ward: Ward met his wife, Kelli Ward, while he was serving in the Arizona Air National Guard. In 2019, he was accused of spitting in the eye of a former volunteer of his wife’s when she was a candidate for Senate because the volunteer went on to support her former political foe, Martha McSally. Michael Ward denied touching, pushing, threatening or spitting on the volunteer in an email to police, according to AZ Central. 

Gov. Hobbs keeps a campaign promise, Rabid anti-choicers do the expected and wig out.

Well, "expected" if you've ever observed anti-choicers,  and I have.

From KTAR, written by Danny Shapiro -

Arizona Gov. Hobbs signs executive order stripping county attorneys from prosecuting abortions

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday announced she signed an executive order that strips the state’s 15 county attorneys from prosecuting abortion cases.

The order, dated Thursday, gives the prosecutorial authority on the issue solely to the attorney general, who is currently Democrat General Kris Mayes.

[snip]

“I made a promise to Arizonans that I would do everything in my power to protect reproductive freedom and this executive order reflects that promise,” Hobbs said in a statement.

“I will not allow extreme and out of touch politicians to get in the way of the fundamental right Arizonans have to make decisions about their own bodies and futures.”

Most of the reaction from anti-choicers was characterized by the stamping of feet while whining "but she can't do that!"

From Twitter -

To anti-choicers, facts are bothersome things, to be ignored when they don't comport with anti-choice ideology.

Also from Twitter -

Herrod is the leader of Center for Arizona Policy and the leading anti-choicer in Arizona. And she's so influential with the R caucus of the legislature, she should be considered to be a de facto, but unelected, member of the the lege.

While their opposition to Hobbs' executive order is vehement, it isn't surprising.  On the other hand, I do have a question about something that comes next, from Rep. Alexander Kolodin.

Not this one, though the retweet of a call for impeachment over this is, well, *interesting.*

Nope, another one by Kolodin raises a question, for me anyway.

Even before he was a member of the state legislator, Kolodin was an attorney, and represented state Sen. Kern (not a senator then) in a lawsuit in Yuma County Superior Court over his involvement in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election that happened on January 6, 2021.  The lawsuit didn't end well for Kolodin and Kern.

I know that privileged communication exists between attorneys and their clients, but I have to ask:

Does Kolodin offering a legal opinion ("unconstitutional") and giving some advice to his client ("you all in the Senate better keep up") obviate that privilege (I really don't know)?

Arizona legislative Republicans respond to the Nashville school shooting in their usual way

Of course, their "usual way" involves craven cowardice.

Before he became president, John F. Kennedy wrote a book, Profiles in Courage.

The library at the state capitol should include its sequel, Profiles in Cowardice; a book not yet written (I think), but when it is, it'll feature every member of the R caucus at the legislature.

My reason for believing that?

The behavior of the legislative Rs in the aftermath of the shooting.

The webpage with archived video of the lege in action (or, more to the point, inaction) is here.

As I haven't yet figured out how to save the video and embed it here, all time references will pertain to videos of the Senate and House floor sessions of 3/28.

In the AZSenate, Democratic Sen. Raquel Teran spoke about the mass shooting (starting at 1:06:45), not asking for any form of gun control that she listed, saying for that each of those, "That ask has gone unanswered."

At 1:10:10, she did ask for one thing -

"I ask this body and this nation find the courage to side with our children, our future generations, and 

not the gun lobby, any longer."

Based on the lack of action from the Republicans in the lege, I'm guessing that ask will go unanswered, too.

Teran

At 1:10:34, Republican Sen. Anthony Kern "rebutted" her statement (not someone most people want fronting for their "purity patrol; he has credibility issues), blaming LGBTQ people for the killing, and at 1:11:18 opining that the reason for the killing was that "we have taken God out of our schools."

So who wants to tell him that the targeted school was a private Christian school.

As bad as the Senate was, the House may have been more brazen in their cowardice.

In the AZ House, at 9:20 of the video, Democratic Rep. Jennifer Longdon moved HB2192.be considered immediately.  (Disclosure time: I lived in Rep. Longdon's district and have voted for her, and am proud of those votes).

Longdon, proposing her motion

The common sense bill would require that all firearms at home be kept under lock and key except when in use or on someone's person.

At 9:47, Republican Rep. Leo Biasucci moved a substitute (replacement) motion.

Biasucci making his own motion

Every R voted for the substitute, killing Longdon's motion.

At 11:27, the House Speaker pro tem instructed his colleagues "If you support the substitute motion to go into the Committee of the Whole for the bills on the calendar, vote yes, if you oppose that motion, vote Aye."

The Republican House Speaker pro tem fixing the vote.  OK, even I thought he misspoke, if only because the vote wasn't in need of fixing.

Arizona Legislature 2023: Guessing that Governor Hobbs will need multiple veto pens

On tap at the legislature: More helping corporations, more ignoring the will of the voters, and more efforts to undermine democracy...and trying to distract from those things with culture war fights.

The "helping corporations" part?  

Rep. Livingston has introduced HB2003, a proposal to reduce the corporate income tax rate by almost 50%..  This measure is already scheduled for consideration by two committees this week.

The 'ignoring the will of the voters" part?

Livingston has also introduced HB2014, a proposal to expand tax credits for school vouchers, and also expand vouchers themselves.  In 2018, the voters soundly rejected Proposition 305, a attempt by the legislature to expand vouchers.

The "undermine democracy" part?

Sen. Kern has introduced SCR1002, a proposed amendment to the state constitution to require that any changes to it would require the votes of 60% of voters in an election to pass.

The "culture war fights" part?

The ever-reliable Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Demonize) has introduced SB1026, while Kern (who seems obsessed) has introduced SB1028 and SB1030; all of which would redefine, regulate, or otherwise restrict drag shows.

Others of note:

Kern has introduced SB1031, seeking to bar the state or other political subdivisions from firing employees based on their vaccination status.

Kavanagh has been busy - he's introduced SB1024, which would criminalize homelessness; SB1022, which would criminalize begging, asking for donations, and/or selling goods from inside a traffic median; SB1023, which would criminalize picketing or demonstrating outside a private residence; and SB1021, requiring the state's AG to defend all laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor unless each chamber's judiciary committee grants relief from that requirement by a 2/3 vote (not gonna happen).

The way this is worded it covers measures passed by previous iterations of the lege and signed by previous governors.  And Governors Ducey and Brewer signed a LOT of bad bills.

Governor Hobbs doesn't needed unsolicited advice from a rank amateur like me, but I'm going to offer some anyway (of course :) ).

Her default position on any measures proposed by a legislative R should be "Veto It!"

Not every such measure will be bad, but her first question when considering any measure her desk should be "does this help Arizona?"

For most of the output of this legislature, the answer will be No!"

Turns out that Finchem, Gosar, and Kern are finding out that bullshit has a cost

From the AZ Mirror, written by Jim Small -

Finchem, Gosar and Kern must pay ex-Dem lawmaker’s $75,000 legal fees for ‘groundless’ lawsuit

Republican secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar and former GOP state legislator Anthony Kern must pay $75,000 in attorney’s fees to a former Democratic state lawmaker they sued after a judge said the lawsuit was “primarily for purposes of harassment.”

In February 2021, the three Republicans filed a lawsuit against Charlene Fernandez, then a Democratic legislator from Yuma, accusing her of defaming them by making disparaging remarks, connecting them to the violence of Jan. 6 and conspiring against them. 

The number for the case in question is S-1400-CV-202100146

The curious thing about the case was that there were more attorneys associated with the case (9) than there were parties (4).

Note: Kern's lawyer, Alexander Kolodin will be a state representative from LD3 (north Scottsdale).  They will not face any Democratic challengers.

Note2: Kern will probably be a state senator from LD27.  He faces a Democratic challenger in the general election, but it's a non-competitive district favoring Republicans.

Courtesy the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission -

Wonder if the threesome will ever pay the costs that they been ordered to pay, and if any payments will come out of campaign funds?