PHOENIX — Republican Abe Hamadeh won’t give up challenging his loss in the 2022 race for attorney general even if Arizonans vote in November to send him to Congress, his spokeswoman says.
His potential election in Congressional District 8 against Democrat Gregory Whitten — it’s a heavily Republican district in Maricopa County — won’t end his legal challenge against his loss to Democrat Kris Mayes for attorney general two years ago, Erica Knight, who is handling publicity for Hamadeh, said Monday.
Abe Hamadeh
Hamadeh is claiming to the Arizona Supreme Court that he was illegally denied the opportunity to look for and present evidence when he first challenged his 280-vote loss. When he finally did get some of those materials, Hamadeh said, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen declined to grant him a new trial to present them. He’s asking the state’s high court to overturn Jantzen’s ruling.
The Court of Appeals, in declining to overturn Jantzen’s decision, said Hamadeh failed to show how anything he turned up might have changed the outcome of the race.
Hamadeh filed for Supreme Court review in May. The last activity, however, was June 10, when Mayes filed her response. No date has been set for a hearing.
Hamadeh’s position leaves a significant legal question: What would happen if he wins the race for Congress but does get a new trial — and somehow convinces a court that he really did win the race for attorney general?
Knight sidestepped the question.
“These hypotheticals are a waste of time,’’ she said, blasting the court for lack of urgency “to see the closest race in Arizona history get litigated.”
The comments about Hamadeh’s future actions comes as a judge in another case said Monday he is off the hook from having to pay the legal fees of Maricopa County officials.
In a new order, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney did not take back his July order dismissing Hamadeh’s claims that printer problems in 2022 at Maricopa county voting centers resulted in long lines. And those lines, Hamadeh argued, resulted in some voters simply walking away before getting a chance to vote in the race for attorney general.
Blaney, in his initial ruling earlier this year, said all that is legally irrelevant.
