Tim Steller, Arizona Daily Star

Tim Steller, opinion columnist for the Arizona Daily Star

 Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

The Arizona GOP appeared, in tweets late Monday night, to encourage supporters to give up their lives for Trump.

It was shocking, attracting nationwide attention, because it could fairly be viewed as incitement to violence.

But in a way the tweets cloud whatโ€™s really going on in the effort to wrest Arizona electors away from Biden and give them to Trump. The party is pursuing a long-shot, multi-pronged strategy to overturn the election results, and could win money and legislation even as they pile up political and legal losses.

The tweets, though: You really have to see them to believe the party went there.

First, the partyโ€™s Twitter account retweeted a post by a pro-Trump activist named Ali Alexander in which he said, โ€œI am willing to give my life for this fight.โ€

The Arizona GOP added this comment: โ€œHe is. Are you?โ€

Later, the party linked to a scene from a Rambo movie in which the Sylvester Stallone character is in a standoff, amid a group of men with their weapons drawn. The GOPโ€™s tweet quotes Stallone saying, โ€œThis is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.โ€

The party deleted the latter tweet but kept the former. When asked about it, it put out a statement saying, โ€œThe Republican Party of Arizona condemns all forms of violence in the strongest terms. Fictional movie scenes should be weighed in their proper context.โ€

The party, chaired by Kelli Ward, is leading a substantial contingent of hardcore Trump supporters over a cliff. First they pursued legal strategies to try to overturn Trumpโ€™s loss of Arizona to Biden. Now theyโ€™re pursuing political ones.

But in the process, theyโ€™re narrowing their appeal through demanding greater and greater demonstrations of belief from followers. Rep. Mark Finchem, the Oro Valley Republican, claimed on Steve Bannonโ€™s internet show Dec. 4 that โ€œbetween 62 and 67 percent of Arizonans voted for the president.โ€

Any Republican who peels off from the rush toward the cliff, like Gov. Doug Ducey or House Speaker Russell Bowers, is deemed a turncoat or Deep State operative โ€” the catchall category for people who donโ€™t do what Trump wants.

These politicians wouldnโ€™t matter so much to the GOP strategy, though, if the partyโ€™s legal strategy hadnโ€™t flopped completely, punctuated by a loss in the Arizona Supreme Court Tuesday night. The state party, Ward herself, the Trump campaign and other entities have sued seven times over the election.

The Downtown Links Project in Tucson will be a 4-lane road that parallels the Union Pacific Railroad and connects Barraza-Aviation Parkway at Broadway Road to Interstate 10 via St. Mary's Road. The expected completion date is early 2023. Video by: Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star (2020)

So far, they have lost convincingly six times. The seventh case is still before U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa, who expressed skepticism about it on Tuesday.

The one thing Ward has been able to show is that there were a handful of errors in counting the ballots that needed to be duplicated in order to be tabulated. That led nowhere further.

Paul Weich, who has followed all the election lawsuits for his blog, Arizonaโ€™s Law, said even that โ€œwasnโ€™t a victory.

โ€œShe got a first down in order to keep alive the Hail Mary,โ€ Weich said.

Two lawsuits were filed as a result of what Trump-supporting attorney Sidney Powell called her โ€œrelease the Krakenโ€ strategy โ€” a reference to a mythical giant sea creature. But the last โ€œKrakenโ€ lawsuit โ€” Weich called it the โ€œBride of Krakensteinโ€ โ€” was withdrawn before a court even heard it.

In essence, the legal strategy is cooked. But a political strategy has been launched to try to get around the officeholders who arenโ€™t willing to go down the conspiracist rabbit hole.

Finchem is one of the leaders of that effort, and his seatmate in Legislative District 11, Bret Roberts, is also committed.

Their current claim is that they can call themselves into a special session and, by simple majority, withdraw the stateโ€™s electors.

The governor, the House speaker and the Senate president have all declined to call a special session. Under state law, if the governor doesnโ€™t call a session, it takes a two-thirds vote of each chamber to call one.

Roberts explained they met with a conservative constitutional scholar, Rob Natelson, who assured them they have the power to meet on the election question and overturn the system for assigning electors that is established in state law โ€” both by simple majority.

โ€œUntil I learned that the constitution has a remedy and a method for this, I was questioning it myself,โ€ Roberts said.

Although he favors this move, he also is seeking a โ€œforensic auditโ€ of voting machines to test whether they were or could be tampered with.

โ€œThe overarching issue is to get the questions answered and audit the vote,โ€ he said.

The likelihood, of course, is that none of their urgent efforts will result in any change in the outcome.

But they appear to be raising lots of money in this fight. The Trump campaign reported raising $207.5 million after the election. Their fundraising appeal has centered on claiming to want money to fight the election results while actually channeling the money to a new political action committee he runs.

The Arizona GOP, which had problems raising money under Wardโ€™s leadership, is also sending out regular appeals for money, saying it will help them โ€œfight for Election Integrity.โ€

Beyond Jan. 20, when Biden takes office, you can expect big proposed changes to election laws in the next legislative session.

Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the Republican who chairs the elections committee, told me she plans to hold a hearing on the 2020 election, and from there proceed to entertain bills that would address any problems brought up.

She expects to see bills dealing with issues such as:

  • Stopping voters from dropping off mail-in ballots on Election Day;
  • Signature verification procedures by the county recordersโ€™ offices;
  • Allowing recounts in more situations, instigated by candidates or others.

โ€œThe more transparency there is around the process of voting, the more people understand it, I think the more people will have confidence in the outcome,โ€ she said.

So even if Republicans decide not to give their lives for the Trump cause, even if the party loses all its legal and political battles to throw out the election, even if the party is viciously divided, they still could win by selling โ€œfraudโ€ allegations to hardcore partisans and others.

They raise money, and they might win changes to election law that benefit them.

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Contact: tsteller@tucson.com or 807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter