PHOENIX — The top Republicans in the Arizona House and Senate are asking a judge to save failed GOP attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh from having to pay the legal fees of others he sued in his unsuccessful lawsuit to be declared the winner.
And Arizona taxpayers are picking up the $5,300 cost of the GOP leaders’ legal filing.
In a “friend of the court’’ brief, Senate President Warren Petersen of Queen Creek and House Speaker Ben Toma of Peoria say they are not taking sides on the question of whether Hamadeh or his Democratic rival Kris Mayes got more votes.
The official tally after a recount showed Mayes winning by 280 votes and she was sworn in earlier this month as attorney general.
House Speaker Ben Toma
But attorney Tom Basile, representing Petersen and Toma, said there is no evidence Hamadeh acted in bad faith in filing his lawsuit, nor in his request for a new trial after Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen ruled against his bid to overturn the results.
Mayes’ attorneys, in their own legal filing with Jantzen, said the challenge to the election results never should have been brought, saying it was “based on nothing more than speculative information and belief.’’
“Despite their unwarranted fishing expedition, they failed to find any support to establish their unfounded claims,’’ Mayes’ lawyers said in their bid for Hamadeh to pay their fees and a $5,000 fine.
Basile, however, is telling Jantzen it would be wrong for him to now award Mayes — and the Secretary of State’s Office, which also was named by Hamadeh as a defendant — their legal fees plus that penalty.
“In context, the defendants’ sanctions demands evince a noxious admixture of political vengeance and — in the case of the Secretary of State — abuse of power,’’ Basile wrote. He said both were already threatening to seek legal fees even before there was a trial.
Basile also said the Legislature purposely established procedures for transparency, fact-finding and independent judicial inquiry “whenever there are credible questions surrounding the accuracy of certified election results.’’
He said it is up to individual voters to start that process.
“Citizens should not be threatened by their own government officials with punitive penalties for raising measured and modest questions in the closest election for statewide office in Arizona history,’’ he wrote.
Basile took a particular shot at not just the Secretary of State’s Office but also “certain county officials’’ for how they handled the matter.
He did not name names. But Republicans who have lost their races have lashed out at Maricopa County supervisors and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, contending there were irregularities in the voting process that disenfranchised some individuals.
“It is understandable that governmental parties would zealously defend their actions and practices in the 2022 election,’’ Basile wrote. “But the churlish imperiousness with which the secretary and certain county officials greet even narrowly tailored questions regarding the extent and repercussions of undeniable mistakes suggests they have forgotten that they serve all electors — including Mr. Hamadeh and his supporters.”
Jantzen dismissed Hamadeh’s first challenge to the election result, saying he didn’t prove his case. Now Hamadeh is seeking a new trial based on arguments there is new evidence and, given that, he should be allowed to hand inspect all ballots and not just the 2,300 he was allowed to access to determine if Mayes really outpolled him.
But Mayes’ lawyers say Hamadeh, in that bid for a new trial, failed to provide new evidence that was not available at the time of the first one and did not identify any irregularity in how that hearing was conducted.
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
