PHOENIX β With no time for a legal challenge and insufficient funds for a recall, an attorney is calling on the Republican-controlled Legislature to do something itβs unlikely to do: impeach Secretary of State Michele Reagan.
Tom Ryan said the blame for more than 400,000 Arizonans not getting their ballot pamphlets by the deadline required by law lies strictly on Reagan and Eric Spencer, her hand-picked elections director. Reagan, through a spokesman, said the problem was due to a mistake by an outside firm in preparing mailing lists.
Ryan said even if that is true, that does not excuse what happened next.
βShe hid the fact that the publicity pamphlets had not gone out,β he said at a press conference outside the Capitol tower where Reagan has her office.
Reagan never voluntarily disclosed the problem that she knew about no later than April 25, but conceded the problem only earlier this week. And by that time, Ryan said, it was too late to bring a legal challenge to postpone Tuesdayβs special election on a school-funding proposition.
Ryan suggested a political motive .
He said Reagan is a supporter of Proposition 123. And he said the arguments against the measure that went out in the ballot pamphlet were a key tool of the foes who are being outspent by a margin of $4 million to less than $10,000.
βShe is not supposed to be putting her thumb on the scales,β said Ryan, who is working to defeat the constitutional amendment to divert funds from an education trust account to settle a lawsuit filed against the state by schools. βAnd thatβs effectively what sheβs done.β
Reagan, as she has done for days, would not consent to an interview. Instead, publicist Matt Roberts said his boss did everything in her power to correct the problem once she learned of it.
βThere was no cover-up,β he said. As to the failure to voluntarily disclose the problem, he said the office βwas focused on making right what was wrong.β
Roberts also denied that his boss is campaigning for β or even supports β Prop. 123, though he conceded she did make statements in favor of Gov. Doug Duceyβs funding plan .
βWhat her statements clearly indicate is that she supports an end to the litigation and recognizes that our schools are underfunded,β Roberts said. βAnd this was a solution that seemingly made sense.β
Ryanβs call came a day after Attorney General Mark Brnovich concluded Reagan violated election laws by failing to send out the pamphlets on time but concluded there is no penalty . Brnovich also said there is no legal way to postpone Tuesdayβs election.
