PHOENIX β Arizona lawmakers voted Wednesday to make it a lot harder to find out where they live.
They said threats they face made that necessary.
Without dissent, the Senate Government Committee approved a measure that would allow, but not require, all state and federal lawmakers and all statewide elected officials to ask a court to prohibit the general public from accessing their home address, home phone number, personal photograph or photos of their home or vehicle.
Once the request was made and approved, a judge would direct that all this information be excised from publicly available documents, ranging from voter files to records maintained by the county recorder, assessor and treasurer, as well as anything maintained by the state Department of Transportation.
Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, who wrote the measure, SB 1061, said itβs one thing for those who seek public office to make themselves accessible to constituents. But Shope got married and said that changes everything.
βYour family didnβt sign up for this,β he said.
Shope said he has been the target of the Patriot Movement, with members of the right-wing group showing up, armed, outside his home.
βOne of these days, somebody is going to be injured and somebodyβs going to be hurt in one of these incidents, especially as volatile as these incidents seem to be,β he said.
βHuge upheaval in our livesβ
He was not alone.
βI had a gentleman come to my house, knock on my door, and then threaten me with all kinds of racist words,β said Sen. Justine Wadsack, a Tucson Republican.
βIβve had my home surrounded at one in the morning by people in black outfits, goggles, helmets and hoodies lighting off professional fireworks around my house,β she said. βAnd the police just donβt show up fast enough.β
Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa, said there was a βdetailed, threatening letterβ left at his house.
He told colleagues that if he had found it, it would not have been a big deal. βHowever, my wife found it,β Farnsworth said. βAnd it caused a huge upheaval in our lives for a couple of weeks.β
Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, agreed to support the measure. βI definitely donβt want to see anybody getting hurt,β he said.
βI definitely get these threats all the time, too,β Mendez continued, saying he and his wife, state Rep. Athena Salman, have had to install a security system and cameras. βItβs a little peace of mind but it still doesnβt make things any easier.β
βPeople act on our wordsβ
But Mendez said lawmakers and elected officials need to look inward to determine how things got this bad in the first place. And that includes considering the rhetoric that sometimes comes out of the Capitol.
βWe have to make sure we are doing our responsibility to make sure we are not lathering up our constituents into a frenzy,β he said. βWe have to remember that people act on our words. And this is not happening in a bubble.β
Nothing in SB 1061 would prevent someone from using other sources to find β and even publish β the personal information.
βI know that with the internet everything is routinely available,β Shope said. βBut should it just be so available that all you have to do is a cursory Google search and, boom, there it is?β he asked colleagues. βI think we would all agree it should be a little bit more difficult than that.β
Bill to be amended
There are some flaws in the current version of the bill.
One goes to the fact that legislative candidates must live in the district they seek to represent.
Under current law, a candidateβs claim of residency is accepted as fact by the Secretary of Stateβs Office. It is up to political foes or others to mount any legal challenge.
Shope conceded that becomes difficult, if not impossible, if the candidateβs claimed address is not public.
He proposes to amend the measure when it goes to the full Senate to require employees at the Secretary of Stateβs Office to verify a candidateβs purported address. Shope acknowledged that will come at a cost.
He also said the law does not take into consideration ranchers whose business address β which the legislation does not shield β also is a home address. He said he is unsure how to deal with that.
And then thereβs the problem caused by the fact Shope is piggy-backing his protections for elected officials on an existing law about confidential addresses for judges, police officers, prosecutors, child protective services workers and others as the model.
That law predates β and makes no mention of β cell phones. In fact, it lists βpager numbersβ among the items that can be kept confidential.
Also, SB 1061 does not extend to local elected officials, even as there have been threats against some county supervisors and others following the 2022 election. Shope said he is weighing whether to alter the measure to extend the same protections to them.
