PHOENIX β Arizona taxpayers are footing the $5,000 bill for a legal bid by the stateβs two top GOP lawmakers to help Abe Hamadeh try to overturn his loss to Kris Mayes in last yearβs election for attorney general.
In a new legal filing, a private attorney hired by Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma is telling the Arizona Supreme Court that the pair βtake no positionββ on the question of whether Democrat Mayes outpolled Republican Hamadeh by 280 votes as certified in the formal results. Instead, Tom Basile argues that their interest is to βafford the parties a full and fair opportunity to adduce the facts necessary to answer that pivotal question.ββ
Basile said that did not occur when Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen declined last month to give Hamadeh a second trial on his challenge to the election results and another opportunity to search for evidence not all ballots were counted. Jantzen had previously ruled in December that Hamadeh failed to provide evidence the election results were wrong.
But Basile also lashed out at Mayes and her legal team, telling the Arizona Supreme Court that Hamadehβs rights were harmed by litigation tactics to βextinguish β¦ entirely through delayββ his ability to discover and present new information.
Basile had particularly harsh words for Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who took office in January, whose office is a party to the case because of its statutory role in elections. Fontes filed a legal brief urging the justices to reject Hamadehβs bid for a new trial.
In that brief, Fontes accuses Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee, which also is contesting the outcome of the race, with failing to act in good faith in dealing with the courts.
βWe cannot allow a disgruntled vocal minority to weaponize our courts, sow unfounded distrust in our election processes, malign our public servants, and undermine our democracy β all for the purpose of trying to overturn the peopleβs will and topple an election,β Fontes wrote.
Fontes also wants the justices to order sanctions against Hamadeh and his lawyers.
Basile termed the language in Fontesβ filings βgratuitous and abusive.ββ He accused Fontes of βchurlish imperiousnessββ in dismissing Hamadehβs bid to reexamine some ballots to determine if the should be recounted.
βCitizens should not be disparaged and assailed by their own public servants for raising measured and modest claims β¦ in the closest election for statewide office in Arizona history,β Hamadehβs attorney wrote.
Petersen, the Senate president, brushed aside inquiries about the Legislature spending taxpayer money to get involved in the dispute about who won the 2022 election. He pointed out that lawmakers have filed briefs in other cases.
An aide to Toma said it is βin the public interest to get to a conclusion in this case.ββ
βIt is a legitimate question whether all relevant laws were followed,ββ said the aide, Andrew Wilder.
The Legislatureβs legal brief argues that Jantzen had a βmisconceptionββ of what election laws require when he limited Hamadehβs ability to inspect ballots.
βAs lawmakers, the legislative branch has a constitutional voice in this matter,ββ Wilder said.
Petersen and Toma arenβt the only ones hoping to convince the stateβs high court to give Hamadeh another chance to argue his case.
Another new legal filing has come from America First Legal Foundation, formed following the 2020 election by senior Trump legal adviser Stephen Miller.
The organization describes itself as designed to save the United States from a βcoordinated campaignββ by βan unholy alliance of corrupt special interests, gig tech titans, the fake news media, and liberal Washington politicians.ββ
James Rogers, its attorney, accuses the Secretary of Stateβs Office β under the control of Katie Hobbs at the time Hamadehβs first trial occurred in December β of using βhide the ball tacticsββ to withhold from the trial judge information it contends was relevant. He told the justices that requires them to send the case back to Jantzen to give the GOP contender the opportunity for βfull inspectionββ of ballots he did not get the first time around.
The justices have yet to decide whether to accept Hamadehβs request that they order a new trial or have him go through the regular appellate process.