Loser of election now asks judge to remove Arizona attorney general

PHOENIX — Rejected in prior legal attempts to overturn his election loss for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh now is trying to get a judge to declare Kris Mayes is holding the office illegally.

But even if that happened, it doesn’t mean, as he claims in new legal filings, he would automatically replace her.

In court documents, Hamadeh repeats his claims, rebuffed by courts, that Maricopa County improperly included some early ballots in its count of the 2022 election, which Republican Hamadeh lost to Democrat Mayes by 280 votes. That means Mayes “has usurped, intruded into or unlawfully holds or exercise the public office of attorney general,” he said through attorney Ryan Heath.

What’s different in this new claim is that Hamadeh is asking a judge to order the state to install him as attorney general, “an office to which petitioner is personally entitled.’’

Only thing is, that’s not the way the law works.

Arizona does allow someone to file what is known as a “quo warranto’’ action seeking a declaration that someone is holding office illegally.

That’s what happened in 1999 in a challenge to the 1998 election of Republican Tony West to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

In a 3-2 ruling, the Arizona Supreme Court found West was illegally elected because he was ineligible to hold the office.

The justices said he broke a state law that prohibits someone who is “subject to regulation by the commission’’ from being elected to the agency. West held a commission-issued license to sell securities when he was elected.

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That ruling, however, did not install Democrat Paul Newman, whom West had defeated.

Instead, the declaration of the office being vacant meant that Renz Jennings — who had not sought reelection — was reinstated to the post he held before the election. That is based on a section of the Arizona Constitution that the term of any elected officer “shall extend until his successor shall be elected and shall qualify.’’

Jennings, in turn, got to serve until then-Gov. Jane Hull, mandated to name a replacement who had to be a Republican like West, tapped Bill Mundell to fill out the term.

What that means is that even if Hamadeh, using the same legal arguments about election irregularities that have been dismissed in other challenges, manages to have Mayes declared to be holding office illegally, he doesn’t get the job as he is asking.

Instead, that would put Republican Mark Brnovich, who did not seek reelection as attorney general in 2022, back in charge of the office, at least for the moment.

But that would be short-lived — only until Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs named a replacement. And that person would have to be a Democrat, like Mayes.

Whether Hobbs could reappoint Mayes, however, remains an open question.

Neither Hamadeh nor Heath returned messages seeking comment about whether there actually is a legal avenue to have the election voided and the Republican contender installed as attorney general. There was no comment about the new litigation from Mayes.