Campaign paid AZ lawmaker amidst efforts to overturn election

[struggle4progress]

AJ Vincens

A Republican member of the Arizona state legislature took more than $6,000 from the Trump campaign in December, as he was pushing fellow state lawmakers to overturn the November election results, the Arizona Republic reported Saturday.

The payment to state Rep. Mark Finchem was disclosed in the Trump campaign’s latest financial disclosure, which listed the money as being paid on Dec. 18, 2020 in exchange for “recount: legal consulting.”

Finchem claims the payment was a reimbursement for “crowd control and security costs” for a meeting held at a downtown Phoenix hotel Nov. 30 with the former president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, the paper said ...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/02/trump-report-arizona-election-results-payment-disclosure/

[struggle4progress]

1. GOP bill would override will of AZ voters

BY MARCIA HAMMOND
FEBRUARY 3, 2021 AT 1:00 PM

PHOENIX – Proposed legislation to alter the way Arizona manages elections ignores the voters’ voices, the state’s top elections official said.

One bill from the Republican-controlled state Legislature would allow lawmakers to overturn presidential election results and that, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Wednesday, isn’t right.

“ Shawna Bolick’s bill 100% allows the Legislature, under any circumstances … they can convene with a majority vote and choose new electors. That is an overturning of the will of the voters,” Hobbs told KTAR News ...

https://ktar.com/story/3972548/gop-bill-would-override-will-of-arizona-voters-elections-boss-hobbs-says/

[struggle4progress]

2. AZ Senate fast-tracks contempt vote

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEBRUARY 5, 2021 AT 10:00 AM

PHOENIX — Republicans who control the Arizona Senate voted Thursday to fast-track a resolution finding Maricopa County in contempt for failing to turn over elections equipment and ballots cast in the November election as a subpoena demanded.

The rules change brought furious opposition from minority Democrats, who called the effort further evidence that GOP senators have bought into unfounded conspiracy theories that President Joe Biden won Arizona because of problems with vote counting.

“The more we play along with this silly game the more we are lying to the people of Arizona about it,” Sen. Martin Quezada, a Glendale Democrat, said. “We need to cut this out, and we need to cut it out now.”

The 16-13 party-line vote to waive requirements for committee hearings and full debate sets up a formal vote on the resolution as soon as Monday ...

https://ktar.com/story/3979772/arizona-senate-fast-tracks-contempt-vote-in-election-dispute/

[struggle4progress]

3. AZ Republicans push for changes to election procedure oversight

By Ben Giles
Published: Monday, February 1, 2021 - 6:35pm
Updated: Tuesday, February 2, 2021 - 8:34am

Arizona lawmakers adopt the laws governing how elections are held. But it’s the secretary of state, working closely with county election officials, who writes a how-to guide for following those laws.

Now some Republican legislators want to have a say in what’s included in the elections procedures manual.

By law, the manual must be updated every two years, in alignment with each election cycle. The secretary of State must submit a draft of the manual by Oct. 1 of odd-numbered years. The governor and attorney general then have two months to review and approve the hundreds of pages of instructions.

On 5-3 party line votes, Republicans on the Senate Government Committee advanced two proposals that would take oversight away from the governor and attorney general ...

https://kjzz.org/content/1655519/arizona-republicans-push-changes-oversight-election-procedures

[struggle4progress]

4. AZ GOP chair Ward sees new heat on her election

By Bob Christie
Published 2 days ago

PHOENIX - Pressure is rising on the leader of the Arizona Republican Party to allow an audit of her recent reelection as she continues to question President Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

A large group of GOP state lawmakers sent party Chair Kelli Ward a letter this week demanding that she allow an audit of her January reelection, which she won by 42 votes but is increasingly being challenged.

The letter demands that Ward either allow an audit or step aside from efforts to audit results in Maricopa County that saw Biden win.

"We urge you to heed the calls of your voters and allow for an immediate audit of the election that was held on January 23rd, in a manner that is fair and transparent," said the letter signed by 18 state House and Senate lawmakers. "Or we would ask that you remove yourself from efforts to properly audit the elections held in Arizona on November 4th, 2020, as you would be an unwelcome distraction and foil for the media to use to discredit our efforts to protect our state’s voters" ...

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-republican-party-chair-kelli-ward-sees-new-heat-on-her-election

[woodsprite]

5. Apparently they thought our Democracy was cheap. nt