NEW AND FIRST: AZ Senate Leaders Met About "Hostile Behavior" In Elections Committee Weeks Before Bribery Conspiracy Theory

Democratic and Republican leaders in the Arizona State Senate met to discuss the activities in the Senate Elections Committee, weeks before Thursday's "presentation" went off the rails in pushing a vast cartel-led bribery conspiracy theory.

Arizona's Politics/Arizona's Law has verified (from two different sources) the Feb. 6 meeting between Senate President Warren Petersen and Minority Leader Raquel Teran and ranking committee member Juan Mendez. Democrats say Thursday's day-long presentation to the House and Senate Elections Committees "of course violated what Democrats had hope would come of the meeting."

The Feb. 6 meeting was requested by the two Democratic Senators after Senate Elections Committee Chair Wendy Rogers had used two successive weekly meetings to host unsworn presentations pushing unproven allegations about the 2020 and 2022 elections. They indicate that Rogers also displayed "hostile behavior" in cutting off 
Democratic members and forbidding them from speaking words like "conspiracy theory".

Calli Jones, the Communications Director for the Democratic caucus in the Senate, tells Arizona's Politics that "the continued statements throwing Representative Harris under the bus are a weak attempt to shift the blame away from Republican leadership."

Arizona's Politics has asked Senate President Petersen for responses related to the February 6 meeting and the subsequent committee meetings/presentations. We will update this article as warranted.

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NEW and FIRST: Hamadeh Supporter Sets Up Federal SuperPAC... To Support His Rearview Mirror AZ AG Campaign (READ Filing)

Abe Hamadeh lost his 2022 election for Arizona Attorney General, and the position is not up for election again until 2026. He is continuing to contest his super-close loss to Kris Mayes, with a Motion for a New Trial pending in Superior Court.

However, a new federal SuperPAC - along with a new website - will allow you to make unlimited contributions to support his quest.

The "Arizona's Bold Era PAC" (aka ABE PAC) filed with the U.S. Federal Election Commission late Tuesday night. Interestingly, no concurrent state filing seems to have been made.

ABE PAC is an independent expenditure effort, which means it cannot coordinate efforts with Hamadeh. The only name attached to it is the Virginia woman who filed the statement of organization, Maria Wojciechowski.

Wojciechowski is also the treasurer for the well-funded American Patriots PAC and an America First Oklahoma PAC. We have reached out to her to learn more, and will update as warranted.

The first finance report is not due to be filed until the end of July.

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TODAY: 2 of AZ's 3 Democratic Reps. Vote With GOP House To Prohibit U.S. Petroleum Reserves From Going To China(ARIZONA'S POLITICAL SHORTS)

1/27, 3:30pm: "2 of AZ's 3 Democratic Reps. Vote With GOP House To Prohibit U.S. Petroleum Reserves From Going To China"

Two of Arizona's 3 Democratic Congressman voted with the House GOP (and a majority of Democrats) to prohibit sales from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve from benefitting China. The largely symbolic measure passed the House today, 331-97.

Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-CD3) and Greg Stanton (D-CD4) joined all Republicans and 95 other Democrats in voting "aye". Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-CD7) was the only Arizonan to vote "nay".

The language of the bill could fit on a postcard: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Energy shall not draw down and sell petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—

(1) to any entity that is under the ownership, control, or influence of the Chinese Communist Party; or

(2) except on the condition that such petroleum products will not be exported to the People’s Republic of China.

The issue arose last year when gas prices skyrocketed and the government sold off a portion of the reserves. The measure is largely symbolic because (a) it is not likely to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Joe Biden, and (b) because even the sales from the reserve are part of a global petroleum market - the price per barrel paid by China would be the same if the reserve barrels were sold domestically or to China.

***

1/27, 3pm: "Lake and Senior Advisor Lose In RNC Chair Battle; Latter Makes News For Expletive-Filled Campaigning"

No word on the language former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake used in California today during the RNC meeting, but her senior advisor made some national news for it.

Lake and Caroline Wren were at the meeting trying to help Harmeet Dhillon push Ronna McDaniel out of the RNC Chair. According to Politico's reporting, Wren's efforts as top adviser seemed to focus on dropping f-bombs.

Wren had also been an advisor to former President Donald Trump and was a key fundraiser for the Jan. 6 efforts.

McDaniel retained the Chairmanship. Wren's streak continues.

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NEW: Former AZ Lawmaker's Charter Schools Secure New Muni Bond Issue, Bringing State-Blessed Debt Load To $89.5M (ARIZONA'S POLITICAL SHORTS)

(CORRECTION: This article has been re-written to reflect that Eddie Farnsworth is not a brother of current State Sen. David Farnsworth. Eddie's brother named David is the current Executive Director of the entity which purchased the Benjamin Franklin Charter Schools from Eddie. Arizona's Politics regrets any confusion resulting from the error.)

Congratulations to former State Senator and Charter School mogul Eddie Farnsworth. His new $19.5M Arizona IDA bond issue hit the market this past week, to benefit the Queen Creek campuses.

Farnsworth's brother, David (not related to the current State Senator David Farnsworth), is the Executive Director of the Benjamin Franklin Charter Schools.  David represented BFCS at the Nov. 30 meeting when Arizona agreed to grant its blessing to make the loan (aka the bonds) tax-free to the lenders (the bondholders). Bond experts Moody’s notes that the charter schools will now have $89.5M in state sponsored bonds outstanding.

 

While with the Arizona Republic, Craig Harris* reported extensively on the former lawmaker's efforts to build a long-term money-making charter school operation.

* Get ready, Coronado (CA, and seasonal AZ refugees), Craig announced yesterday that The Coronado News will be starting up on Feb. 1. He'll be the editor. Congratulations to David AND Craig!

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BREAKING: Kyrsten Sinema Parts Ways With Longtime Democratic Campaign Compliance Firm (READ FEC Filings)

UPDATE, 1/20, 12pm:

***

ORIGINAL ARTICLE, 12/15, 2:30pm: "Kyrsten Sinema Parts Ways With Longtime Democratic Campaign Compliance Firm (READ FEC Filings)"

Now that Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is no longer a Democrat, she is parting ways with her longtime Democratic compliance firm. Today's development also raises the question of whether she will have to rebuild other parts of her campaign finance juggernaut.

Common Cents Consulting is an Arizona compliance consulting firm that has worked with Sinema since before she entered Congress in 2012. And President Darryl Tattrie notes in his LinkedIn profile that he has been "happily helping democrats win compliantly since 1997 :-)."

Sinema's three campaign committees - her principle "Sinema for Arizona", the "Getting Stuff Done" leadership PAC, and the "Sinema Leadership Fund" - all filed amended Statements of Organization with the Federal Election Commission today replacing Common Cents with the apparently-unknown "Santa Rosa Partners"*.

It is unclear whether the major switch was initiated by Sinema's campaign organization or by Common Cents Consulting. Arizona's Politics has reached out to both and will update as warranted.

In the past two years - a non-election cycle - Sinema's three committees paid Common Cents more than $170,000 to make sure that they remain in compliance with federal campaign finance laws. During that period, Sinema raised more than $9.1M. Combined, the committees are holding some $9.7M cash on hand.

Other parts of Sinema's campaign infrastructure could also be in for changes. ActBlue is her contribution-processing platform, and it specifically states that it serves "Democratic candidates". Sinema's principle committee paid ActBlue $126,000 in the 2021-22 fundraising cycle. NGPVan provides voter outreach services (and more) to Sinema's committees; it features its support to "Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations". NGPVan was paid more than $60,000 this past cycle. Arizona's Politics has reached out to both and will update as warranted.

Those companies do provide services to multiple Democrats running against each other in a primary election. However, if a Democrat is running against an Independent Sinema in the general election, different pressures will likely apply.

* The new email address given to the FEC for the committee is "compliance@SantaRosaPartners.com". No website or search results come up for that entity and no other federal campaigns reported paying that entity in the past two years.

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WHAT TO COUNT ON WHEN WE'RE RECOUNTING"

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BREAKING - WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Caroline Wren Raised $3M For Jan. 6; Today, She's Sr. Advisor For Kari Lake's Post-Election Plans

Kari Lake's trip to Mar a Lago yesterday may have been for more than just schmoozing. Caroline Wren was a major fundraiser for the Jan. 6 rally, and has now popped up as the gubernatorial candidate's "Senior Advisor", and is spreading inaccurate information about last week's election.

Wren was intimately involved with the planning for the Trump campaign's January 6 events in 2021, and boasted that she had raised $3M to support the rally portion. Her appearance on Steve Bannon's show yesterday as Lake's Senior Advisor raises all kinds of questions about how the former newscaster is going to contest the November 8 results. (Lake is currently more than 16,000 votes behind Democratic nominee Katie Hobbs, and is a few thousand votes short of receiving an automatic recount.)

Wren's involvement came to light as the nationally-known Rasmussen organization repeated some of her comments as facts (without attribution). Upon questioning by Arizona's Law, they linked the Wren video as their "source".

Wren stated that she had inside information that "48% of voting centers encountered tabulation problems on Election Day, when voters voted for Kari Lake 3-to-1", after "0% of the voting centers encountered tabulation problems" during the Early Voting period that began October 12.

This is an inaccurate claim in several different ways. First, 48% is a gross overstatement of the Maricopa County E-Day problem. 70 of the 223 Vote Centers is far less than 48%. Each center had two tabulators, so even if only one was having problems (which does not make sense if the problem was the printers' settings), that Vote Center was still able to tabulate ballots.

A bigger misleading statement was her comparison to the Early Voting period. In person ballots printed at those 12 27-day sites or the 43 12-day sites were NOT tabulated at the Vote Centers. As any person who voted then - and they were Democrats and Republicans - will tell you, those ballots were placed in signed envelopes and sent to the County for verification and tabulation (on significantly different tabulating machines).

Wren is a former national finance adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, and previously worked for Sen. Lindsey Graham and Utah Governor Jon Huntsman. She has been subpoenaed by the House January 6 Select Committee.

It has been reported that, at the infamous command center meetings on January 5 (2021) at the Willard Hotel, Wren boasted that she had raised $3M for the Jan. 6 rally and had "parked" monies with Turning Point, the Republican Attorneys General Association and others to support it.

Wren may not have raised money on Bannon's show yesterday, but the host did warn/predict that Lake is "a fighter" and her campaign is going to do something "more aggressive". Wren agreed and immediately noted "the courts are not on our side." 

The implication was left unsaid, but Kari Lake promptly tweeted the interview with the comment, "Caroline gets it."

Her most irony-filled statement was when she leveled the accusation against the County: "It's either total incompetence, or it's malice."

The full interview - complete with misleading and false statements - is here.

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BREAKING: AZ's CD6 Is Now In the RECOUNT ZONE; Ciscomani's Lead Steadily Dropping

UPDATE: AZ's 2 uncalled U.S. House races are headed in different directions!

CD1: Inc. R @RepDavid's slowly closing in on D @JevinHodge. Picked up 0.3% today.

CD6 (Open): D Kirsten @EngelForArizona also picked up o.3% today, continuing her steady climb vs 

@JuanCiscomani

 

CD1: Hodge up by 2,541 (50.4%-49.6%). Has dropped daily (50.9, 50.8, 50.8, 50.7, 50.4)

CD6: Ciscomani up by 1,382 (50.2-49.8%). Has dropped daily (51.9, 51.2, 51.0, 50.5, 50.2)

CD1: At present time, the recount number would be approx 1,600. Hodge is about 900 above recount.

CD6: At present time, the recount number would be 1,546. Ciscomani is only up by 1,382. IF counting was ended now - it is NOT - there WOULD BE A RECOUNT!

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