In Move to Strip Secretary of State of Lawsuit Powers, Arizona GOP Tees Up Battle with State Democrats
Arizona | May 28, 2021
A move by Arizona Republicans this week to strip the Arizona secretary of state of some of her litigation powers signals another escalation of conflict between state Democratic and Republican officials amid a bitterly divisive ongoing audit of the 2020 election results of the state’s largest county.
A bill passed by the Arizona House of Representatives Appropriations Committee this week would, if passed by the legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, re-affirm constraints on the Secretary of State’s involvement in election-related lawsuits.
The measure stipulates that “the legal defense of Arizona election laws and procedures are of statewide concern and that the AG has the sole authority to defend such laws,” and further that the state attorney general “has sole authority in all election-related litigation” in general.
The move has been widely seen as a rebuke to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who has been vocally critical of the continuing audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results. Last week Hobbs suggested that hundreds of machines that had been handled by auditors should be decommissioned, with Hobbs intimating that taxpayers may end up footing the bill for that decision. …
(Excerpts from Just the News and the Virginia Star)