Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer
By Jen Fifield |Arizona Republic
After promising to be “boring” if elected and criticizing his predecessor for being too political, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer is wading into 2022 politics by launching a political action committee to support what he calls “pro-democracy Republicans.”
Richer created the Pro-Democracy Republicans of Arizona PAC, which he says will help bankroll certain Republican candidates for state Senate and House if they acknowledge that the 2020 election was fair and condemn the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as a “terrible result of the lies told about” the election.
As recorder, Richer oversees portions of the county’s elections — the rest is controlled by the Board of Supervisors. It’s not typical for recorders who oversee elections to engage in such pronounced political activities, since many try to give the perception of impartiality in their day-to-day jobs, according to some national election administration consultants.
But Richer and others say the unfounded claims of election fraud during the 2020 election and harassment to election officials that followed — which occurred across the country but were concentrated here with the Arizona Senate’s audit of the election results — has spurred some typically quiet officials to speak out.
