A screenshot of an ad by the Arizona Democratic Party and Adrian Fontes that Mark Finchem is demanding TV stations stop airing || Screenshot via Twitter
By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy || Arizona Mirror
Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, sent a cease-and-desist letter this week to Arizona television stations demanding that they stop airing an ad from his opponent that accuses him of organizing the Jan. 6 riot.
The ad, paid for by the Arizona Democratic Party and authorized by Finchem’s opponent, former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, says that Finchem “helped organize the January 6 protests where police were attacked.”
Finchem’s attorney called that particular claim false and said he was not involved with the organizing of the Jan. 6 protest. Finchem’s attorney, Jack Wilenchik, wrote that the stations were engaging in the spreading of “false, destructive and defamatory rumors” about Finchem.
Finchem, a state legislator from Oro Valley, has long been at the forefront of narratives around Jan. 6. The lead organizer of the rally that turned into a violent riot said in an interview that Arizona’s “Stop The Steal” movement, which fueled the actions of Jan. 6, wouldn’t have existed without Finchem.
On Finchem’s old Twitter account, which he deleted in 2021, he frequently spouted misinformation about the 2020 elections, much of which was flagged by Twitter as being incorrect. He also spearheaded an event at a Phoenix hotel in late November during which Trump’s lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other pro-Trump figures gathered with state GOP lawmakers and the president’s supporters to discuss baseless theories that Joe Biden won Arizona’s election by fraud.
