Demonstrators gather at a rally to protest midterm election results outside of Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 12, 2022. /REBECCA NOBLE/AF || via Getty Image
By Ray Stern || Arizona Republic
Newly elected Republican lawmaker Liz Harris has pledged to withhold voting on any legislation next year unless the state holds another election “immediately.”
She and other election conspiracy promoters want a redo of the Nov. 8 election, claiming Republicans should have performed much better than the results showed.
Democratic leaders say the power of hard-liners like Harris may not matter as much in the era of divided government about to begin in Arizona.
“If she thinks she’s holding the cards, she’s mistaken,” said Sen. Lupe Contreras, D-Avondale, who’s moving to the state House next year where he’ll be the new assistant minority leader. “We are now in a different form of politics.”
Republicans maintained their one-vote majority in both the state House and Senate after the Nov. 8 election, but having Democrat Katie Hobbs in the governor’s office changes the usual paradigm. Since Hobbs can veto any bill, legislation that reaches her desk with no Democratic support would probably be dead on arrival, Democratic leaders said.
In other words, Harris won’t have leverage over fellow Republicans to block bills that might pass solely on party lines because such bills would be doomed, anyway, they said.
