Republican Rep. Liz Harris gives a thumbs up after fellow members of the Arizona House of Representatives voted to expel her from the chamber on April 12, 2023. Photo by Caitlin Sievers || Arizona Mirror
By Caitlin Sievers || Arizona Mirror
Republican Rep. Liz Harris was expelled from the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday for orchestrating a February meeting in which a member of the public spread wild conspiracy theories claiming that various state and local officials were in on a housing deed money laundering scheme involving a Mexican drug cartel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Following a House Ethics Committee report released Tuesday that found Harris lied about her actions and that she had engaged in disorderly conduct, violating rules of the Arizona House of Representatives and “damaging the institutional integrity of the House,” the House voted 46-13 on Wednesday to expel her from the chamber. A two-thirds majority is necessary to expel someone from the chamber.
“I stand on honesty and integrity,” Harris told members of the media as she left the chamber on Wednesday. “God knows the truth. If you don’t toe the line, this is what happens.”
Although he said it wasn’t personal, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma, one of the lawmakers implicated in the unproven bribery scheme, voted to expel Harris.
“The only thing we have down here is our word and our integrity, and when that is clearly crossed, when you can no longer count on someone’s word or integrity, they can no longer be an effective legislator,” Toma said after the vote. “They cannot represent their district well, they cannot be part of anything significant. As difficult as it was, it was just the inevitable and also the right thing to do.”
Toma also pointed out that Harris repeatedly lied to the House Ethics Committee.
While Harris claimed during the Ethics Committee hearing that no criminal allegations were made during Jacqueline Breger’s Feb. 23 presentation to the House and Senate elections committees, the panel rejected that claim, finding that the evidence contradicted Harris’s testimony.
