The Arizona House voted 46-13 to expel State Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) on Wednesday after conducting an investigation into her bringing a witness to testify to the Senate Elections Committee, who accused legislators and other public officials of committing crimes. Jacqueline Breger told the committee that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, State House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) and others executed fraudulent deeds as part of a bribery scheme involving the Sinaloa drug cartel, along with other accusations.
Various legislators say that Harris was not truthful when she said she did not know what Breger was going to say. But Harris told The Arizona Sun Times it wasn’t that she didn’t know about the criminal accusations – she had instructed Breger only to address election integrity.
After the explosive testimony in February, State Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D-Tucson) submitted a complaint about Harris on March 6 to the House Ethics Committee, which is chaired by State Rep. Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale). Hamilton alleged that Harris violated House Rule 1, which prohibits impugning other members. Chaplik led an investigation, held an evidentiary hearing, and issued a report from the five-member committee unanimously finding that Harris had violated the rule and committed “disorderly behavior.”
However, he declined to issue any disciplinary recommendations in the report. He told The Arizona Sun Times that it should be the responsibility of the 60 members of the House, not three to five members of the committee. When the expulsion came up for a vote in the House, he voted against it, telling The Sun Times, “I didn’t think expulsion was the right punishment.” The House could have censured Harris or removed her from the Senate Election Committee, for example.
The report stated, “[T]he totality of the evidence shows that Representative Harris used her elected position to provide Breger with a legislative platform as a substitute for a criminal court.” Harris, who is known as the “Canvass Queen” for her work investigating election fraud, brought Breger to testify about election fraud, Breger did not limit her remarks. The report stated they rejected Harris’s claims during the evidentiary hearing that “no direct criminal allegations were made during the Joint Hearing” and disagreed with various other statements by Harris.
The report cited a lengthy handout Breger provided at the last minute to the committee members which contained a list of public officials who Breger claimed orchestrated fraudulent deeds. Breger works for John Harris Thaler of Harris/Thaler Law Corporation. Harris alleged to The Arizona Republic that State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) also has fraudulent deeds. Additionally, the report said, “Breger also asserted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ‘control[s]’‘government agencies and has been ‘integral to the laundering activities.’”
The report emphasized leaked text messages between Harris, Breger, and Thaler which indicated Harris knew in advance Breger was going to make the accusations. Screenshots of the texts “were left anonymously on the House Majority General Counsel’s desk in an envelope.” It’s disputed who dropped off the text messages. State Rep. Harris confirmed to The Sun Times that they were hers, but said that while she had discussed the accusations of criminal conduct with Breger before, she instructed Breger to only speak about election fraud at the hearing.
Harris was given an opportunity by the committee to present her defense during the evidentiary hearing, and she submitted 14 exhibits. State Rep. Chaplik accepted four but rejected the remaining 10. Harris told The Sun Times she thought this violated her due process. Chaplik said he rejected them on the advice of legislative legal counsel, who told them they were not relevant to the issue being considered.
Harris told The Sun Times that one of the exhibits was a compilation of video clips of prominent Democrats expressing their concerns about election fraud a few years ago. She said it was relevant because the Democrats were trying to portray her as a “conspiracy theorist” for being concerned about election fraud.
Chaplik defended his handling of the disciplinary process. “I was very fair as an ethics chairman,” he told The Sun Times. “I gave due process, made no recommendations, and did not allow a motion to discipline her because I felt 60 members should make the decision, not three to five members.”
Harris believes the reason the House did not choose a lesser punishment is because leadership was already considering expelling her prior to the Breger testimony. After last fall’s problem-plagued election, Harris vowed not to vote on any bills until the election was redone. Since members cannot simply refuse to vote, she voted no instead, she said, frustrating leadership because it was difficult to get bills passed without full Republican support due to holding only a 1-vote majority in the House.
The Sun Times asked Toma why he didn’t opt for a lesser punishment, and he said that it was because he believed Harris lied, and explained that it was the entire House Caucus who was responsible for deciding the punishment. He said soon after Breger’s testimony, he and House leadership asked Harris if she would apologize. If she would have, the expulsion procedures would have been dropped. Toma said it’s common for legislative leadership to offer freshman legislators a chance to make up for a mistake. Harris refused, he said. Harris issued a statement critical of Breger’s testimony shortly after the explosive hearing, which Toma pointed out was not an apology.
Multiple anonymous sources told The Sun Times that the reason House leadership did not agree upon a lesser punishment was because it would likely lead to Republicans losing their slim 1-vote majority in the House. Democrats didn’t want expulsion, the sources said, they wanted to censure Harris then start a recall of her in order to replace her with a Democrat.
The 13 Republicans who voted no were Chaplik, State Rep. Neal Carter (R-Maricopa), State Rep. David Cook (R-Globe), State Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford), Harris, State Rep. Justin Heap (R-Mesa), State Rep. Rachel Jones (R-Tucson), State Rep. Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), State Rep. Cory McGarr (R-Tucson), State Rep. Barbara Parker (R-Mesa), State Rep. Jacqueline Parker (R-Mesa), State Rep. Kevin Payne (R-Sun City), and State Rep. Austin Smith (R-Surprise). The House needed a two-thirds vote to expel her, and with 18 Republicans voting to oust her they had more than enough.
Kolodin, an attorney, tweeted a screenshot of the voting board results, declaring “A sad day in the history of the Arizona House of Representatives. I fear we have set a dangerous precedent.”
A sad day in the history of the Arizona House of Representatives. I fear we have set a dangerous precedent. pic.twitter.com/7CEPPR98jz
— Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) April 13, 2023
According to the Associated Press, Kolodin also said, “It will be perceived as setting the precedent that if you rock the boat too much, you will be expelled.” He said Harris “made an error in judgement.”
Kari Lake retweeted Kolodin, stating about those who voted no, “The names in RED are the good guys. The others …” She included a thinking smiley emoji.
The Kari Lake War Room account retweeted “A Message from CD 5 Leadership” which denounced the expulsion. CD 5 Member at Large Katelyn Ward tweeted the message, which was signed by herself and five others. Those were CD 5 Member at Large Nancy Cottle, LD 13 Chair Marcia Weiss, LD 10 Chair Ken Berger, LD 15 Chair David Winstanley, and East Valley Young Republican Chair Rachel Hope. The group stated that it set a “dangerous precedent” and “undermines the unity within the Republican Party.” They concluded, “It is disappointing to see that a more suitable disciplinary action was not found in response to the Ethics Committee Report versus the most extreme action that was possible.”
Former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward tweeted, “No matter what you think about @LizHarrisMBA, expelling her from the legislature is ridiculous. It totally disenfranchises the people in LD13 as the people who voted her in are NOT the people who are expelling her. Instead of a recall by the voters of her district, 45 people who live in other parts of the state decided that LD13 will be underserved. And it is especially stupid on the part of the GOP as we had a one vote majority that “Republican leadership” just gave up. #SoDumb.”
While the topic of Breger’s testimony went viral afterwards on social media, there has been no confirmation that any of the public officials have fraudulent deeds associated with a Mexican drug cartel.
The last legislator to be expelled was State Rep. Don Shooter over sexual misconduct claims. It was also highly controversial, since the main accusations came from then-State Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who was accused of sexual harassment herself.
Republican precinct committeemen (PC’s) in Harris’ District 3 must choose three possible replacements within 21 days of the expulsion, and the Maricopa County Supervisors will select one of them to serve out the remainder of Harris’ term, which ends in 2024. Sources tell The Sun Times that the PCs in Harris’s district may try to choose Harris for all three slots.
The expulsion comes less than a week after two Tennessee Democrats were ousted from the Tennessee State House for disorderly conduct occurring while leading a protest for stricter gun control. They were both reinstated.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Liz Harris” by Liz Harris. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol” by formulanone. CC BY-SA 2.0.
