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ARIZONA LEGISLATURE

Maricopa County supervisors defend process to replace Liz Harris in Chandler district

Julie Willoughby gives House GOP critical vote

Posted 5/6/23

Maricopa County supervisors Jack Sellers and Clint Hickman on Friday stood by their board’s decision to appoint Julie Willoughby to replace Liz Harris in legislative District 13.

Willoughby …

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ARIZONA LEGISLATURE

Maricopa County supervisors defend process to replace Liz Harris in Chandler district

Julie Willoughby gives House GOP critical vote

Posted

Maricopa County supervisors Jack Sellers and Clint Hickman stood by their board’s decision Friday to appoint Julie Willoughby to replace Liz Harris in legislative District 13.

Willoughby was chosen by the board even though Harris was the top vote-getter at a meeting of Republican precinct committee members from her district, which covers parts of Chandler, Gilbert and Sun Lakes. They were charged by law with providing the board three names of potential nominees.

Harris was expelled from the chamber for disorderly conduct on April 12 after inviting a woman to testify at hearing on election integrity where she accused lawmakers, judges and the Mormon church of being involved in a criminal scheme to rig elections.

Harris then lied to the House Ethics Committee about her knowledge of the planned testimony, according to the committee’s report.

Sellers, who represents the area, led the supervisors' candidate vetting process and interviewed the three potential nominees. He said he needed to take into account the fact the House voted to expel Harris.

"In my discussions with Miss Harris, she firmly believes that her removal was improper and unlawful,'' Sellers aid.

"I believe she has the right to pursue a remedy through any lawful means available to her,'' he said. "I also believe that this board must consider the 46 votes from the Arizona House members who made a choice to create this vacancy.''

Those lawmakers, he said, read reports, heard testimony and voted.

"This board was not a party to that process,'' Sellers said. But Sellers also said the supervisors "must give weight to an action that over two-thirds of the House members voted in favor of.''

Thirteen members, all fellow Republicans, voted against expelling Harris.

Sellers then moved that the board appoint Willoughby, who ran along with Harris on the GOP ticket for the district’s two House seats last year but came in third behind the top-vote-getter, Democrat Jennifer Pawlik, and Harris.

Pawlik announced this week that she would not seek another term, leaving an open seat for the 2024 election that Republicans - possibly even Harris - will try to win.

Sellers and the other three Republicans on the five-member board then voted to appoint her. The sole Democrat, Steve Gallardo, opposed the appointment because, like Harris, Willoughby has said she believes the county’s election system is flawed.

Gallardo said that he could not support a candidate that did not believe the county’s elections were "safe, secure, accurate, transparent.''

He and the four Republican board members have offered a unified defense of county-run elections despite criticism from Trump and many of his GOP supporters, and he praised those board members for "standing up and telling the truth.''

Gallardo said he could not support a nominee who rejects that.

"If they’re not willing to stand up publicly and to say what has been the big lie, the conspiracy, the unfounded claims, are exactly that, false, I can’t vote for them,'' he said. "I just can’t.''

Board chairman Clint Hickman said he heard Gallardo "loud and clear'' but noted that supervisors were appointing a state lawmaker, not a county official.

"So, they can make those statements along with other legislators, that believe or not believe, whatever their beliefs are, and then they make the laws of this great state,'' Hickman said.

The supervisors have been criticized for taking more than two weeks after receiving the nominees to make their choice.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard, a Chandler Republican, said in floor comments the supervisors had taken the most time for an in-session legislative vacancy in 56 years and noted a series of rumors as to why they were delaying.

And he said 120 precinct committeemen, tasked with nominating a replacement, managed to come together on short notice to pick the three names sent to the county board.

"If that number of PCs can rearrange their schedule, to fulfill something that is needed, that is important, then with all due respect to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, the five of them, can have a special meeting to hasten what should be an important priority for them,'' he said.

Hickman and Sellers defended the process, saying it was a thorough vetting that took time.

Since Harris was expelled on April 12, lawmakers have met just three times, taking an entire week off and then working just one day last week and one day this week.

Willoughby gives House Republicans the 31st vote they need to control the chamber and move bills without support from minority Democrats.

"I'm very excited to get to work,'' Willoughby said after being sworn in by state Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick on the House floor Friday afternoon.

"I know we're going to hit the ground running,'' she said. "I'm excited to learn everything very quickly and get everything started and finished up a timely manner and be respectful to everybody.''

House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Peoria, told Willoughby she would get a chance to learn very quickly.

The GOP-controlled Legislature has been negotiating a budget deal with new Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs for months, and must have one in place in just eight weeks. That’s on top of hundreds of bills that need votes before the session ends.

"We have a lot of work to do in very short period of time,'' Toma said. "You’re going to learn what it means to drink from a fire hose very soon here.''

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