Taxpayers on the hook for GOP lawmakers' support of Hamadeh election suit
Arizona taxpayers will foot the bill for a $5,000 legal bid by the state’s two top Republican lawmakers to help last year’s losing GOP Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh’s effort to overturn his loss.
A private attorney for House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen told the state Supreme Court that the pair take no position on whether Kris Mayes outpolled Hamadeh.
But in the new filing, Tom Basile argues their interest is to follow what he said are state election laws and to allow the parties an opportunity to address the question.
Basile asserts that did not happen when a Mohave County judge ruled in December that Hamadeh failed to provide evidence the election results were wrong.
The state Supreme Court has yet to decide whether to accept Hamadeh’s request to order a new trial or have him go through the normal appeals process.
