Former Arizona senator's testimony at heart of voting laws case
Attorneys for Republican state lawmakers in Arizona want a federal judge to ignore the testimony of a former Democratic state senator in a voting-rights case.
Martín Quezada’s testimony was part of a federal challenge against two laws passed in Arizona last year that the U.S. Department of Justice claims were designed to keep minorities from voting.
The former senator testified about what he said were racially motivated comments made to him by Arizona Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli.
"There was one point where President Biggs made Senator Borrelli come to my office and apologized for some of the offensive things he had said. And I remember that vividly because he came into my office, sat down and apologized, and then went off to say other offensive things on top of that," Quezada said in an interview with Capitol Media Services.
Borrelli has denied making such remarks. The judge has not said when she will rule on the case.
In court filings, Kory Langhofer did not argue that the Lake Havasu City Republican did not make the comments to then-Sen. Martin Quezada. Those comments, Quezada told Capitol Media Services, were "one offensive thing after another.''
More to the point, Quezada said, Borrelli said that dead people and "illegals'' were being registered to vote.
"If your people weren't doing that, we wouldn't have to bring these bills,'' he quoted Borrelli as saying.
Instead, Langhofer's complaint is that the groups challenging the pair of 2022 laws, including the U.S. Department of Justice, did not disclose that Quezada would be testifying about his conversations with Borrelli.
That, Langhofer said, did not give him and other attorneys for the state a chance to question Quezada before he testified. And that, he said, amounts to "gamesmanship.''
But Ernest Herrera, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund countered that Quezada was on a list of witnesses to be called given to the state. And it is the fault of the lawyers defending the laws for failing to question him ahead of time to know what he might say.
What makes all that relevant is that a host of civil rights groups as well as the U.S. Department of Justice are asking U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton to void a pair of laws approved in 2022 by the Republican-controlled Legislature that they say were specifically designed to deter minorities from voting.
Top GOP leaders who are defending the laws say they are just common-sense changes to ensure that only those eligible to vote can cast ballots. Challenges dispute that.
But what could decide the case is whether Bolton concludes they were enacted with "discriminatory intent,'' something that runs afoul of the federal Voting Rights Act. And testimony about what Borrelli said could help them build that case.
"I said no such thing,'' Borrelli told Capitol Media Services. "He is either hallucinating or completely fabricating for political gain, period.''
Still, Borrelli said he had not seen or heard exactly what was said by Quezada who is no longer a state senator, having not sought reelection in 2022 to make an unsuccessful bid for state treasurer.
"I've heard he said things,'' Borrelli said, declining to answer further questions.
