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But an aerial map of the property, available online at the Maricopa County Assessor’s website, showed a house with a pool on the 4.3-acre property, with two registered voters. "Bad behavior can no longer be allowed to continue. That is it," said State House Speaker Toma. "On a personal note, 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 and integrity, they can no longer be an effective legislator." The State House Speaker, Rep. Ben Toma (R), said Harris' expulsion was necessary, and that she needed to be held accountable for her bad behavior. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has 10 days to appoint someone to replace Harris. The hearing that became Harris’ downfall was just the latest in a series of similar events since the start of the year, though it was the first to catch such widespread backlash.
Arizona House expels GOP lawmaker over unproven claims
Among those accused by Jacqueline Breger, a local insurance agent with no elections expertise, included Governor Katie Hobbs and other state lawmakers such as the house speaker, Ben Toma. Harris was kicked out last month in a bipartisan vote for organizing a presentation where an Arizona insurance agent made unsubstantiated accusations that a wide range of politicians, judges and public officials of both parties took bribes from a Mexican drug cartel. Liz Harris, an election-denying Republican lawmaker in the Arizona house of representatives, was expelled by her colleagues on Wednesday after she invited to a committee hearing a conspiracy theorist who accused elected officials of unproven corruption and bribery. The House Ethics Committee (composed of three Republican representatives and two Democrats) unanimously agreed, saying that Harris violated House rules by inviting Jacqueline Breger to that February meeting.
Arizona House expels GOP lawmaker who presented unproven accusations
Julie Willoughby appointed to replace expelled Arizona house representative - Arizona's Family
Julie Willoughby appointed to replace expelled Arizona house representative.
Posted: Fri, 05 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The Arizona Republican Party on Saturday sent a flat out, full-throated, flabbergasting message to the voters of this great state. According to state law, the Legislative District 13 Republican precinct committees will pick three candidates to fill Harris’ seat. Those nominees will go to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which will make the final pick. The Republicans who voted against expelling Harris included many in the Freedom Caucus.
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She did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Alexander Kolodin, who voted against expulsion, said expelling Harris set a bad precedent because it held her accountable for comments made by a member of the public. The expulsion “gives credit to these awful allegations and makes her a martyr for them”, she said. Before she joined the legislature, Harris gained notoriety for her involvement in election denialism. After the 2020 election, she led an unsanctioned canvass of voters, which was then debunked by elections experts.
Arizona House votes to expel Rep. Liz Harris
Harris’s Republican colleagues were split on the expulsion vote, with some saying she clearly crossed a line and others saying expulsion went too far despite her lack of judgment on the issue. The complaints, filed by Reps. Barbara Parker, R-Mesa; David Marshall, R-Snowflake; Jazqueline Parker, R-Mesa; and Rachel Jones, R-Tucson, state that some members of the House felt “threatened and intimidated” by the behavior from De Los Santos and Ortiz. James Barton, the attorney representing De Los Santos and Ortiz, didn’t dispute what Ortiz and De Los Santos did in his response letter but argued the House shouldn’t allow rules of decorum and civility to bar “passionate debate” the Democrats engaged in.
Online sleuths discovered the women Thaler accused of facilitating the fraud were his ex-wife and her mother. Members of the Arizona House of Representatives expelled Harris from the state House on April 12, 2023, by a vote of 46 to 13. She was expelled for violating "legislative rules by inviting a witness to present false testimony."[1] Click here to learn more. The House voted 46 to 13 to banish her, easily surpassing the necessary two-thirds threshold. The action was taken after an ethics complaint was filed against Ms. Harris by a Democratic lawmaker. Twenty-nine Democrats joined 17 Republicans to vote for expulsion, while all 13 nay votes came from Republicans, including Ms. Harris.
Grand jury indicts two Cochise County supervisors on felony charges tied to election canvass delays
House Democrats said the report validated their previous attempt to censure Harris — a maneuver that was sidestepped by House Republicans, who said at the time it was premature pending an ethics investigation. “What the House Rules cannot tolerate is a member engaged in the conduct described above, which erodes public trust in the legislative process,” according to the report, which was unanimously signed by the three Republicans and two Democrats on the panel. It’s the second time in six years the House has voted to kick out one of its own. Don Shooter, who was found to have serially sexually harassed his colleagues and lobbyists at the state Capitol.
Now-former state Rep. Liz Harris expelled from the Arizona House
Arizona Republican leaders spoke out against the Breger incident in the days following, with House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen, pinning the blame for the presentation on Harris. Harris is the first lawmaker to be expelled from the House since 2018 when Rep. Don Shooter (R) was expelled amid sexual harassment allegations. The House made the vote with 46 representatives voting yes and 13 voting no. The resolution to expel Harris cites the committee’s findings, which said the first-term lawmaker knew in advance Breger was going to make the criminal allegations and failed to provide the information for review beforehand, in violation of House regulations. "We need 31 votes to pass any bill," said House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Glendale, adding that Republicans must have had a "strict majority" to pass bills on party lines.
Harris told The Washington Post ahead of the vote, "I didn't lie and God knows the truth. The truth will come out." Harris did not speak on her own behalf as the House voted to expel her. Only after the House adjourned did a handful of her supporters in the gallery speak out, shouting "shame on you, shame, shame, shame." The desk used by Arizona Republican Rep. Liz Harris at the state Capitol in Phoenix stands empty moments after she was expelled from the Legislature on Wednesday. “The actions of Representatives Ortiz and De Los Santos did not come close to what transpired on Capitol Hill that day. The not-so-subtle effort to equate the two is disgusting,” Barton wrote.
Ethics Chairman Rep. Joe Chaplik, R-Scottsdale, led the investigation and report conducted for Harris. He said he thought it was appropriate Ethics members make their own decision on the vote to expel Harris and was the only Ethics member who voted against expelling her. In a report released Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee says it also found that Harris, a freshman Republican lawmaker from Chandler, later lied when claiming she had no idea that the witness would make such wild accusations. That was problematic enough to merit the ethics investigation and expulsion, according to House Speaker Ben Toma — a Republican, and one of the lawmakers falsely accused of criminal activity.
Liz Harris (Republican Party) was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing District 13. Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives are down one member following the expulsion of Rep. Liz Harris, R-Chandler, in a vote by her colleagues. In a statement Wednesday, House Democratic leader Andrés Cano said Harris' actions were "reckless and unbecoming of any elected official." Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin said Harris “made an error in judgement,” but expelling her would send the wrong message. With Harris’s seat now empty, Republicans do not have a majority in the House, leaving them one GOP vote shy of what they would need to pass their priorities until her position is filled.
After the hearing, the Democratic representative Stephanie Stahl Hamilton filed an ethics complaint against Harris. The bipartisan house ethics committee, chaired by a Republican, subsequently investigated the complaint and concluded Harris had committed disorderly behavior in violation of house rules. The committee recommended the full house decide how best to discipline Harris.
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