By Van DiCarlo
Mr. Dicksion, My name is Van DiCarlo and I am 1st Vice Chair of LD22.
In the Arizona Daily Independent and in an e-mail dated January 2, 2019, represented to have been authored by you and published under your name, you alleged the Arizona State Republican Party bylaws and Maricopa County Republican Party bylaws are in conflict with State statute. While I have not yet compared all provisions of the respective bylaws with Arizona Revised Statutes, I have researched Arizona Laws and parliamentary rules regarding the use of proxies. I feel compelled to respectfully rebut your averment that provisions of the State and county Republican bylaw documents, allowing the use of proxies in the conduct of business at party meetings, is inconsistent with Arizona State statute.
The legislature is empowered by the Arizona Constitution to create statute (Ariz. Const. Art. IV Sec.1(1)): “The legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives,…”). It is a well-grounded principle of law that provisions of statute prohibiting certain activity apply generally within the state unless further provisions allow the prohibited activity in specific instances.
In your analysis, you correctly state that provisions of Arizona law create a prohibition of the use of proxies in all elections in the State. (Ariz. Rev. Stat. Sec.16-102
Further examination of ARS Title 16 however, reveals the use of a proxy is specifically allowed at meetings of a political party: “A political party may choose, through its bylaws, to allow the use of proxies at its meetings,….” (Ariz. Rev. Stat. Sec. 16-828 A
I understand the use of proxies is a hotly contested issue within the party however, the sweeping argument that the “State and Maricopa County bylaws are in conflict with state laws” with respect to the use of proxies is in my opinion, false.