On Wednesday, Arizona State Sen. JD Mesnard questioned the ongoing delay by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in choosing replacements for Rep. Liz Harris and Sen. Raquel Teran.
"The length of time of these vacancies is the longest, while we've been in session, in a half a century! 56 years!"
Today, @JDMesnard called out the @maricopacounty Board of Supervisors for neglecting to promptly name a Senator and a Representative to fill vacancies in both… pic.twitter.com/EdHANnUSHz
— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) May 3, 2023
Mesnard pointed out that the average time to replace a legislator is approximately 8 days, in the case of replacing Harris, Wednesday marked 20 days since her expulsion. It has been 19 days since Teran resigned her seat in the Senate.
“It is not lost on most of us that we have a vacancy in this chamber,” began Mesnard. “We have had a vacancy in this chamber for 19 days in case anyone was keeping track. There’s also a vacancy in the House. In my district, on the House side, that’s had a vacancy for 20 days.”
“Now the thing that I find troubling amidst all of this, is some of the rumors I’ve been hearing about why it’s taking so long to get to today where we are just finally, they’ve interviewed – or are interviewing – the three candidates my district nominated over two weeks ago,” continued Mesnard. “One of the rumors is that there may be a belief that the County can reject all three of the nominees. If you read the statute, it’s pretty explicitly clear, but that was one of the rumors. Just a rumor, but one that I find alarming if true.”
“Another rumor was that they want to sit on this for a while and hold out for some piece of legislation that they might want us to pass and they’re using this as leverage. Again, these are just rumors, can’t know for sure what is true. But what is not a rumor is that the length of time of these vacancies is the longest while we have been in session for a half a century. Fifty-six years. I went back and looked at what’s the average time it takes from the point of vacancy to the point of filling the vacancy; 8.76 days is the average. Today is twenty just to get to the interviews, and then I don’t know what’s gonna happen What I can also tell you is that in my district 100 or 120 PCs rearranged their lives – their schedules – so that they could gather over two weeks ago to nominate three names, as the statute requires. The statute unfortunately does not require the board to take action in any specific amount of time, though from the average that has never been an issue. Apparently now it is one, and I would advocate that we change the statute while we’re in session because my constituents should be fully represented in the Legislature. If that number of PCs can rearrange their schedule to fulfill something that is needed, 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.”
There are many Capitol insiders who believe that the Board of Supervisors are stalling for leverage on the issue of the passage of an unpopular bill that would place Proposition 400 on the ballot to fund transportation projects in Maricopa County. Others say the stall is nothing more than a petty power play by the Board.
The process employed by the Board took a weird turn on Wednesday when Supervisor Steve Gallardo posted the questions he had for the LD26 vacancy created by Teran. The questionnaire ignored more of the common concerns of resident scraping by in the hardest inflation hit metropolitan area in the country and focused on election integrity questions such as, “did Joe Biden legitimately win the 2020 race for U.S. president?”
Customarily, the supervisor whose district includes the Legislative District leads the selection process. In the case of Harris, that duty falls to Supervisor Jack Sellers, and in the case of Teran, it is Gallardo’s duty.
Election questionnaire sent to all three candidates for the Legislative District 26 vacancy. The public has the right to know their views on the 2020 and 2022 elections. pic.twitter.com/gNFydFK3dk
— Supervisor Steve Gallardo (@Steve_Gallardo) May 3, 2023
“The dumb part is you know Sellers isn’t going to pick Liz Harris or the guy who nominated her for reinstatement. Julie Willoughby may be too conservative for his taste, but she is the only sane choice.” said a Republican PC who was upset over the lengthy selection process.