In one year’s time, mail-in ballots will be going out to Arizona primary voters, and with the 2024 primary elections fast approaching, political operatives are already firing warning shots and making it clear that scorched earth campaigns will soon commence. On Friday, an associate of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell launched the first salvo against a potential Republican challenger, Jennifer Wright.
Matt Benson, who worked for both the Mitchell and Karrin Taylor Robson campaigns in 2022, took to Twitter to attack Wright. Benson quote tweeted an article in the Arizona Republic about Wright’s anticipated lawsuit against Democrat Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. While few Republicans actively support Mayes and how she has done her job, Benson made his position quite clear.
“To be clear, Wright is seeking a $2M payday from Arizona taxpayers,” tweeted Benson.
Technically, taxpayers may have to foot the bill for the lie Mayes’ staff told media outlets about Wright, but Wright says that is not her intention. Wright believes Mayes should pay.
Earlier this month, Wright, who headed the Election Integrity Unit under former Attorney General Mark Brnovich, filed a $2 million demand to settle a claim of defamation and unlawful release of employee information against Mayes.
The claim is addressed to Mayes “both personally and in your official capacity as Attorney General.”
Although Wright resigned her position effective Dec. 30, the day after a judge declared Mayes the winner of the attorney general race following a statewide recount, a Jan. 5 article in the Arizona Republic alleged Wright was “ousted” by Mayes as one of her first acts as attorney general.
As previously reported in the Arizona Daily Independent, Wright alleges “false and defamatory statements” regarding her departure from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) were “knowingly planted into a major newspaper publication” with the “clear intent to damage my reputation.”
Benson’s tweet is seen as yet another attempt to damage the popular Republican attorney, who is being heavily recruited by a number of factions inside the Republican Party to challenge Mitchell.
“The chief legal officer in the state of Arizona has lied about a former employee of her office. If she callously lies about something so relatively unimportant, what else and who else is she willing to lie about. Our Republican leaders, like Rachel Mitchell, should be fighting for truth, not rooting for liars,” Wright told the Arizona Daily Independent. “Her inability to comprehend that the letter says I intend to hold Mayes personally accountable and suggesting I want a taxpayer-funded payout is crass and misleading. Preserving all arguments is smart lawyering, not grifting.”
Wright has also stated that she has no intention at this time to challenge Mitchell for the Republican Party’s nomination.
That will come as a disappointment to a majority of Maricopa County Republicans, who according to recent polling, will not support Mitchell’s re-election.
Republican Party faithful hold Mitchell responsible for allowing her staff to bully and abuse taxpayers who have questioned the management of the 2020 General Election.
Only 26 percent of Republican Primary voters believe that Maricopa County is going in the right direction. That finding bodes poorly for all incumbents on the county-level including Recorder Stephen Richer, and Republican members of the Board of Supervisors: Jack Sellers, Clint Hickman, and Thomas Galvin.
“With virtually no name identification and her staunch defense of the indefensible mismanagement of the 2020 General Election, Mitchell has virtually no chance of success no matter how many stories she plants in the Republic, or how many tweets Benson lands,” one Republican strategist told the Arizona Daily Independent. “If you notice, Benson got one like on his tweet. So, I would be looking for a new client if I were him.”
“Besides, why would you take on Wright? She is very popular and she is taking on Kris Mayes, one of the least popular Democrats in the state,” questioned the strategist.
“Mayes barely won, and it is not clear yet that she did win,” said the strategist referring to the election challenge Wright is fighting in the courts on behalf of Abe Hamadeh.
Hamadeh, the Republican nominee in the 2022 Attorney General’s race trails Mayes by a mere 280 votes. A Mohave Superior Court judge is expected to rule this week as to whether or not his election challenge may proceed.
Thousands of votes remain uncounted and Hamadeh is fighting, through Wright, to have every legally cast vote count.
Editor’s Note: Mr. Benson has advised the Arizona Daily Independent that he is not currently working with or for Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s re-election campaign and did not tweet on its behalf.
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