A group of Republicans in the Arizona House are recommending the impeachment of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes over what they call “malfeasance in office.”
The House Ad Hoc Committee on Executive Oversight released a report Wednesday that recommended the state legislature use its powers to impeach Mayes for abusing her authority. The committee met twice over the past few weeks before the recommendation for impeachment was made, according to the Arizona Republic.
“Based on Attorney General Mayes’ abuse of power, neglect of duty, and malfeasance in office, the Committee finds that Attorney General Mayes has committed impeachable offenses,” according to the report. “The Committee therefore recommends the House adopt a resolution impeaching Attorney General Kris Mayes and appointing a board of managers to prosecute her at a Senate trial.”
The report outlines six reasons for Mayes’s impeachment, including a warning against an Arizona county counting ballots by hand, town halls she held regarding water resources and nuisance lawsuits, and a consumer alert she issued about healthcare clinics that made it seem as if abortion services were provided when they actually aimed to convince those seeking abortions not to go through with the procedure.
The committee was created this March to “scrutinize” Mayes and “other state officials” but has only investigated Mayes so far. Mayes told the Arizona Republic the report was a “sham” and “absurd,” saying it was politically motivated.
“It’s not going to disrupt the way I do my job, which is to protect the people of Arizona and tackle the real issues they’re facing,” Mayes said.
Mayes is set to host another town hall on water resources Thursday, part of a strategic tour she has embarked on in rural parts of the desert state to highlight what Democrats have done for the water shortage. The committee alleged the events across the state are a misuse of public resources and that Mayes is campaigning for a possible ballot measure on water resources.
“I’m not going to stop doing town halls and hearing out the people of Arizona. That’s my job,” Mayes said. “And perhaps if these, you know, extreme Republicans would spend more time listening to Arizonans, they’d understand what our residents are dealing with every day. But they obviously don’t see their jobs the same way I do.”
The report also recommended financial punishment in addition to impeachment. Under this avenue, the legislature would subtract funds from Mayes’s office equal to the amount Republican legislators have spent defending cases they say Mayes’s office would not. The legislature could also defund units in the attorney general’s budget that the legislature did not specifically approve.
“We are the top law enforcement office in the state of Arizona,” Mayes said. “We have 60 hardworking agents working day in and day out fighting the drug cartels, doing dangerous work on behalf of the people of Arizona. And this legislature wants to defund us? … It would appear it’s the Republican Party now that wants to defund the police.”
The likelihood of Mayes being convicted on impeachment charges in Arizona is slim because Republicans have only a two-seat majority in both chambers. A conviction would require a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds majority in the state Senate.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, a Republican, said he would vote in favor of the impeachment based on what he has read in the report so far. He said Mayes has “refused to do the job” but understands a conviction in the impeachment would be “difficult.” In the Senate, Democrats would have to join their Republican counterparts in voting to convict Mayes.
“I happen to be pretty decent at math,” Toma said. “I understand to get to 20 in the Senate would be difficult.”
