Mark Finchem the QAnon Oath Keeper Could Be One Heartbeat Away From Being Governor

Because Arizona has no Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State is next in succession should the Governor leBave office due to death, resignation, or impeachment. I’m sure most readers can remember Secretary of State Jane Hull becoming Governor after the resignation of Fife Symington after his conviction on seven counts of bank fraud. We also remember Jan Brewer (Scorpions for Breakfast) after Janet Napolitano resigned.

So come this November, Arizonans will have the chance to elect a new Governor because Ducey is ineligible to run for a third consecutive term. We must keep our eye on the race for Secretary of State, because the Republican party has shown no backbone regarding Trump and his delusional claim that he won the election. And with Trump’s loss in Arizona and Cyber Ninjas having released its findings that President Joe Biden won Arizona, selecting the next Secretary of State for Arizona is just as important as electing a new Governor because we have seen how some Republicans claimed fraud and the election was fixed.

The Republican candidates running for Secretary of State are frightening.

Democracy-hater State Rep. Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix), who is married to Arizona Supreme Court associate judge Clint Bolick.

• After the 2020 presidential election, Trump refused to concede and made claims of fraud. Bolick urged Congress to throw out the presidential election results from Arizona and give the state’s electoral college votes to Trump.
• She introduced legislation in January 2021 to rewrite the election laws in Arizona to give the state legislature the power to reject the election results “at any time before the presidential inauguration” — even after the results were certified by the Secretary of State and by the Governor and the electoral votes counted by Congress).
• Bolick’s legislation would also prevent judges from throwing out baseless court cases without evidence; instead, a jury would decide the cases. That bill, Arizona House Bill 2720, died in committee.
• Bolick signed a letter asking Congress that the State’s 11 electoral votes go to then-President Donald Trump, which would have overturned the choice of voters.

Worst Person in Arizona, State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale).

• She sponsored legislation that would prohibit voters who received early vote ballots from casting those votes at polling places before or on election day (they would only be allowed to cast them through the mail). Election officials from both parties and voting rights advocates opposed the legislation, saying that it solves no problem and amounts to voter suppression.
• Ugenti has sponsored several bills making it harder to put ballot initiatives up to voters.
• In 2021, she supported legislation requiring voters in Arizona who vote by mail to include identification paperwork and their ballots.
• In addition, she supported legislation that would purge registered voters from early voting vote rolls if they did not use early voting in two consecutive elections.

Pretend Cowboy, State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley).

• Three weeks after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and on the same day that Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona was certified, Finchem hosted Rudy Giuliani at a downtown Phoenix hotel. Giuliani, then Trump’s lawyer, announced a new theory for why the result should be overturned because “Biden had relied on fraudulent votes from among the five million undocumented immigrants living in the state,” a striking claim given that Arizona only has a total of seven million residents.

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  Two weeks after that, Finchem was among 30 Republican lawmakers in Arizona who signed a joint resolution calling on Congress to block the state’s 11 electoral college votes for Biden and instead accept”the alternate 11electoral votes for Trump.”

• He was present in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when hundreds of violent Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, resulting in the deaths of five people with 140 police officers injured. He had come to speak at a planned “Stop the Steal” rally, later canceled, to spread the “big lie” that the election had been rigged.
• Last month he told a Trump rally in Florence, Arizona: “We know it, and they know it. Donald Trump won.”
• In his latest ruse, Finchem introduced a new bill, HCR2033, which seeks to decertify the 2020 election results in Arizona’s three largest counties. There is no legal mechanism for decertifying election results after the event.
• And last week, the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Finchem and Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward over the fake electors plot. As a member of the Oath Keepers, if Finchem is elected Secretary of State, we can expect him to challenge any election that he disagrees with.
• Finchem and Ward are feuding. In emails from April 2021, Finchem delivered a lengthy and pointed takedown of Ward, accusing her of “friendly fire” and of telling him to “stay in your lane.” The missive prompted a terse reply from Ward’s husband. ”You have been a punk … I will actively oppose your campaign for SOS,” Michael Ward replied.

Arizona voters come November will not only have to think who is best for Governor for Arizona but give equal thought to voting for Secretary of State. Knowing that if something were to happen to the Governor, the Secretary of State will take over and keep their thumb on the election scale for Arizona.