Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer has given rise to concerns about potential conflicts of interest due to his involvement with a political action committee whose mission is to influence the elections Richer’s office is tasked with administering.
Richer is the chairman of Pro-Democracy Republicans, a political action committee with the stated goal of “support[ing] pro-democracy Arizona Republicans” in order to “[strengthen] the processes that have long undergirded Arizona and the United States.”
The PAC’s website goes on to state: “The Arizona election wasn’t stolen. We Republicans simply had a presidential candidate who lost, while we had many other candidates who won. It’s time we Republicans accept and acknowledge that fact.”
Pro-Democracy Republicans’ largest donation was a $20,000 contribution from Francis Najafi. In the 2022 election cycle, Najafi also contributed $60,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party and $60,000 to ActBlue Arizona according to transparencyusa.org, as well as an additional $20,500 to a number of individual Democratic candidates. Najafi also contributed $13,500 to three Republican candidates.
Pro-Democracy Republicans was formed July 28, 2021, mere months after Richer’s own election as Maricopa County Recorder. According to the County Recorder’s website, his responsibilities include “maintaining voter files for more than 2.6 million active registered voters in Maricopa County.” Richer’s office also “partners with the Maricopa County Elections Department to plan and hold jurisdictional, county, state, and federal level elections for all eligible Maricopa County voters.”
Richer is currently facing a lawsuit by defeated Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for multiple counts of misconduct relating to allegedly illegal election procedures, as well as for using “[his] public office to violate the free-speech protections of the federal and Arizona Constitutions to further [his] own interests” relating to the Pro-Democracy Americans PAC, which the lawsuit states “would constitute misconduct, even without the conflict of interest.”
According to the complaint, the PAC “was expressly created to oppose Lake and her political allies.”
The lawsuit concludes that "Richer is responsible for the conduct of an election for the fourth largest county in the United States, and he is directly advocating against candidates for office in the very county over which he oversaw the election.”
"Richer is responsible for the conduct of an election for the fourth largest county in the United States, and he is directly advocating against candidates for office in the very county over which he oversaw the election.” — Lawsuit filed by Kari Lake campaign
Since the PAC was formed in 2021, it has raised a total of $88,442.50 as of the last filed campaign finance report with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office. Of those funds, $69,761.43 has been spent.
The largest expenditure was $45,000 in mid-July, 2022, to Defending Arizona Values, another political action committee formed four months previously in March 2022. Kirk Adams, former chief of staff to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, is listed as the PAC’s chairman on the Secretary of State’s website.
According to transparencyusa.org, Defending Arizona Values PAC’s only substantial expenditures were to Consilium Consulting, a limited liability company also managed by Kirk Adams. Defending Arizona Values paid Consilium Consulting a total of $52,631.73 for “mailings,” funded almost entirely by Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC.
Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC reports also list a $10,000 expenditure in March, 2022, to Awareness Analytics for polling. The remaining PAC expenditures consist of bank and payment processor fees, accounting and compliance expenses, and reimbursements totalling $6,873.29 to Richer himself for web domains, newsletter fees, airfare, event costs, etc.
Richer has long been an outspoken opponent of the popular stolen 2020 election theory, publishing an open letter to the Republican Party via Twitter detailing 2020 election and audit procedures, and a “Simple, Data-Backed Explanation for Trump’s Loss in Maricopa County.” The letter also strikes back at accusations that Richer is a “RINO” and responds in depth to the “Stop the Steal” campaign.
In the letter, Richer states:
I will run the Recorder’s Office in an objective, non-partisan manner. The Office’s success will not be measured by the political outcomes of the processes we administer. We will measure our success by our ability to competently, lawfully, and fairly execute our statutorily defined duties.
But I am a Republican. And I do care about the Arizona Republican Party.
The Ninjas’ audit and the Stop the Steal movement worries me deeply as a Republican. According to every poll, the audit is decidedly unpopular with Arizona independents, especially when they learn about the audit’s bizarre, unprofessional nature. A winning coalition for countywide or statewide race must include independents—both the County and state are almost evenly divided in thirds of Republican, Democrat, and Independent/Party-Not-Declared…
A bill was filed in the Arizona Legislature in July 2022 that would make PAC activity illegal for public officials or employees who oversee “any significant aspect of election operations.” The bill has not received a hearing.
