Amid Maricopa County GOP drama, supervisors approve new policy on precinct leaders

Amid local Republican Party discord, Maricopa County supervisors unanimously approved a new policy on Wednesday for appointing precinct committeemen to vacancies — a move met with dissent from audience members.

Supervisors are mandated by statute to appoint precinct committeemen when there is a vacancy for one of the county's recognized political parties. Precinct committeemen are local party officials who are crucial to coordinating political grassroots efforts in their communities. By law, supervisors must appoint from a list of names submitted by the party's county chairperson.

In Maricopa County, that usually mundane appointment process has recently been engulfed in controversy. Numerous legislative district chairs said in a Board of Supervisors meeting in mid-September that higher-ups in the Maricopa County Republican Committee are appointing precinct committeemen without their approval, among other issues.

County supervisors — four Republicans and one Democrat — say it isn't the first time that drama within county parties has spilled into the precinct committeemen appointment process. The new policy attempts to balance what the supervisors legally can do to help resolve concerns about committeemen appointments against their involvement in party decisions.

"The county board itself can only do so much," said Supervisor Tom Galvin, who represents a district encompassing Scottsdale, much of Mesa and other portions of the East Valley, in mid-September. "It seems like there some difference of party politics, or party operations."

On Wednesday, the supervisors chose to implement a more formalized and standardized process for precinct committeemen vacancies and appointments.

How does the Republican precinct committeeman appointment process work?

Precinct committeemen are elected officials tasked with registering voters in their communities, leading campaigns to get out the vote and canvassing for candidates endorsed by their county political party. They are also eligible to vote for party leaders.

When a Republican precinct committeemen vacancy occurs, the party's relevant legislative district chair and precinct captains generally nominate a candidate to fill the position. Their pick must then be approved by Maricopa County Republican Committee Chair Craig Berland, according to Maricopa County Republican Committee bylaws, and forwarded to county supervisors for appointment.

Sometimes, the process isn't that simple. But Maricopa County Republican Committee bylaws lay out contingencies in case of a variety of common situations.

For instance, if the precinct captain and the district chair disagree on who should be appointed, Berland gets the final say. If both the precinct captain and the district chair fail to recommend a precinct committeeman to fill a vacancy, Berland is expected to give written notice to the district chair of his intent to submit a candidate for appointment. If there's no response from the district chair after 15 days, Berland may notify supervisors of his recommendation.

Pleas to supervisors, internal emails reveal party strife

In an email from August, Linda Migliore, the Republican chair of a legislative district covering portions of the northwest Valley, confronted Maricopa County Republican Committee Treasurer Lawrence Hudson after a precinct committeeman appointee was sent to county supervisors without her sign-off.

She accused Hudson of trying to "roll over" her in the email, one of many submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and obtained by The Arizona Republic. County attorneys aren't actively investigating the matter, officials said.

"I know you have done the same thing" with other legislative district chairs, she wrote.

A day later, Dan Farley, chair of a district that spans parts of the East Valley, emailed county supervisors with a request: Hold off on precinct committeemen appointments.

The Maricopa County Republican Committee "has been sending appointments to you without following their own bylaws," he wrote.

Other legislative district chairs who spoke before county supervisors in mid-September laid out additional issues. Some said Berland has ignored candidates for precinct committeemen vacancies that they've submitted. Others accused him of declaring vacancies where there are none.

"There are all kinds of things going on," said Andrew Adams, chair of a legislative district encompassing much of Gilbert. "And I understand a lot of these pertain to bylaws and are interparty issues, but to be honest, we have nowhere else to go."

Ultimately, the issues hinder local party leaders' ability to effectively organize and campaign, legislative district chairs said. Once a precinct committeeman is appointed to a vacancy, they will stay in that position until the next election when primary voters pick their choice for the position.

Tatiana Pena, second vice chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, told the supervisors that she believes there are sometimes problems with how precinct committeemen are being submitted to the board for appointment. But, she said, legislative district chairs and precinct captains also play politics with appointments.

"This problem is a lot bigger than what you've heard already," she said.

New policy will require attestation, among other changes

Currently, every county political party has its own forms that it submits to Maricopa County to recommend candidates for appointment.

Until recently, those forms went to the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, which processed them and submitted a list of names to county supervisors for appointment. But under the county's recent elections operations agreement, those duties have shifted to the county Elections Department, which is directly under the Board of Supervisors and the county manager.

Under the new policy that supervisors approved Wednesday, every county party will fill out the same forms for precinct committeemen vacancies and appointments.

In cases where a vacancy was created by a precinct committeeman resigning from their position, the policy requires the former precinct committeeman to sign county forms. That will serve as a check to ensure that there is a legitimate vacancy.

On all vacancy and appointment forms, the county party chair will be required to sign a statement attesting that their request was in accordance with the "applicable bylaws" of their county political party.

"This was as far as we could go to make sure that we had a consistent process among all of the different county parties," said Maricopa County Elections Director Scott Jarrett in mid-September.

But nearly all of the speakers in the audience on Wednesday objected to the new policy.

Several Republican legislative district chairs said they felt that their signatures, and that of precinct captains, should be required on the forms, even though county officials say they can't statutorily do that.

Many others said the policy is a step toward government leaders interfering with party politics — a notion that county officials pushed back on.

"There's no power at all being taken away from the parties," said Maricopa County Attorney's Office Civil Division Chief Tom Liddy.

Berland and Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit both spoke, but neither expressed a firm opinion on the policy.

Berland said complaints about the county party and the precinct committeemen appointment process happen "every year" and asked supervisors to process appointments currently awaiting approval as soon as possible.

DeWit called the issue a "hot political topic" and said he tries to "push decision-making" to local party leaders. He just wants precinct committeemen vacancies and appointments to be accurate, he said.

Ultimately, the discussion devolved into election conspiracies and anger after supervisors voted to pass the new policy. At least one person was asked to leave the auditorium after screaming profanity at Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman, who represents much of the northwest Valley.

Hickman said that it's party leaders who should be taking the heat.

"Everyone's just fine when people are throwing barbs at the board," he remarked at the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting.

Legislature needs to look at the law, county supervisors say

The standardized forms aren't a perfect fix, county supervisors say.

But their hands are tied when it comes to internal party issues, they said. Galvin described the situation in mid-September as both a legal and political one, calling it "pretty messy."

"Those issues within the party — we can't help you guys with that," Gates told legislative district chairs.

Supervisors instead urged party members to petition legislators to change state law and give clearer direction on who must be involved in precinct committeemen appointments.

"It should be a countywide, uniform process," said Supervisor Steve Gallardo, the board's lone Democrat who represents parts of Phoenix and the southwest Valley, in mid-September. "I believe though, there are some statutory issues that need to be addressed — I've always said that."

Sasha Hupka covers county government and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County supervisors approve new policy on precinct leaders