Maricopa County Democrats' party chair resigns after turmoil over fraud allegations

The chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party resigned Wednesday, a casualty of internal party discontent with a botched $24,000 campaign mailer that has revealed cronyism and potential mail fraud.

Nancy Schriber, who was just reelected party chair in January, said she believes she is not the right person to lead the party into 2024 and its election cycle.

"I hope by stepping down the party can begin to heal and refocus its efforts on turning Maricopa County blue," she said in an emailed statement shared by party officials.

Her resignation comes two days after executive director Ne'lexia Galloway left.

Schriber had defended Galloway in the face of internal complaints that Galloway was abusing her position and violating the party's conflict of interest policy by secretly directing business to her fiancé.

Concerns swirl over $24K business deal: Maricopa County Democratic Party director quits

In her resignation letter, Schriber justified her support of Galloway, even as other party officials dug up evidence of improper actions ― until Monday. That's when she saw documents from a vendor, she said, which supported the complaints about Galloway and her fiancé, Bruce Franks Jr.

"I do want to be clear that during the last 7 months, I consulted and followed the advice of the Arizona Democratic party attorney, both the ADP Executive Directors, ADP Treasurer as well as the MCDP attorney," Schriber wrote, referring to the Maricopa County Democratic Party.

"I also consulted with our Executive Committee and navigated the situation based on the evidence we had in hand," she said. "This changed when new evidence was shared with us Monday morning."

That evidence came from the political consulting firm Agave Strategy, which the party engaged to produce and distribute a campaign mailer promoting the Democratic slate of candidates on the 2022 ballot.

Agave has said that Galloway told them to send the business to Franks, who runs a printing company called Blaque Printing EnterPrise, but to keep the move a secret. The party paid Agave $24,480, records show.

The money was apparently passed on to Franks because Agave partner Dawn Penich-Thacker said the firm had to pressure Franks for the sum after the party demanded a refund when it realized the mailer was never distributed.

Penich-Thacker said it "wasn't easy" to collect the $24,480 from Franks, who took about a week to produce the funds.

An investigation by the county party's treasurer and two other board members turned up evidence, including altered postal records, that the whole exercise had been a charade.

Jon Ryder, the party's interim executive director, on Tuesday launched an investigation into the matter, with the concurrence of Schriber. Both said any potential legal wrongdoing would be referred to the proper law enforcement agencies.

On Wednesday, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell was asked if she had opened an investigation.

"Well, as you know, we don't investigate," Mitchell told reporters at her weekly news briefing. "We prosecute, and so if there is an investigation going on and it is submitted to us, we will certainly look at it."

Patti O'Neil, the party's first vice chair, is replacing Schriber through the end of the year.

Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads and on X, formerly known as Twitter, @maryjpitzl.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County Democrats' chair resigns amid turmoil over mailer