Fake elector uses his office to investigate Attorney General Kris Mayes. Payback much?

The Arizona Senate, confronted as it is with vexing problems governing elections, water, education and a state budget that’s $1.7 billion in the red, has launched a formal investigation into Attorney General Kris Mayes.

It seems the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee don’t much care for the Democratic attorney general, though no details were forthcoming on how they will proceed or how much this investigation will cost us.

“Over the last year there has been a flood of questionable activity coming from the Attorney General’s Office and I think it’s time someone takes a serious look at what is going on over there,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, said.

With an actual straight face.

Kern says Mayes needs to be investigated

Kern is apparently appalled that Mayes refused to defend the state in a lawsuit over the 2022 law that bars transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

Funny, I don’t recall him getting upset when Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich similarly refused to defend an unconstitutional law barring bystanders from filming police activity at close range.

Or when he refused to defend the state’s early voting law after the Arizona Republican Party sued to kill it.

Kern is apparently disgusted that Mayes is “providing cover” for Gov. Katie Hobbs, who refuses to nominate any more state agency directors for Senate confirmation after the Senate refused to even consider most of her appointees last year.

Funny, I don’t recall him raising a stink when then-Gov. Doug Ducey installed a state health director and never sought Senate approval.

And Kern is particularly exercised that Mayes would dare to hold Cochise County supervisors accountable for refusing to follow state law and certify the county's election results.

As Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre advised them they must do within 20 days of an election.

“And most concerning for true lovers of democracy, Kris Mayes has engaged in a witch hunt, threatening and bringing prosecution against local elected officials for the way they vote within their offices,” Kern said last week, in detailing the dire need to investigate Mayes.

Just ignore that Mayes is investigating him

Speaking of true lovers of democracy, pay no attention to the fact that Mayes is investigating Kern for his role in the fake elector scheme to overturn Arizona’s 2020 presidential election results.

Kern, along with Sen. Jake Hoffman, soon could face criminal charges, joining their fellow “electors” who stand criminally charged in Nevada, Georgia and Michigan.

Just coincidentally, I’m sure, it was Hoffman who began talk of impeaching Mayes last month, shortly after the Cochise indictments. Now Kern is acting on it.

This isn’t the first time Kern has used his position as a state legislator to try to wiggle out of a hot spot.

In 2019, then-Rep. Kern quietly tried to change a state law to get his name removed from a list of dishonest law enforcement officers.

Turns out Kern was fired from the El Mirage Police Department in 2014 for lying to his boss, and his name was added to a “Brady list” of officers whose credibility is in question. Kern, who was a civilian code enforcement officer, failed to repay the city for a tablet computer he lost, then lied to his supervisor about it.

A few months after his firing, he was elected to the Legislature. Voters never knew he’d been fired for dishonesty because Kern reached a settlement in which El Mirage agreed to cover up the circumstances of his departure.

It all came a-tumbling out in 2019, prompting voters to dump him in 2020.

That same year, Kern pronounced himself “duly elected” to cast one of Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for Donald Trump. Payback came in 2022 when Trump endorsed Kern for the state Senate, and all was apparently forgiven by voters.

Senate president says it will be 'obejctive'

Now comes payback of a different sort, as Kern uses his position to go after the attorney general who is investigating him.

Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, doesn’t see a problem, telling me he supports “our chairman holding government accountable.”

“It’s a bipartisan committee with several members,” he said. “I expect him to be professional and objective and allow input and deliberation of all the members.”

Professional and objective.

Is he talking about the same Kern who just last month stood like a pouty preschooler and turned his back on Hobbs as she delivered her State of the State address?

Input and deliberation? Thursday’s 4-3 party line vote to open an investigation was a choreographed affair, pulled off without so much as a single minute of testimony or debate.

The eminently professional and objective Sen. Kern hasn’t yet detailed how he will go about investigating the attorney general or what he’ll do if Mayes pulls an Andy Biggs and simply ignores his subpoenas.

How much will this political theater cost us?

Me? I think Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, got it right.

“This is just political theater,” she said, chuckling as she cast her no vote. “You’re just trying to stand up, make your case and create, literally, a theater for yourself.”

Literally, a theater of the absurd.

“We are a separate branch of government,” an affronted Kern retorted, “and we have this right to ensure our citizens have a government that is by the people and for the people.”

So said the fake elector who tried to overrule the people.

Is he fooling anybody?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Fake elector launches phony investigation of Arizona attorney general