Republican Senate candidate Jim Lamon's lame excuse for false elector claim

Whatever Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon claims to be, he was not a duly elected and qualified elector from Arizona in the last presidential election.

Over the weekend Lamon tried to play down the fact that he and 10 other Arizona Republicans, including state party chair Kelli Ward, filed paperwork after the election falsely claiming to be the “duly elected and qualified electors” from Arizona.

Essentially, it was a scheme cooked up by GOP operatives to subvert the constitutional work of the Electoral College, overturn the outcome of a properly certified election and, in essence, stage a coup that would have kept Donald Trump in office.

Republicans from several other states did the same thing.

Arizona's false electors didn't hedge their bets

Some of them in other states, however, hedged their bets, saying their claim of being the proper electors was only valid if the results of the election were overturned.

The Arizonans were more direct, saying they represented the state’s vote in the Electoral College.

They did not.

“The Republican electors put forth a valid document that said, in the event that the election certification was overturned, there would be no excuse not to recognize those electors,” Lamon said during an interview that aired Sunday on KTVK-TV’s “Politics Unplugged” program.

Actually, no.

Lamon and the others claimed to be the real deal.

Was it a publicity stunt or traitorous?

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has subpoenaed two members of Arizona’s phony electors. And the Department of Justice is looking into it.

Lamon now wants to pretend that it was no big deal, and that investigations by Congress and law enforcement are some kind of political diversion.

He said, “This is a heck of a lot to do, from the left, about moving off of the real issues of this country.”

What is more real – more important – than investigating an attempt to steal an election?

And exactly when does an action that some would like to pawn off as a simple publicity stunt become defined for what it actually was … traitorous?

That’s why the Justice Department is looking into whether to bring criminal charges against those who filed fake Electoral College certifications.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN, “Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can’t say anything more about ongoing investigations.”

Lamon has already funneled millions dollars into his campaign, and sounds like he plans to pour in millions more. He might want to pump the brakes on that spending and put some of his cash in reserve, however, given the potential implications for having signed on as a phony elector.

A top notch criminal defense attorney can be pricey.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jim Lamon has a lame excuse for being a false elector