The press release was sent to the media by Senate Republican spokeswoman Kim Quintero and was subsequently posted on the Senate GOP caucus’ official Twitter page, the Arizona Mirror reported Friday.
Hours later, in the face of intense criticism that the statement broke state law, the Senate retracted the statement and insisted it was “accidentally” distributed through the Senate instead of Fann’s campaign. How that happened is unclear, and neither Fann nor Senate Republican spokeswoman Kim Quintero responded to questions from the Arizona Mirror.
The press release, which bears the state seal of Arizona, states, among other things, "Kari Lake will take on current Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who has so far proven she is unfit to hold any kind of leadership role with her previous mismanagement of our elections.”
There was no complaint about Hobbs’ management of the GOP primary last week, though!
It’s ironic, but not surprising, that Fann should be yet another election denier subverting our elections laws. It was she who “hired and helped lead the ‘audit’ of Maricopa County’s 2020 Presidential election results,” the Mirror reported in June, after she received a subpoena from the FBI as part of its investigation into Donald Trump’s effort to pressure state officials to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The Arizona fraudit not only failed to prove Trump won the state, it widened Joe Biden’s lead by 360 votes.
Quintero’s claim that she accidentally used official resources on behalf of Lake is just as suspicious as the fraudit. How could a senate spokesperson not notice that she was acting as a political operative when she sent out such an obviously partisan press release?
Quintero issued a retraction and the statement was deleted from the Senate GOP’s Twitter page about 35 minutes after attorney Tom Ryan notified her and Fann that the statement was a violation of law that could lead to $5,000 penalties against each of them, the Mirror further reported.
As for the claim that the whole thing was just an accident? “Accidental? My sweet Irish a**,” Ryan was quoted as saying.
