GOP legislators open taxpayers’ wallets to push for compliance

Taxpayers foot the bill, twice ... Republican leaders in the Legislature have hired their own lawyers — at a per-attorney cost of up to $310 an hour — to defend them in a court challenge over a law that would change the rules for citizens to propose ballot measures.

House Bill 2244 would require citizen initiatives to strictly comply with the law, a tighter standard than the “substantial compliance” requirement in current law.

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard and Senate President Steve Yarbrough, both Chandler Republicans, have hired the firm of Cantelme and Brown, according to public records requested by The Arizona Republic.

The firm said it will charge the Legislature the same rate it bills school districts who hired them under a 2014 agreement: $310 an hour for principal attorneys, $230 an hour for associates, and $100 an hour each for paralegals and clerks.

That’s on top of the representation supplied by Attorney General Mark Bronovich’s office.

Mesnard said the expense, which will come from the legislative budget, is justified.

“We’ve been the punching bag for a number of folks out there who think we are trying to make voting more difficult,” Mesnard said. He said that’s not the point of the bill, which is scheduled to become law Aug. 9 unless plaintiffs get an injunction.

Lawmakers simply want to hold citizens who run initiatives to the same strict standards that lawmakers have to follow when passing a law, Mesnard said. Currently, citizen initiatives are subject to substantial compliance.

Opponents call law unconstitutional Attorney Roopali Desai, who is representing various citizens who have

run initiatives, laughed at the notion that lawmakers follow strict procedures.

“That doesn’t happen,” she said. She noted lawmakers have to return every year and fix a number of bills passed in previous sessions. She is arguing the law is unconstitutional because lawmakers are intruding on the authority of the courts to decide if initiatives comply.

Meanwhile, Desai and David Cantelme had their first meeting in court Thursday, where they argued over whether lawmakers should be able to depose the plaintiffs to find out what harm they would suffer if the law takes effect.

“If they haven’t suffered an injury, a real, palpable injury, they have no case,” Cantelme told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rodgers.

But Desai said she worries the lawmakers’ legal team would use the depositions to try and determine if the plaintiffs — which include Planned Parenthood, the Animal Defense League of Arizona and the Friends of ASBA Inc. (Arizona School Boards Association) — were planning future initiative drives.

Rodgers limited the depositions to questions about any injury the plaintiffs would suffer from the new law and their grounds for why the law would apply to them.

He set a July 13 date to hear arguments on the request for a preliminary injunction.

» You knew this was coming ... When Tempe police pulled over Mesa Councilman Ryan Winkle, his wife asked officers to let him go because his political opponents would surely use news of his DUI arrest against him.

“If Tempe screws Ryan, he’s like literally the only Democrat in Mesa. They’re going to be able to screw him,” Winkle’s wife, Ericka Varela, is heard telling officers in body-camera video.

It looks like she could be right.

The Arizona Republican Party launched a petition this past week calling for “Wasted Winkle” to resign from his council post.

Winkle was arrested on suspicion of DUI on May 7 after an officer saw him nearly hit three pedestrians, according to police. On Tuesday, Tempe police announced his blood-alcohol content was 0.22 percent, which is considered a “super extreme” level.

This was Winkle’s second DUI arrest with a reported BAC level higher than 0.2 percent. He served 45 days in jail in 2009.

The online AZ GOP petition says, “One DUI is too many, let alone two.”

“We expect our elected officials to model good citizenship. Drinking and driving at ‘extreme’ levels is not model citizenship,” the petition says.

Winkle elected to voluntarily suspend himself from the council while he works through the legal process and completes family counseling with his wife, he said at a news conference on May 17.

But suspension isn’t enough for the AZ GOP.

“Councilman Winkle, you’ve clearly lost the moral authority to lead,” the petition says.

» Quote/tweet of the week

“I am innocent and will be entering a plea of ‘not guilty.’ I look forward to my day in court, when I am confident these allegations will be shown to be without merit.” — Jim Norton, managing partner, Axiom Public Affairs, in response to a federal indictment accusing him of involvement in a bribery scheme.

Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl and Jessica Boehm. Get the latest at politics.az central.com.