GOP lawmaker files ethics complaints vs. Dems

House Elections Committee Chairwoman Kelly Townsend said Wednesday she would file an ethics complaint against two Democratic lawmakers after a hearing devolved into a fracas.

The hours-long hearing culminated in Townsend, R-Mesa, attempting to cut off public testimony, throw a speaker out of the committee room and force a vote on a multifaceted piece of legislation all while Democrats objected and the gallery jeered.

Townsend accused Rep. Diego Rodriguez,

D-Phoenix, of leaving the committee hearing in the middle of a roll call vote — a violation of the House rules. And Townsend accused Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe, of talking over the chairwoman as she presided

over the hearing.

“It was up to me to maintain decorum,” she told the House during a tense floor session on Wednesday afternoon, contending Democrats and members of the public at the hearing had led to it spiraling out of control.

Democrats accused Townsend of stifling discussion and public testimony.

The chairman of the House Ethics Committee responded by appealing for everyone involved to calm down.

“Emotions were running high on both sides,” said Rep. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge.

The hearing had dragged into its fourth hour Tuesday when the committee took up House Bill 2304, which opponents contend would disenfranchise voters by, among other things, prohibiting voters from taking a translator to a voting booth unless they have a disability. It also would allow the attorney general to contract with immigration officials to check voter rolls using a system that critics argue can be plagued with errors.

Townsend said House Bill 2304 would merely help prevent voter fraud and provide another way of checking that people who are not citizens are not registering to vote.

But a crowd of people had turned out to speak about the measure. Many had left by the time the committee took up the bill and Townsend had set several rules, warning she might limit testimony and warning against impugning the motives of lawmakers.

Townsend cut off testimony from Randy Perez, of Living United for Change in Arizona, as he argued that the bill was part of a broader effort to disenfranchise voters — particularly immigrants and people of color. She said Perez had gotten off the subject of the bill under consideration by the committee.

Perez tried to continue speaking but members of the committee also talked over each other and Townsend abruptly recessed the committee. She came down from her seat, confronted Perez and threw Perez out of the room before proceeding to cut off public testimony.

Members of the audience as well as Democratic lawmakers protested, demanding some of the speakers who had waited get a chance to talk.

Wednesday evening, Townsend posted on social media that, “Be it known publicly that he will not be allowed into my committee room from this point forward.”

Perez told The Arizona Republic that Townsend’s comments were “a desperate attempt to distract and pivot from the real issues” about the legislation.

Townsend said later that she was sorry some people who had waited to speak did not get to address the committee and was glad Salman read one person’s planned statements on the floor of the House on Wednesday.

But Townsend said she felt she had to move to a vote on the bill quickly because one woman in the gallery “looked very unhinged and I suspected she could become violent.”

Earlier Wednesday, Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, told members of the House that he watched the meeting and said he was “very disappointed” — particularly in the behavior of members of the public who attended the hearing.

“If what I saw by the members of the public occurred is indicative of a democratic process, that would be surprising,” he said.

Bowers added: “To me, it was indicative of intimidation.”

Majority Leader Warren Petersen, RMesa, told the House that the episode was the most shameful thing he had witnessed since he was elected to the Legislature and he accused Democrats of breaking various rules on the committee.

In talking over the chair, he said, Democrats egged on members of the public who stood up in the committee and got into an argument with the chair as well as other members.

But Democrats were unapologetic and accused Republicans on the committee of trying to shut out public testimony.

“I don’t know why she’s holding me accountable for her behavior,” Salman said Wednesday.

Salman said that Perez, too, was within his rights to make the points he did while addressing the committee.

“The only thing we did was ensure that our communities were given an opportunity to speak,” said Rep. Raquel Terán, a Democrat from Phoenix who sits on the committee.

Asked if anyone did anything during the hearing that crossed a line, Shope said he would have handled it differently, such as by trying to give people time to finish speaking when addressing the committee. Shope added he would have hoped Democrats might help calm supporters and constituents in contentious hearings, too.

The complaints won’t get to the point of a hearing, Shope said.

Instead, he added: “I’d advise everyone to read their rule books.”