The Resignation of Gilbert’s Digital Government Chief Is a Big Victory for Independent Media

The Resignation of Gilbert’s Digital Government Chief Is a Big Victory for Independent Media

Government leaders must be held accountable. That’s supposed to be the job of the mainstream media. But somewhere along the line, this changed. Many journalists employed by traditional corporate media started to twist facts to drive home a particular narrative. Others began disguising their own opinions as news. And some just stopped doing any real investigations altogether—choosing to protect our elected officials and government bureaucrats from any sort of real accountability.

Now, with fewer people trusting in the mainstream media, our nation has seen a rise in independent news media. We have a great one right here in Arizona called AZ Free News that has shown it is willing to do real research and investigation into what is happening in our state. And their latest investigative report shows exactly why independent journalism is critical for the future of our state and nation.

AZ Free News Exposes Gilbert’s Orwellian Office of Digital Government

In January, AZ Free News released an investigative report on the Town of Gilbert’s Office of Digital Government (ODG). For over a decade, the ODG, which is made up of approximately a dozen employees, has been working to ensure that Gilbert’s 30 official digital accounts—along with the personal online posts of all Town of Gilbert employees—align with a progressive, liberal agenda.

This concerted effort to control conservative speech costs Gilbert taxpayers $1.1 million each year in salary alone with Chief Digital Officer Dana Berchman making over $200,000 annually.

When asked about the allegations in the investigative report, the town doubled down on its censorship efforts, stating that it “will not tolerate divisive, offensive or culturally insensitive posts from employees purporting to represent the Town.” But as we so often see with leftist government bureaucrats: “Rules for thee, but not for me.” After all, Berchman, who interned for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate Campaign, regularly used her personal social media profiles to promote then-presidential candidate Joe Biden while urging people to vote out then-President Donald Trump.

How is that not divisive? Shouldn’t Dana Berchman be held accountable for her online speech just like the rest of the Town of Gilbert’s employees?

As a devout leftist, Berchman probably figured she could get away with it, but after the AZ Free News report exposed her hypocrisy, she decided to hide, making her Twitter profile private to avoid any further backlash. (Katie Hobbs would be proud.)

But the damage was already done.

Gilbert’s Chief Digital Officer Resigns

In response to the AZ Free News report, Gilbert residents flooded the next town council meeting to demand justice for the ODG’s First Amendment violations. And later in the meeting, Councilman Jim Torgeson proposed that the council review the mission, purpose, and future existence of ODG. That review is set to take place on March 5. But it will no longer affect Dana Berchman.

Why?

Because earlier this week, Berchman emailed her resignation to the town council, effective March 7. And while the now-former head of Gilbert’s ODG didn’t specifically cite the pending town council review, it is interesting timing, isn’t it?

This is certainly great news for Gilbert residents, but it also shows the importance of real independent journalism. Had it not been for the investigation and reporting of AZ Free News, the town’s citizens would’ve been kept in the dark about this blatant government overreach. But armed with this information, the people were able to push back and hold their government accountable.

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We’re Suing Adrian Fontes for His Illegal Elections Procedures Manual

We’re Suing Adrian Fontes for His Illegal Elections Procedures Manual

If Adrian Fontes likes spending time in court, he’s going to have a fun time in 2024. In case you’ve lost count, Arizona’s Secretary of State has been sued three times over his Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) in just the last two weeks. That’s what happens when you produce one of the most radical EPMs in Arizona’s history.

At the end of January, Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma filed a lawsuit against Fontes over a variety of provisions in his EPM that violate or conflict with current election laws in our state. But the party was just getting started.

Last week, the Arizona Republican Party, the Republican National Committee, and the Yavapai County GOP also sued Fontes for his blatant attempt to rewrite election law through his EPM. And on the same day, we filed our own lawsuit against Fontes over the promulgation of certain unlawful rules set forth in his EPM.

The reality is that, in his role as Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes is supposed to provide an EPM that gives impartial direction to county recorders to ensure uniform and correct implementation of election law. Instead, he prescribed certain rules without the power to do so and moved forward with an EPM that contains several “rules” that are unconstitutional.

The EPM Places Protected Political Speech at Risk of Criminal Prosecution

Several rules in Fontes’ EPM criminalize activity that is protected under the First Amendment—creating an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech. One portion of the EPM states that the “County Recorder or officer in charge of elections may restrict activities that interfere with the ability of voters and/or staff to access the ballot drop-off locations free from obstruction or harassment.”

To the average person, that probably seems reasonable, until you realize that according to the EPM, voter intimidation or harassment includes:

    • Staying within 75 feet of a ballot drop box to simply monitor individuals who are delivering ballots.
    • Following individuals delivering ballots to the drop box.
    • Speaking to an individual who is returning ballots to a drop box and is within 75 feet of that drop box.

Monitoring drop boxes? Speaking to people? How can any of this be considered voter intimidation or harassment? But the EPM isn’t done yet. It also bans photographing or videotaping at election sites! But these activities—watching drop boxes, speaking to people at election sites, and photographing activity at election sites—all constitute forms of speech and are protected under the First Amendment.

The EPM Requires Arizona Political Parties to Open Their Primaries to Federal Only Voters

If deliberate violations of the First Amendment aren’t bad enough, Fontes’ EPM contradicts statutory requirements and exceeds statutory authority by opening the Presidential Preference Election to federal only voters. Arizona law is clear that any person who has registered to vote but has not provided acceptable evidence of citizenship is not eligible to vote in presidential elections. That certainly includes the Presidential Preference Election. But as you might expect, Fontes fails to cite anything that gives him the authority to establish such a provision. Instead, he is bypassing Arizona’s stricter voter registration requirements to essentially create a new law out of whole cloth.

If the illegal provisions in this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of Arizona’s elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. That’s exactly why the Free Enterprise Club, in collaboration with our friends at the America First Policy Institute and Grand Canyon Legal Center, filed this critical lawsuit. The people of Arizona deserve free, fair, transparent, and lawful elections. Now, it’s up to the courts to see through Fontes’ agenda and force him to adhere to state law.

Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network

Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!

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Arizonans Must Protect Their Gas Devices From Extreme Government Mandates

Arizonans Must Protect Their Gas Devices From Extreme Government Mandates

“Do as we say, and not as we do.” That is typically how it goes with government. In this case, the “do as we say” means you giving up your gas stoves and cars. The “not as we do,” well, the Vice President of the United States still openly enjoys her very own gas stove, and don’t expect the President to give up Air Force One or his large fleet of gas limousines and cars anytime soon. Also, you probably shouldn’t sit in anticipation for the activists to give up the private jets they fly into climate conferences to scheme about how to limit your access to gas devices, or their yachts. Remember, it’s do as we say, not as we do.

Normally, the left will try to hide and subvert their goals. That’s what they did with their efforts to ban gas stoves: have the media tell everyone it was a conspiracy theory, and that no one wanted to take them, meanwhile having several agencies draft complicated rules to basically regulate them out of existence. Now, however, they have become more emboldened to just come right out and say it: we are coming for your gas cars.

Seriously, at least 25 countries have already announced or enacted bans on gas cars. Here in the U.S., California took the lead to ban the sale of gas cars by 2035 through regulatory fiat (no vote of the legislature, no signature of the governor, just one regulatory board passing one regulation), and at least a dozen have since followed suit.

Don’t think Arizona is in the clear either. After Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found Maricopa County to be in “noncompliance” with the Clean Air Act’s ozone standards, the bureaucracy tasked with developing solutions to lower emissions basically produced a carbon copy of the California plan to ban gas cars, gas stoves, gas leaf blowers, and other lawn equipment, among hundreds of other draconian ideas.

If they don’t submit a new plan to the EPA soon, the federal government might come in to foist a federal plan on us anyway. Plus, right now they are considering new tailpipe emission standards that would effectively result in a ban on gas cars, which has been opposed by nearly 5,000 car dealerships across the country as well as several national and local organizations.

That’s why HCR2050, introduced by Representative Gail Griffin and co-sponsored by 30 of her colleagues in the House, is one of the most important measures this session. If passed by the legislature and approved by the voters in November, it would amend the constitution to prohibit the government from restricting the use, sale, or manufacturing of devices based on the energy source. In other words, no gas stove bans, and no gas car bans.

It should go without saying, but banning gas devices would be catastrophic. Every step of the way, gas devices are used to manufacture and to transport goods. An outright ban would inflate all of these costs and deprive Arizonans of their right to own and use them.

Additionally, the US grid isn’t even close to being able to support the forced total electrification being pushed by the left. Rates would skyrocket, and at the same time, reliability would plummet. Need to travel in the snow? If your power was miraculously still on when you left, good luck relying on your electric vehicle to provide heat and still have the range to make it to your destination. And kiss goodbye air conditioning on a 115-degree August day in Arizona.

The truth is that these ideas are dangerous and would create a real public health crisis in Arizona, not the made up one to fearmonger against the use of energy sources, including fossil fuels, that have led to immense human flourishing and saved countless lives.

That’s why other state legislatures have started pushing back. Last year, the Wisconsin legislature passed, with a strong coalition in support, AB 141, by a 2-1 vote, to prevent discrimination based on energy source. Unfortunately, it was vetoed by their governor, who said it would diminish their “ability to help combat climate change.”

Now, Arizona has a unique opportunity to lead on the issue. Lawmakers can and should swiftly pass HCR2050 this session so that voters can protect their devices from misguided, unpopular, and dangerous energy discrimination, and be free from infringement from federal, state, or local governments to use the stoves, cars, and equipment of their choice.

Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network

Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!

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Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes for His Illegal Elections Procedures Manual

Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes for His Illegal Elections Procedures Manual

PHOENIX, ARIZONA –The Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over the promulgation of certain unlawful rules set forth in the latest Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) in December 2023. The legal challenge was filed in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona for the County of Maricopa.

“Secretary Fontes has produced one of the most radical elections procedures manuals in our state’s history,” said Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “If the illegal provisions of this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of state elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. We hope the court agrees with our arguments and forces the Secretary to adhere to state law.”

According to the complaint, the 2023 EPM improperly places protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and has an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech. The 2023 EPM also contradicts statutory requirements and exceeds statutory authority by opening the Presidential Preference Election to federal only voters, in essence, creating a new law out of whole cloth.

There are three counts for causes of action regarding the EPM. The first deals with speech. The second with free association. And the third with vagueness.

The Plaintiff asks the court to strike down the provisions challenged in this action that contradict or exceed statutory authority.

Read the challenge here.

The Far-Left Has No Case Against Voter Registration Laws, So Now They’re Crying Racism

The Far-Left Has No Case Against Voter Registration Laws, So Now They’re Crying Racism

When all else fails, cry racism. That seems to be the playbook the Far-Left utilizes any time it can’t make a coherent argument against election integrity laws. And here we are once again. The latest accusations of racism come amidst a series of depositions along with closing arguments in a lawsuit filed by a cabal of liberal organizations against two commonsense voter registration laws: HB 2243 and HB 2492.

Passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, HB 2243 ensures that only eligible voters remain registered by requiring regular voter roll maintenance. And so far, it has proven to be effective—revealing that over 78,000 individuals have been identified on Arizona’s voter rolls as either noncitizens or nonresidents. When you consider how close some of our state’s races were in 2022, these numbers should be great cause for alarm. But of course, many of those close races went in favor of Democrats, so the Left doesn’t want to ask too many questions.

HB 2492, which was also passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, bolsters safeguards to our voter registration process to require proof of citizenship ensuring that only U.S. citizens are voting in our elections. Where’s the controversy here? U.S. citizens cannot go into France, Australia, or any other country throughout the world and vote in their elections, so why should citizens from other countries be allowed to vote in our elections?

Not too long after both bills were signed into law, the Left filed a lawsuit against them and recently made a part of the proceedings about…the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (who is not a party in the lawsuit). That’s right. After apparently failing to construct sound legal arguments against HB 2243 and HB 2492, they have now embarked on a fishing expedition to harass the Club with ridiculous lawfare subpoenas. They spent countless hours deposing Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma in an effort to convince the judge that our organization was inappropriately exerting influence to pass both bills in a “racially-charged manner.” One Leftist group even submitted a claim complaining that the Free Enterprise Club is just too big and powerful and had an “outsized influence” on the process.

But contrary to the claims made by the Left, it was never a secret that the Club was involved in crafting and advocating for both bills. In fact, our role was out in the open, evident by the many articles we wrote on each bill (See here, here, here, and here for a sample.) On top of that, we testified in support of both bills at the legislature.

And after all this harassment, depositions, review of documents, and more, do you want to know what their “proof” is that these bills were racially motivated? In one of our articles, we used the word “Illegals” when explaining the need to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. That’s it. That’s their big smoking gun.

The fact that these absurd racism charges have become a focal point of their lawsuit only demonstrates how weak the Left’s case is against these laws.

These Far-Left groups know that they can attacks us with lawfare subpoenas, allege that our policy and advocacy efforts at the legislature are somehow nefarious, and make despicable accusations that our activities are racially motivated (with no evidence) because we can’t defend ourselves. So rather than engaging on policy or legal merits, the Left once again resorts to impugning our organization, hoping that some of the mud it’s slinging will stick.

As we have stated all along, these commonsense and reasonable laws are strong and necessary in a nation where more and more people are losing trust in the U.S. election system. That’s why the Arizona legislature passed them. That’s why then-Governor Ducey signed them. And that’s why Arizona’s election system has improved and will continue to improve with these laws on the books.

Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network

Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!

Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.