{"id":2225050,"date":"2024-04-19T09:12:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-republican-drops-re-election-bid-amid-possible-petition-forgery-investigation\/"},"modified":"2024-04-19T09:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:14:23","slug":"arizona-republican-drops-re-election-bid-amid-possible-petition-forgery-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-republican-drops-re-election-bid-amid-possible-petition-forgery-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Republican withdraws from re-election race amidst potential petition forgery probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Farizona-republican-drops-re-election-bid-amid-possible-petition-forgery-investigation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2225050&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Arizona Rep. \u2062Austin Smith \u2062withdrew his re-election candidacy following allegations \u2064of forged signatures on his petition. Despite Republicans not typically needing Democrat signatures, the challenge raised \u200bconcerns. The matter is now with \u2062the\u2064 Attorney General&#8217;s office as recommended by \u200bthe Secretary of State&#8217;s office. The\u200b situation remains under investigation, with no comments given by the \u2063Attorney General&#8217;s office yet.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 Arizona Rep. Austin Smith withdrew his candidacy for re-election after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seattle-socialist-kshama-sawant-narrowly-leads-recall-after-latest-ballot-count\/\" title=\"Seattle Socialist Kshama Sawant Narrowly Leads Recall After Latest Ballot Count\">signature challenge<\/a> alleged that some signatures on his nominating petition were forged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seemed ludicrous because Republicans trying to get on the ballot don\u2019t seek Democrat signatures and would have no reason to forge Democrat signatures since they don\u2019t count,\u201d he said in a statement on Thursday morning. \u201cNevertheless, it was something I took seriously because the coordinated attack included press releases and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-here-are-the-10-worst-colleges-for-free-speech\/\" title=\"Report: Here Are The 10 Worst Colleges For Free Speech\">social media activity<\/a> and other things that made it clear that this was a well-organized effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe recommendation I received most was that I bow out and live to fight another day. I might be confident of victory, but all it would take is a judge believing any one person, and all would be lost,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>The Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes\u2019 office said allegations of forgery are automatically referred to Attorney General Kris Mayes\u2019 office.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the Attorney General\u2019s office declined to comment for now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s office does not comment on the potential for any criminal investigations. I will have to decline to comment at this time,\u201d a spokesperson wrote to The Center Square in an email.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit from Democratic lawyer Roy Herrera suggests that Smith may have personally fabricated some signatures, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kjzz.org\/content\/1877279\/az-rep-austin-smith-accused-forging-nomination-signatures-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KJZZ<\/a><\/strong> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Smith is a Republican member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus representing Legislative District 29, which covers parts of northwest Maricopa County.<\/p>\n<p>He is also the senior director of Turning Point Action, which was part of the conservative organization Turning Point USA that can directly help political candidates. Smith stepped down from his position with the group on Thursday afternoon, but it\u2019s unclear if he will resign from the legislature, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/04\/18\/austin-smith-turning-point-action-election-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Washington Post<\/a><\/strong> reported. <\/p>\n<p>The Republican lawmaker also asked voters in his district to write in James Taylor, who\u2019s worked in the energy sector, as the write-in candidate to take his spot.<\/p>\n<p>Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman is calling on Smith to resign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not one to hold back or mince words so I will say what is as clear as day: House Representative Austin Smith should resign immediately,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cThis is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-huge-trump-team-has-dominion-machine-from-small-georgia-county-shows-votes-flipped-from-trump-to-biden\/\" title=\"BREAKING HUGE: Trump Team Has Dominion Machine from Small Georgia County - Shows Votes Flipped from Trump to Biden\">entire state<\/a> about our election operations for at least three years. And now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith is not the only lawmaker facing scrutiny from signatures challenges. House Democratic Whip Melody Hernandez dropped out of her bid for state Senate in the face of a signature challenge, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/arizona\/article_49d9c63a-fb68-11ee-93fb-03bf29040f93.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Center Square<\/a><\/strong> reported.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona Rep. Austin Smith pulled out of the re-election race due to a signature challenge citing potential forgery on his petition. The allegations questioned the need for forging Democrat signatures as Republicans don&#8217;t typically seek them for ballot access<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2225051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24102780914169-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24102780914169-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}