Dirty Dozen: Meet 12 of the worst politicians in Arizona history

Talk about an embarrassment of riches.

Arizona boasts a vein of disreputable and downright dastardly politicians richer than the state’s copper deposits. They come in all stripes: charlatans and crazies, power-mad fanatics and hate-mongering idealogues, the oversexed and simply corrupt. Sometimes they’re natives, but mostly they’re transplants, drawn to Arizona like rattlesnakes to a nest of baby mice.

Below, in no particular order, are a dozen despicables — some of the worst, but by no means all of them. Consider this the first of several such lists to come. If the black hat you love to hate isn’t here, be patient. They likely will make a subsequent round.

Evan Mecham

Paranoid political kook and Pontiac dealer Evan “Ev” Mecham was elected Arizona’s 17th governor in 1986 with a plurality in a three-way race that split the Democratic vote. Eighteen months later, the diminutive Archie Bunker-like bigot was out on his ass, impeached and convicted by the state Legislature on charges of obstruction of justice and misuse of public funds.

His time in office was one wild, disastrous ride that made the Grand Canyon State a national laughingstock. One of his first official acts was rescinding an executive order by his Democratic predecessor that made Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official state holiday. He followed that up with one racist gaffe after another, such as defending the use of the word “pickaninny” and saying a delegation of Japanese businesspeople “got round eyes” when shown Phoenix’s golf courses.

As a result of Mecham’s unending parade of horribles, dozens of groups canceled plans to hold their conventions in the state. A recall committee formed, which Mecham dismissed as consisting of “homosexuals and dissident Democrats.” A Mecham fan club formed to counter the recall but flopped when it was discovered that its 17-year-old leader had been convicted of molesting an 8-year-old girl.

The recall movement gathered more than enough signatures to force a recall election, but the effort was made moot by Mecham’s impeachment. His brief catastrophic tenure as Arizona’s chief executive presaged equally loathsome Sand Land politicos to come.

Russell Pearce

A veritable Energizer Bunny of hate, Russell Pearce rode a wave of unbridled anti-Mexican nativism to become Arizona’s powerful state Senate president in 2011, only to be successfully recalled in his deeply red Mesa district later that same year by a coalition of moderate Republicans and pissed-off Latinos.

Foreshadowing the rhetoric used by President Donald Trump, Pearce called Mexican migrants to the U.S. an “illegal invasion,” blaming them for a rise in crime. He called for a redo of the Eisenhower-era deportation program “Operation Wetback,” circulated antisemitic conspiracy theories from a white supremacist hate group and befriended and inducted into the Mormon faith Valley extremist J.T. Ready, a virulent neo-Nazi who ended up slaughtering a family of four in a 2012 rampage before offing himself.

Pearce backed a number of racist bills and referendums targeting immigrants, the most notorious of which was SB 1070. The legislation made “attrition through enforcement” — aka ethnic cleansing — Arizona state policy. Passed in 2010, it also required local cops to become de facto immigration agents, investigating possible immigration violations when there was “reasonable suspicion” to do so — in effect, meaning whenever the police stopped anyone brown.

The backlash to the law resulted in boycotts, massive demonstrations and costly court challenges, which were only partly successful. Pearce died in January 2023 at age 75. His name will be forever associated with the ethnic strife and hate that he spawned.

Joe Arpaio

At age 91, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the Norma Desmond of Arizona politics, reliving the glory days of six terms in office by selling autographed pink underwear — the kind he made his prisoners wear in the jails — at local gun shows, craft fairs or anywhere they’ll let him set up a booth. On the nonagenarian’s Facebook page, he posts old photos of himself with celebrities of yore, such as Lou Ferrigno and Dennis Miller.

In 2022, he ran for mayor of the city he lives in, Fountain Hills. He told Phoenix New Times he wanted to “fire” Sheriff Paul Penzone, the dude who beat him like a rug in 2016, by canceling the Maricopa County Sheriff Office's contract to provide law enforcement services to the town. Arpaio lost the election, but he’s running again in 2024. Penzone recently resigned as sheriff, leaving Arpaio loyalist, Chief Deputy Russ Skinner, in command for now. Seems Arpaio’s outlived his chance at revenge.

Not that Arpaio lacks a legacy. Currently, it’s best represented by the more than $250 million Maricopa County has shelled out because of Melendres v. Arpaio, the lawsuit brought on by Arpaio’s racial profiling sweeps of Hispanic neighborhoods. Arpaio’s past tense politically, but Melendres drags on, in no small part due to the institutional intransigence of the “House that Joe Built.”

Arpaio was once one of the most feared men in Arizona, retaliating against his political enemies, arresting the former owners of New Times and investigating mayors, judges, county supervisors and more. His jails were renowned for their cruelty, incurring millions of dollars in lawsuit payouts for deaths and maimings. Now all that’s left are pink boxers, bad memories and an ever-increasing bill.

Andrew Thomas

During his six years as Maricopa County Attorney, Andrew Thomas gleefully played Richard III of Sand Land politics, instituting a reign of terror and error that ended only when he resigned to run for Arizona Attorney General in April 2010.

In August 2010, he narrowly lost the Republican primary to none other than Tom Horne, who is currently State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Two years later, Thomas was disbarred for his many misdeeds while in office.

An anti-immigrant firebrand, Thomas prosecuted undocumented immigrants for “self-smuggling” themselves into the country and supported a winning ballot measure to deny bail for undocumented arrestees. Federal courts later declared both unconstitutional.

He also partnered with then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio in enforcing Arizona’s “employer sanctions” law, which made it illegal for businesses to knowingly employ undocumented workers. This resulted in raids by sheriff's deputies on local companies to arrest workers for using fake IDs, with few repercussions for the companies involved.

But what got Thomas in hot water was his prosecution of anyone who criticized or stood in the way of him and Arpaio. Thomas’ office ginned up false charges against county supervisors, journalists — notably the former owners of New Times, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin — and even the presiding judge of Maricopa County Superior Court.

The jump-the-shark moment for Thomas and Arpaio came at a 2009 press conference when they announced the filing of a federal racketeering suit against several county officials and judges. The bogus filing was ultimately dismissed.

The misconduct from Thomas and Arpaio cost the county tens of millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements. Arpaio faced zero repercussions. Prosecutors, however, are held to higher standards. On April 10, 2012, a disciplinary panel of the Arizona Supreme Court found Thomas guilty of numerous ethical violations and stripped him of his law license. In 2014, Thomas mounted a failed campaign for governor. He has since drifted into obscurity.

Jan Brewer

Fate elevated Jan Brewer from lifelong political hack to Arizona’s highest office when Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, abandoned the state in 2009 to become President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security. Consequently, Brewer, the Republican secretary of state, became Arizona’s 22nd governor.

Brewer was not known as an immigration hard-liner, but in 2010, when Russell Pearce’s SB 1070 hit her desk, she faced a contentious Republican gubernatorial primary with nativism in Arizona at an all-time high. Hispanic groups lobbied her to veto the bill, but political expediency triumphed. She signed it, her popularity skyrocketed, her major rivals withdrew from the primary and she handily won the general election.

Fairly or not, SB 1070 branded Arizona a racist state. Boycotts, lawsuits and massive protests followed. According to one study, convention cancellations cost businesses $141 million in lost revenue in the months following the law’s passage. An estimated 200,000 undocumented residents fled the state. The total price tag is something scholars still debate.

Republican political guru and former Brewer advisor Chuck Coughlin recently asked New Times to focus on the big picture in assessing Brewer’s career.

“She raised taxes in the bottom of a recession,” Coughlin argued. “She expanded Medicaid … She did a lot of good things.”

Pro-immigrant activist Sal Reza disagreed. “Brewer was devastating, not just for the (Hispanic) community but the economy of the state,” he said.

Brewer gets points for expanding Medicaid when other red states haven’t done so. But she exploited SB 1070 to get elected, for self-aggrandizement and to raise money. She spread harmful lies, such as the one about migrant-related “beheadings” in the Arizona desert. She issued an executive order denying driver’s licenses to DACA-recipients, calling them “illegal people.” Her policies spread fear and demonized folks with brown skin. SB 1070 should be emblazoned on Brewer’s tombstone.

Paul Babeu

The unraveling of Sheriff Paul Babeu’s political career was a beautiful thing to behold. Though Pinal County is not on the Arizona-Mexico border, the telegenic anti-immigrant stalwart sold himself as a critic of President Obama’s border policies, becoming a darling of Fox News. The rising star even helped Sen. John McCain get re-elected in 2010, appearing in a campaign commercial with McCain as they walked along the border, touting a 10-point border security plan Babeu co-authored.

“Senator, you’re one of us,” Babeu told McCain in the ad.

Babeu’s downfall began in February 2012, not long after he announced his plans to run for Congress. A New Times story reported that Babeu’s former boyfriend alleged Babeu threatened him with deportation if he didn’t keep their affair secret. Babeu came out as gay after the story was published and said the allegations were false. A couple of months later, he dropped out of the U.S. House contest and ran for re-election as sheriff, winning by a wide margin. An investigation into the scandal by the Arizona Solicitor General’s Office found that Babeu broke no laws.

In 2016, Babeu attempted a comeback, winning the GOP primary in the 1st Congressional District, only to be defeated in the general election by Democrat Tom O'Halleran. His term of office expired on Jan. 1. 2017, and he’s been as quiet as a church mouse since.

Don Shooter

Arizona state Rep. Don Shooter became the legislative poster child for the #MeToo movement when a string of women, including several of his fellow legislators, accused him of inappropriate sexual remarks and harassment. Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita was the first to call the Yuma Republican out, saying he’d made comments about her chest. Ugenti-Rita also alleged that, “At a conference, he came to my room uninvited with a six pack of beer. I never answered the door.”

Shooter, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, denied the allegations. But more women came forward, including Mi-Ai Parrish, president and publisher of The Arizona Republic, who wrote an editorial in 2017 explaining that, in a meeting with her and an attorney, Shooter told her he’d done everything on his bucket list but one: “Those Asian twins in Mexico.”

In a new book about the Grand Canyon State, “From Rim to River: Looking Into the Heart of Arizona,” author Tom Zoellner offered up Shooter as one of many examples of ’Zona politicians behaving badly, contending that before the accusations, Shooter “had been a swaggering time bomb for some time.”

Zoellner noted that before the Arizona House voted 56-3 to expel Shooter, House Speaker J.D. Mesnard confiscated a handgun from Shooter’s office, as some feared Shooter would “react with violence.” Shooter didn’t and left the chamber escorted by security after a brief speech and a mic drop in 2018.

Paul Gosar

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, the erstwhile dentist who represents Arizona’s 9th Congressional District, may be the only member of Congress to have six of his siblings denounce him and endorse his Democratic opponent, as they did in 2018.

“We’ve got to stand up for our good name,” Gosar’s brother, David Gosar, said in one video. “This is not who we are.”

Good try. That year, Gosar bested his Democratic rival by 38 points. His family may be embarrassed by his die-hard support for Trump, his conspiracy-mongering and his antisemitic dog whistles, but the people he represents in deeply red Western Arizona eat it up with a shovel.

One day Gosar’s blaming the Jan. 6 insurrection on “leftist violence”; a year later, he up and takes responsibility for it, telling a Bullhead City Republican club, “I was the one who started the revolution.”

Jeez, pick a lane, Congressman.

Many of Gosar’s antics are truly horrible, such as misidentifying the shooter at the 2022 Uvalde massacre as a “transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos,” voting to overturn Arizona’s 2020 election results and posting a bizarre anime video to social media, showing him attacking U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden, for which Gosar was censured by the House.

But as long as Gosar’s district offers positive reinforcement by returning him to Congress every two years, there’s no incentive for him to act like he’s got a lick of sense. Quite the contrary. He’ll likely be acting the fool till he croaks in office.

Kelli Ward

According to her detractors, two-time failed U.S. Senate candidate and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward is primarily responsible for making the Arizona GOP penniless and obsolete, allowing Charlie Kirk’s pro-MAGA group, Turning Point USA, to usurp the state GOP, drive traditional Republicans from office and turn Turning Point into a pro-Trump money-making machine that has, ironically, ceded the ideological middle ground to the Arizona Democratic Party.

Tyler Montague, Republican political consultant and president of the nonprofit Public Integrity Alliance, put the rise of the Democratic Party and the decline of Republican hegemony in Arizona at Ward’s feet.

“She was a cheerleader for driving the Republican party into the ditch, ensuring its full conversion to MAGA,” Montague told New Times. “She drove away educated voters who would otherwise be inclined to vote GOP, and for all her fervor, she helped turn the state pretty blue these days.”

Ward served as GOP party chair from 2019 to 2023, having been elected with the support of Turning Point. Ward promoted the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, becoming a fake presidential elector in the process. She took the Fifth before the Jan. 6 committee and since then has reportedly been sailing around the world on a boat with her husband.

Ten years ago, a GOP majority dominated Arizona. More recently, Democrats have won gubernatorial and other statewide contests, with Republicans holding slim one-vote majorities in the state Senate and House. The state GOP is staring down the barrel of political obsolescence. In part, they have Ward to thank for it.

Kari Lake

According to former Fox 10 news anchor Kari Lake, the 2022 gubernatorial election was stolen from her, despite a number of court rulings against her challenges. Now this Trump-loving wrecking ball has set her sights on the 2024 U.S. Senate race. If Sen. Kyrsten Sinema seeks re-election as an Independent, as many suspect she will, Lake may actually have a shot at a plurality in a three-way match-up featuring U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego as the Democratic nominee.

Lake’s superpower is that she can spew insanity with a telegenic smile, whether she’s insisting that Trump was “the real winner of Arizona” in 2020, calling for journalists to be locked up, defending the Jan. 6 insurrectionists or claiming that an unspecified group of “evil people” pushing a “globalist agenda” have “unleashed viruses” and “tried to shut down the country.”

In a recent interview with New Times, East Valley political savant Tyler Montague called Lake “a Turning Point product.” The organization helped bankroll Lake’s entry into the political realm, serving as a tireless booster of her candidacies. She is a symbol of the group’s triumph over the old Arizona GOP, which is why Lake has crowed, “We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine.” Perhaps. But whether a Turning Point candidate such as Lake can actually win a statewide contest in Arizona remains an open question.

If she loses, Lake could return to her budding music career.

John Howard Pyle

Arizona’s ninth governor, John Howard Pyle, was considered a rising political star until the 1953 Short Creek raid by state troopers on a polygamist sect that inhabited the region, now known as Colorado City. The polygamists were members of a fundamentalist Mormon group unaffiliated with and condemned by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The group later became known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS.

Motivated by good intentions, Pyle’s raid was seen as heavy-handed and harmful at the time. He ordered 100 law enforcement officers to descend on what he labeled a “state of insurrection.” Hundreds of men, women and children were rounded up and placed behind barbed wire. The plan was to prosecute the fathers and mothers, placing the children in foster homes, but after two years of legal wranglings, the families were reunited and back in Short Creek.

Pyle had allowed carloads of journalists to document the round-up, but this backfired on him. Photos of families being broken up were published nationwide, turning public sentiment against the raid. Pyle lost a 1954 reelection bid to former U.S. Senate Majority leader Ernest McFarland. He later lamented that “it was neither the time nor the place to do what we did.”

Bobby Raymond

In 1991, Arizona state Rep. Bobby Raymond became the unlikely face of a 13-month sting operation by then-Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley known as AzScam. The sting targeted state legislators, with ex-felon Joseph Stedino posing as mobster “Tony Vincent” and attempting to buy their votes for a bill to make casino gambling legal in Arizona.

Encounters between Stedino and his prey were videotaped. Seven legislators were subsequently indicted along with more than a dozen others. Among them was Raymond, who took $12,105 from Stedino and spent two years in prison as a result.

Ironically, Raymond, a Democrat, came to office as a white hat, winning his first term by defeating then incumbent state legislator and later disgraced Republican U.S. Rep. Trent Franks. Raymond reportedly championed sane HIV legislation with the support of LGBTQ+ people in Phoenix.

But it is this quote from Raymond, uttered during a chitchat with Stedino, that everyone recalls whenever AzScam is mentioned: ​​"I don't give a fuck about issues. There's not an issue in this world I give a shit about … I do deals … My favorite line is, 'What's in it for me?'"