Arizona attorney general candidates spar over Trump lawsuits, personal style in tense debate

The Republican nominee for attorney general lashed out Wednesday night at incumbent Kris Mayes for filing more than four dozen lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Warren Petersen said that Mayes engages in “political lawfare,” using her office to go after who she perceives as enemies. And if nothing else, he said, the lawsuits are not a good use of Arizona taxpayer funds that could be used for other priorities.

“That is precious taxpayer money that could be used to keep Arizona safe. Because of frivolous lawsuits. Nobody's more partisan than Kris Mayes,” Petersen said.

But Petersen could not identify any one specific case that, had he been the attorney general, he would not have filed. Instead, he said, it comes down to the question of whether Arizona should be involved at all in these multi-state lawsuits.

“We are a center-right state,” Petersen said. “For our attorney general to be going completely far left on a bunch of these lawsuits is a waste of money.”

Instead, he said, Mayes should have let states like California and New York sue the administration on everything from efforts by Trump to curtail federal funding to, most recently, the legal battle over the president's directive to have the U.S. Postal Service set rules for who gets an early ballot.

Mayes said every one of those lawsuits not only had merit but actually paid off — literally — for the state.

During the hourlong debate sponsored by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, she said her decision on whether to go to court depends on whether the state is being harmed. More to the point, Mayes said that the lawsuits in which she is involved — and she says the state prevailed 83% of the time — have saved Arizona $2.3 billion.

“This federal government was going to defund Meals on Wheels, Head Start, AmeriCorps funding for our public schools,” she said. Mayes called whatever the state has spent “a good return on investment.”

And then, the attorney general said, there are situations where she believes that the rights of Arizonans are being attacked. That specifically includes the president's directive that the Postal Service block the delivery of mail-in ballots to voters not included on lists that were submitted by the state and verified at the federal level.

That case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the justices blocked the move, at least for this election.

“Also something that Warren Peterson has been totally mum about, but the federal government was going to try to destroy mail-in voting, which 90% of Arizonans use,“ Mayes said.

Petersen was noncommittal when pressed after the debate about his stance on what Trump was attempting to do, saying he would “have to do more research.”

“From what I know, the principles of it are we want to make sure legal citizens are voting and we want to have chain of custody,” Petersen said, meaning that the ballots could be tracked. “So I agree on the principle.”

Still, he said, there were “some holes in it,” which led to the 7-2 vote by the Supreme Court. But Petersen said that “chain of custody” is a worthwhile goal.

Mayes, however, said the issue is larger than that, with the federal government trying to take over how Arizona runs its vote-by-mail system, one she said is so successful that close to 90% of voters use it.

Lawsuits against Trump aside, Mayes defended other legal actions her office has taken, like against a company that was helping residential landlords engage in price fixing, and another against the owner of a Tucson mobile home park over its chronic power outages that left residents without air conditioning.

She also said that Petersen is the beneficiary of a donation of more than $600,000 to his campaign made by the head of the company that owns that mobile home park. Petersen did not dispute that donation but said it did not go to him but instead went to an independent committee that is spending money to get him elected, a committee over which he has no control.

But there clearly was a connection.

In a statement, Eli Werner, founder of BioVida, made it clear he wants Mayes ousted in November.

“We're not a fan of the AG's practices,” he said. “It seems like she's looking for targets of publicity.”

Much of the debate devolved into a series of insults and personality attacks as moderators struggled to keep Mayes and Petersen focused on the issues.

At one point, Mayes criticized Petersen as a candidate, because he has relatively little in the way of legal experience and was only licensed by the State Bar of Arizona in 2023.

“I can't even believe that your party nominated you for this position,“ she said.

Petersen, meanwhile, took shots at Mayes for allegedly losing her temper and cursing in meetings with local sheriffs and other elected officials.

“Steve, it’s my time. I have two minutes,” Petersen told moderator Steve Goldstein after Mayes interrupted him as he accused disrespecting law enforcement officials in closed door meetings.

“That’s fine, I want to make sure we actually have a conversation here,” Goldstein said.

Mayes interjected, “He's lying to the people of Arizona in the most outrageous and disgusting and defamatory way.”

Mayes later told reporters she did meet with sheriffs and others to talk about the potential loss of federal funds used to disrupt drug trafficking from HIDTA, or the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program. She admitted she may have used colorful language as she spoke about the need to fight for that money.

Petersen also accused Mayes of cursing in front of local county officials.

“During this meeting, she ended up pounding her fist on the table and said, ‘I am the effing AG,’” Petersen alleged.

Sen. Hildy Angius (R-Bullhead City) confirmed the comments, saying they took place in a meeting she attended with Mayes when she was a Mohave County supervisor.