Mike Broomhead talks for a living, but for a moment last week, all he could do was sigh.
With that flash of wordless exasperation behind him, he continued with his work: delivering the latest update on the Maricopa County election recount to listeners of his eponymous morning talk radio show. That day’s news was of a forthcoming conspiracy-theory-riddled documentary on what organizers call an audit — but Broomhead soon turned his attention to the officials overseeing this unfolding spectacle.
“You’re turning this into the clown show that you’ve been accused of. ... You’re turning this into the sideshow at the state fair,” he said.
This is the type of criticism one might expect from Democrats, who opposed the recount effort from the beginning, or from one of the many election experts who raised alarms at the stark departure from established audit practices, or from a Never-Trump Republican trying to wrest the party from the former president’s grip.
As the recount of 2.1 million ballots cast seven months ago drags on, Broomhead and others are contemplating just how this saga will end. The recount’s most ardent supporters believe former President Trump will be reinstated in the White House (despite there being no legal mechanism for that to occur). Its fiercest critics predict a damaging precedent that will embolden others to baselessly challenge results of elections they don’t like.
An increasingly vocal share of Arizona Republicans see the recount as an act of self-sabotage, creating an albatross for statewide candidates in the run-up to a pivotal election year. Broomhead is in this camp, with another lingering concern.
“No matter where you stand, the one thing we can all agree on is it has put a great big wedge in this community,” he told listeners earlier in the week. “That to me is the worst part of this. It’s one more reason for us to stand on opposite sides of the streets and complain about each other.”
“Here’s where we stand. It is June,” he said. “It is June. We have less than a year and a half before another election.”
Proponents of the recount, however, are keeping their eyes firmly fixed on the last election.
The review has no authority to change the 2020 results — and Trump, who frequently praises the recount, would have come up short of the presidency even if he had won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes. Nevertheless, at least some supporters, and the former president himself, see the recount as a step in restoring Trump to power, according to reporting in the New York Times and Washington Post.
Broomhead is not shy about his opinions — that’s the whole point of being a talk radio host. But anytime he starts to talk about the recount’s backers, his tread becomes notably lighter.
“I don’t want to make the people that believe this angry,” he explained during a commercial break. “I don’t think they are crazy. I think that these are people that genuinely believe the election was stolen.”
Every time he talks about those involved, be it officials like Fann or Ken Bennett, a former GOP secretary of state who has largely been the recount’s public face, or the volunteer ballot inspectors at the coliseum, he takes pains to praise their intentions. Nevertheless, he catches heat from some listeners who accuse him of being biased against the effort.
Bitter GOP infighting is hardly new in the state; party activists constantly clashed with the late Republican Sen. John McCain for not being sufficiently conservative. To Broomhead, this rift is resurfacing at the worst time, right before the 2022 election, when Arizonans will vote in six statewide races, including for governor and U.S. senator.
“That division is coming to a head right now,” he told his audience, warning that the state party’s all-in support for the audit is leaving moderate Republicans and independents out of the fold. “And if you don’t get everybody on board ... we are going to watch the Democrats win the majority of those six important races.”
As the recount drags on, some Arizona Republicans are losing patience. The Maricopa County Board, which had long opposed the recount, has ratcheted up its pushback with uncommon vehemence. Former GOP Gov. Jan Brewer said auditors should “call it quits,” speaking in an interview on “The Gaydos and Chad Show,” Broomhead’s afternoon counterparts on KTAR 92.3 FM. Two GOP state senators have signaled varying degrees of discomfort with the proceedings.
In the best-case scenario, said Rebecca Rios, the state Senate Democratic leader, those legislators would “come to their senses and work with Democrats to shut the audit down.”
And the question of the total price tag remains unknown, particularly after Hobbs told the county it should obtain new voting machines because those turned over to the state Senate may have been compromised.
This is what Broomhead fears — months more of preposterous headlines. It may make for great radio, but it might not be great for his party, or his state. And so he keeps talking about the recount, bemoaning the debacle it has become and hoping its officials will listen.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/ ... dit-stance
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan