The Misadventures of AZ Senate President Karen Fann

Time and space would fail me to set forth here adequate background for you to understand the situation simply from my telling of it. You can read more and get up to speed by searching the internet for "Karen Fann" and "Stop the Steal." There are news stories in the AZMirror, AzCentral, Salon.com, AZ Capitol Times, the AZ Daily Star and more.

My impression from the start of this misadventure is that Fann, at the urging of former Senate Judiciary Committee Chair (former) Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, crAZy lady Sen. Kelly Townsend, and more is that Fann has been digging herself a hole that she ultimately may not be able to climb out from. Now, five full months AFTER the 2020 general election, after every official elected in that contest has taken office, she may, mercifully, have been handed an exit strategy to stop the boondoggle. 

The Protect Democracy Project, along with three prominent Arizona law firms which practice election, political, and government related law issued a cease and desist letter dated today (April 6, 2021) addressed to the firm Fann ostensibly has contracted with to conduct an unnecessary, obviously duplicitous or duplicative (or both), and apparently illegal "audit" of the 2020 general election in Maricopa County.

12News.com reportedly uploaded to DocumentCloud.org a statement of work for Cyber Ninjas, a cyber security company based in Florida for its engagement with the Arizona Senate Republican Caucus (or perhaps the Arizona Senate, but nobody other than members of the Republican Caucus voted to authorize the project). 

Here's an excerpt from Cyber Ninjas statement of work. This is where two key pieces of the puzzle converge to poke a huge hole in the entire proposal/project. 1) This (possibly fly by night) outfit apparently has NO certification attesting to its integrity or experience; and 2) Since Mr. Logan's bias is quite obviously on record, there is no basis for any kind of trust that he would conduct such work fairly and accurately even if certified. Such voter contact as he proposed would brazenly constitute voter intimidation.

On Twitter, Cyber Ninjas describes itself this way:

Cyber Ninjas is a cyber security consulting company specializing in software security. We work with organizations to help build and validate secure software.

So, it's really no wonder that since they claim specialization in software security, they may not really have a sense of why contacting voters either by phone or going to their door would constitute voter intimidation. 

Now, back to Karen Fann. The first rule of holes dates back at least to 1911: 

“Nor would a wise man, seeing that he was in a hole, go to work and blindly dig it deeper…”

In other words, STOP DIGGING, Karen.

It's not like she's the first or only Arizona elected official to find herself continuing to dig. In November 2011, then Gov. Jan Brewer dug herself a deep hole when she took the advice of similar political interests who tried to stymie the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission by firing IRC chair Colleen Mathis. Jan kept digging, but not for five months, like Karen has.

Jan came face to face with the Arizona Supreme Court ruling which held that she had unlawfully ousted Mathis. At that moment, Jan realized the game was over. She then graciously accepted the ruling and the IRC resumed its work.

It has been obvious for months that Karen is in a predicament of her own making. If she proceeds, litigation is certain. She will absolutely lose, just like Trump and his minions have already lost 60+ lawsuits in the Quixotic endeavor to put the former guy back in the White House.