This week, Arizona Attorney General candidate Abraham “Abe” Hamadeh called for an investigation into one of the state’s most popular newspapers for ethical violations in the aftermath of last week’s attorney general debate.
In a letter to the Arizona Newspaper Association Executive Committee, Hamadeh revealed that his Democratic opponent, Kris Mayes, was not asked a single question during the attorney general debate last week. Furthermore, one of the debate co-moderators, Stacey Barchenger, failed to disclose that Mayes was previously employed as a reporter at her employer, the Arizona Republic newspaper.
“The recent Attorney General debate, an important news moment, showed the Arizona Republic’s conflict of interest in a glaring way,” the letter reads.
“Stacey Barchenger, a journalist for the Arizona Republic and a co-moderator for the Clean Elections debate, failed to disclose her employers’ relationship with one of the candidates on the stage – Kris Mayes – at the beginning of the debate,” he continued. “What is worse, Barchenger and her co-moderator failed to ask Mayes a single question during the debate. Not one. Barchenger and her co-moderator, did, however, ask Mayes’ opponent multiple probing and negative questions with multiple follow-up questions.”
Boom. The AG debate moderators in Arizona failed to ask a single question of the Democrat. Not a one.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 6, 2022
So Hamadeh calls for an ethics investigation of @azcentral reporter @sbarchenger and editor @kathytulumello actions. https://t.co/jg7NVt0b89
Hamadeh’s campaign asked the Arizona Newspaper Association Executive Committee told conduct an ethics investigation into the Arizona Republic.
“We are calling for your organization to conduct an ethics investigation of the Arizona Republic, Stacey Barchenger and Kathy Tulumello. Their ethical failures are a grave concern to the voters of Arizona,” Hamadeh’s letter said. “Your organization has an ethical duty to appoint a neutral arbitrator to understand why the Arizona Republic refused to make proper disclosures to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest as well as the one-sided coverage of a former employee seeking public office.”
In last week’s debate, Hamadeh and Mayes debated abortion, election integrity, law enforcement, among other topics. According to Axios. Mayes is reportedly a former Republican who switched parties in 2019.
Hamadeh has received endorsements from several police officer associations, the National Border Patrol Council, the NRA. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and former President Donald Trump. Before running for office, Hamadeh was deployed to Saudi Arabia for 14 months as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. Before that, he was a prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.