The victories of 2024 were just a few days old when the battle for Arizona House Speaker went from a private contest to a public scrum, as advocates for Joseph Chaplik’s campaign launched scores of attacks on Steve Montenegro and his candidacy. Montenegro prevailed but the attacks, coming largely from Jake Hoffman’s Freedom Caucus and its grassroots surrogates like Merissa Hamilton, raise serious questions about whether or not the increased Republican majority is big enough to overcome constant attacks from a disgruntled, albeit shrinking faction within its own base.
Hamilton’s EZAZ group has willingly burned bridges in its unsuccessful effort to kneecap Montenegro, feeding stories to online publications like the Arizona Globe to create a perception of disarray and infighting that was largely due to Hamilton’s team itself.
Even while Montenegro assembled a group of committee chairmen and vice-chairmen that included many of the House Freedom Caucus’ members, Hamilton and unhappy former lawmakers like Jacqueline Parker attacked his choices, claiming he was excluding Freedom Caucus members and turning over the chairman selection process over to lobbyists.
Some of this is just politics as usual. Hamilton makes her living off this sort of behavior and there will always be a market for a permanently unhappy activist on the fringe of any major party. But the double standards shown in this case were particularly egregious. While she attacked Montenegro as a lobbyist-puppet and swamp creature, her own group’s website gave Montenegro a perfect 100% score.
When Senate President Warren Petersen folded the Senate’s standalone Elections Committee into the Judiciary Committee, Hamilton had no complaints. When Montenegro followed Petersen’s lead, she went ballistic and accused him of tanking election integrity efforts, trash-talked him online and to national election integrity groups, and was joined in her hypocritical attacks by other Freedom Caucus members like Rep. Rachel Jones and select allies in right-wing media.
The official word from both the House and Senate is that a standalone Elections Committee doesn’t have the volume of bills needed to occupy an entire committee, and both Petersen and Montenegro have made it clear that election reforms will feature prominently in their plans. That makes sense — so why do Hamilton, Jones and select right-wing media outlets embrace Petersen while dishonestly targeting Montenegro for making the same decisions?
Maybe they get their marching orders from others who have an ax to grind. One theory mentioned to us several times was that Hamilton was expecting a job with Speaker Chaplik and those plans are now out the window. It could be almost anything. But the implications for the coming year are important.
Republicans still have small majorities in both the State House (33-27) and State Senate (17-13), and voters have real expectations as the 2026 election approaches. If groups like EZAZ are lying about conservative Republicans with lengthy track records like Montenegro, getting the job done will require real political dexterity from leaders like Petersen and Montenegro, who will find themselves battling Democrats and their dishonest allies in the mainstream media AND fringe Republicans with their allies in right-wing outlets. We wish them both the best of luck.
