8 June 18th - June 24th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | his position, and whether Heap was concerned about appearances of bias given Stone’s frequent attacks on Democrats. None of the parties responded. The members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which approves budgets for the Recorder’s Office but does not set Stone’s salary, also did not respond or agree to comment on the record. However, the board’s lone Democrat, supervisor Steve Gallardo, has previously laid into Heap for Stone’s social media posts. During a January board meeting that Heap and Stone attended, Gallardo refer- enced several of Stone’s posts, including tweets that said “lots of Democrats” should be tossed from office, that Democrats were “ENEMIES of truth, liberty, freedom, and the American Way” and that it’s “truly amazing how historically illiterate you have to be to vote for Democrats.” In fact, less than 30 minutes before the January meeting with the board of supervisors began, Stone wrote that “we all have to pick sides in the coming civil war.” He added a shrug emoji. Gallardo didn’t name Stone directly, referring to him only as a member of Heap’s “leadership staff.” But he called Stone’s posts “disgraceful” and said if Gallardo had put out these types of state- ments while he was working under former Recorder Helen Purcell, she would have “fired my ass.” “How are voters supposed to have confidence in your ability to run elections when your leadership staff is saying this stuff?” Gallardo asked Heap. “I have never seen anyone in this county in a leadership position put out this type of statement. Never.” Heap feigned innocence, claiming that he’d never seen them and noting that Gallardo hadn’t “identified the member of my leadership team that you’re speaking of.” That’s hard to believe, though, considering many others have taken notice. Last week, Democratic strategist D.J. Quinlan tagged Heap in a quote-tweet of one of Stone’s posts, in which he opined about Los Angeles’ mayoral primary while sitting in his car. “Why are you forcing taxpayers to pay for @SamThePol’s partisan shit-posting?” Quinlan asked Heap. “This is one of 100’s of inappropriate posts for a person in an election manage- ment position. To make it even more flagrant, a majority of these posts are during work hours.” Being a frequent tweeter at the Recorder’s Office is not new, of course. Stephen Richer, the previous recorder who lost to Heap in the 2024 GOP primary, regularly used the social media site to combat election misinformation and defend county election workers against conspiracy theories. Then again, he pointed out to New Times, he was an elected official and also limited his public discourse to his official sphere of influence. In a text, Richer wrote that he didn’t think anyone in his office — “certainly not on my leadership team” — ever “posted anything about politics to social media.” Only Richer himself waded into that fray, “and I only talked about election stuff,” he said. “And,” he added, “certainly never called anyone wholly unconnected to our office a ‘dishonest shit.’” Sam Stone is the chief of staff for Republican Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap. (Screenshot via YouTube) Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) Taxpayer-funded Shit-posting from p 7
