8 Sept 26th-Oct 2nd, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Racist Return Justice of the peace candidate who used N-word running again. BY TJ L’HEUREUX W ith less than a week before the 2020 elec- tion, Michael Irish’s texts came back to haunt him. On Oct. 27 of that year, Phoenix New Times reported on the Republican justice of the peace candidate’s history of racist senti- ments. NBA players protesting racial injus- tice were “idiot n—s,” he wrote to a friend in a Sept. 2 text message that was shared with New Times. The report also resurfaced several racist cartoons Irish authored while working for his college newspaper. Within two days, many of Irish’s backers had abandoned him, including notable Republicans Stephen Richer, Jerry Sheridan and Phoenix City Councilmember Sal DiCiccio. Irish lost his race to Democrat Deborah Begay, the first Native American to become a justice of the peace in Maricopa County. Four years later, Irish is back and again running to be justice of the peace in North Phoenix’s Moon Valley district. He ran unopposed in the primary but does not appear to be endorsed by anyone. In the general election, he will face Democrat Mireya Arroyo, who knocked off Begay in the primary. Justice of the peace is an elected local position that manages small claims, evic- tions, traffic violations, DUI cases and other low-level misdemeanors. Maricopa County has 26 justice courts, each with a justice of the peace. When reached by phone, Irish said he was “occupied” before hanging up. He did respond via email to questions from New Times, calling the 2020 story “defamatory.” He wrote, “It is wrong that an anonymous source can make such a claim, and the media can publish it without verification.” Though Irish did not directly address his use of the N-word, and did not answer a question about whether he still uses it in private conversation, he said, “I want to make it clear that I am not, nor have I ever been, a racist.” Irish also said he’s “embarked on a journey of personal growth” since 2020 and is “committed to cementing my future here in Moon Valley, a community I deeply care about.” On Irish’s campaign site, there is little evidence of the controversy that sank his last campaign. The website does not mention his racist comments, and while it does include photos of Irish with prominent local Republicans, it makes no mention of the fact that many of them pulled their endorsements of Irish four years ago. The site even prominently features a selectively truncated portion of the same New Times piece that exposed him. His website’s endorsements page — which includes no endorsements — features New Times’ logo and the quote, “Irish has also garnered an impressive array of endorse- ments from high-profile local Republicans.” The rest of the article, which Irish’s site did not quote, chronicled how several of those Republicans had pulled their support after learning of his racist remarks. In his responses to New Times, Irish did not explain why he promoted a section of a “defamatory” article about him on his website. A history of racism Irish is a business and real estate attorney, and his history of racism has been well- documented since his last run for office. Dropping a racial slur in a text is just the tip of the iceberg. As racial justice protests dominated the headlines in June 2020, the Arizona Mirror reported, Irish reached out to a college classmate via Instagram to state that “Blacks cause a lot of their >> p 10 Republican Michael Irish, who is running for justice of the peace in Moon Valley, has a long history of racist sentiments. (Courtesy of Michael Irish campaign website) | NEWS | | NEWS |
