| NEWS | Mudslingers from p 10 Gunnigle never has received any direct funding from Soros, records show. In 2020, Gunnigle reported donations from five political action committees. Two were trade unions, two were local political groups supporting Arizona Democrats, and one was Emily’s List, a Washington, D.C.-based group that gives money to pro- choice Democratic female candidates. Emily’s List has reported donations from Soros in the past, but the organiza- tion has a wide range of donors and has no close ties to him, in particular. Emily’s List gave Gunnigle $6,450, according to campaign finance records. The majority of Wendy from p 10 Fann waved away that option, saying the body “believed in due process” and that such action was “premature.” A subsequent motion to expel Rogers for her comments failed, largely along party lines. Multiple Republicans who voted in favor of the investigation dissented on the expul- sion. It needed a two-thirds majority to pass, which would mean 20 votes. Only 11 voted in favor, with 15 opposed. Rogers did not speak during the vote. And so far, she has not taken down the posts, nor apologized, but late that day she issued a statement. “Sadly, my comment was taken completely out of context and became a false narrative that’s now the focal point of a fire- storm created by certain race-obsessed members of the media,” the statement read, without adding context. It went on to add, “Let me be very clear: I do not condone violent crime or racism. My heart breaks for those who lost their lives as well as for their families in this weekend’s shooting in Buffalo, New York. I pray justice is brought to the perpetrator.” It’s hardly Rogers’ first controversy — or association with extremist views. She repre- sents a large, rural district that sprawls across Coconino, Yavapai, and Gila counties, and since getting elected to the legislature in 2020, has been embroiled in one contro- versy after another. Rogers was censured by her Senate colleagues after she called for the hangings of her political opponents at an extremist conference in Florida, then went on social media rants that, critics charged, were blatantly anti-Semitic. She also has appeared on extremist TV shows. As critics have noted, Rogers has also stoked the “great replacement” conspiracy that, according to the shooter’s own writings, inspired the attack on shoppers in a mostly her fundraising, $360,900, came from individual donations (Soros was not one of them). Mitchell’s campaign didn’t provide any evidence of independent expenditures by Soros in the 2020 county attorney’s race. “There is little doubt that Soros is inter- ested in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office so we must be prepared,” the email said of the 2022 race. Though it’s still early, in first-quarter reports in the county attorney’s race, Gunnigle reported $39,133 in funding, all from individual donations. Mitchell did not report any fundraising in her first- quarter filing, save for $25,000 of her own money. Twitter Wendy Rogers’ tweet. Black neighborhood in Buffalo. The ideology, centered around the idea that white people are being replaced by immi- gration, has a long history in white suprema- cist groups, and has prompted other episodes of violence and mass shootings, including the Christchurch attack in New Zealand in 2019. Rhetoric that alludes or nods to these beliefs is not unusual in far-right circles. But Rogers, in particular, has drawn attention in the press for her invocation of similar beliefs. In July 2021, she tweeted a Breitbart article about immigration and added: “We are being replaced and invaded.” When Rogers faced scrutiny for that tweet, she announced that she stood by the statement. “We Americans who love this country are being replaced by people who do not love this country,” she wrote. She later added that she wanted to “make Western civilization great again.” As several lawmakers noted this weekend, Rogers embodies just one example of extremism in the Arizona legislature. Though Rogers didn’t reply to Phoenix New Times’ questions, she posted this state- ment on Twitter, apparently responding to the backlash: “Of course, I condemn the violence in Buffalo. Who doesn’t?” she wrote. “I also condemn the #FakeNews and the government promoting violence and then blaming it on regular patriotic Americans as if regular Americans share those despicable views. Everything is not what it seems!” 13 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES MAY 26TH– JUNE 1ST, 2022
