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Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo is calling for a public-corruption investigation into the Republican county recorder, Justin Heap, citing a claim Heap made about him in text messages while privately lobbying supervisors to give him more control over elections.
In the texts, which the supervisors released to Votebeat after a public-records request, Heap asserted that he had secured Gallardo’s vote on his proposal for a shared services agreement, or SSA, outlining a new division of election duties. Gallardo, the lone Democrat on the supervisors board, says that didn’t happen.
In a statement Wednesday, Gallardo said he wants Attorney General Kris Mayes to “get to the bottom of this outrageously false claim.”
“Justin Heap is lying about me,” Gallardo wrote, “and going forward, he better keep my name out of his lying mouth.
Heap had texted Supervisor Mark Stewart in March, the records show, saying, “Don’t ask me the kind of backchanneling and arm twisting I had to do to get the democrat on the Board, but he will vote for the SSA I proposed … .”
The new tension between Gallardo, a Democrat, and Heap, a Republican, complicates an already messy dispute between the supervisors and recorder over how to divide election duties. Heap threw out a prior agreement in January after taking office, and after months of negotiation, he sued the supervisors in June. The supervisors filed a countersuit this month, and the case is pending in county court.
Texts provided by Stewart and Supervisor Debbie Lesko, both Republicans, show how Heap pressured them to go around Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin, the Republican leading the negotiations with Heap, and instead work with Gallardo. Heap repeatedly told Lesko and Stewart that Gallardo would provide a third vote in favor of his proposed agreement.
Gallardo on Tuesday told Votebeat that he had never agreed to support Heap’s proposal, and called the claim “total lies.” He said he has met with or spoken with Heap and his staff only once in an introductory meeting after Heap took office, and they did not discuss the shared services agreement governing election duties.
“Yet his texts hint at something nefarious; they imply that he has special access to me and that my vote is somehow for sale,” Gallardo said in his statement Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gallardo told Votebeat that he plans to file a formal complaint soon with the Attorney General’s Office. He said Heap’s claim damages his credibility after 25 years in public office.
“He needs to come clean and retract those statements,” he said.
Heap did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Mayes’ office declined to comment on whether the office will investigate.
Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.
