Journalists’ Roundtable: 5-05-23

It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for the journalists’ roundtable! We’re taking a look at the week’s top stories including the sanction of Kari Lake’s attorneys.

Other topics for the week include:

• Jennifer Pawlik will not run for reelection
• Stephanie Stahl Hamilton facing ethics complaint
• AG: No one can defend abortion law
• Senate approves funds for Medicaid bills
• Julie Willoughby appointment

Kari Lake’s attorneys sanctioned

Lake’s attorneys will be required to pay $2,000 in sanctions after making a false claim that more than 35,000 ballots were counted into Maricopa County’s total after the election. Is this a lot of money for a sanction? Arizona Horizon host Ted Simons asked Mary Jo Pitzl from The Arizona Republic and AZCentral.com who said, “It is a penalty…. It’s very minor, and I would question if that will have much of a deterrent affect because it looks like we’re going to have a lot of election challenges going forward.”

Liz Harris’ seat filled

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors filled the former District 13 seat belonging to Liz Harris this week after taking about three weeks to look over all three candidates and selecting Julie Willoughby. Jeremy Duda from Axios Phoenix explained Willoughby ran last year and narrowly lost the second spot to Liz Harris. Duda added Willoughby is viewed as a little bit more moderate than Harris.