Arizona’s unsuccessful 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate Saturday claimed she was offered a bribe this week to leave politics for two years.
“Something happened to me this week before I left for CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference] and it shows how desperate these people are to stop me,” Kari Lake said during the event in Washington, D.C.
The long-time broadcasting journalist claimed someone telephoned, informing her of a need to discuss something with her that could not be done on the phone. Later, Lake added, the person appeared at the door of her home.
“They came to my door and they tried to bribe me out of getting out of politics,” the Arizona Republican related. “This really happened. I’m telling you this because this is how disgusting politics is. A mom who runs for office and they’re afraid of me?”
“They tried to bribe me with a job title, with a huge salary, a position on a board.”
The former journalist claimed she rejected the offer to sit out. When asked to name her price “to get out of politics for two years,” Lake claims she told the person to “let your handlers back East know that I can’t name a price, because there is no price that I would sell out my country for.”
Lake lost the governor’s race to Arizona’s former Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, by approximately 17,000 votes in the 2022 midterm election. Such a close loss, coupled with issues on Election Day, prompted her to seek legal relief.
She filed a December 2022 lawsuit against governor-elect Hobbs and several Maricopa County officials. Lake claimed her 17,117 vote loss to the Democrat resulted from improperly functioning ballot printers in Maricopa County. She further claimed unusually long wait times caused by the faulty printers resulted in some supporters not voting because of time constraints.
A Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against her after a two-day trial.
“Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such misconduct,” Thompson ruled. “The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.”
Lake promptly appealed, petitioning both Arizona’s Court of Appeals and the state’s Supreme Court. Last month, the appellate level court also ruled against her.
“A higher burden of proof is consistent with the holdings in those cases,” the three-judge appellate panel ruled in February. “We thus agree with the superior court that Lake was required to prove her case by clear and convincing evidence.”
Lake may run for the Senate seat held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who stopped caucusing with the Democratic Party after changing party affiliation January 23, according to a Daily Caller report.
Democratic state Rep. Ruben Gallego has already declared his candidacy for his party’s nomination to replace Sinema.
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