Ethics panel limits Harper testimony

Howard Fischer

A Senate panel voted Tuesday to hear from Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, and the senator who filed the ethics complaint against him, but not anyone else now - if ever.

Members of the ethics committee rejected a request by Sen. Ben Miranda,
D-Phoenix, to seek testimony from Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, when the panel hears evidence next week about whether Harper broke ethics rules.

Miranda wants to know whether Verschoor and Harper essentially had planned ahead of time to cut off debate on the last night of the legislative session to clear the way for a vote on a measure to constitutionally ban gay marriage. And he said the events of that night, coupled with Harper's somewhat differing explanations of what happened, makes Verschoor's testimony necessary.

But Sen. Robert Blendu, R-Litchfield Park, said anything Verschoor has to say is irrelevant.

Blendu said he already believes Harper committed no ethical violation in shutting down debate. In fact, he said, if there was an ethical violation it was committed by two Democrat lawmakers who were improperly prolonging debate on an unrelated bill to keep the Senate from discussing the gay marriage amendment.

Instead, Blendu said, the complaint against Harper by Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-Phoenix, is itself improper.

"This is strictly an effort to get into Jack Harper's primary," Blendu said, noting that he faces a challenge from Wickenburg Republican John Zerby.

Cheuvront and Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, were engaged in a question-and-answer session with each other on the Senate floor over provisions of an unrelated tax bill. But the pair, who are both openly gay, never made a secret of their desire to delay a vote on the gay marriage proposal in hope that one of the needed 16 votes would disappear.

Harper, who was presiding over the floor debate, shut off the microphones but indicated he had made a mistake.

"I clicked on the wrong thing," he said "If you'd like to speak, go ahead and push your buttons again."