Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes(D) pushed back on calls to remove Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap (R), saying the recorder has not committed any wrongdoing and is operating within the authority granted by voters. Speaking on The Gaggle podcast on April 8, Fontes was asked directly whether Heap should be removed amid ongoing legal disputes and tension with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. One of the hosts framed the question around Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee’s position that removal is “off the table” because voters chose the recorder, asking Fontes whether he agreed and whether there is ever a circumstance in which removal would be justified.

“Yes to both of those questions,” Fontes said. “I agree with the chair, Brophy McGee. The voters did vote for Justin Heap.”

Fontes rejected the idea that disagreement or policy shifts meet any threshold for removal. (Interview continues below)

In response to the interview, especially the unexpected support from Fontes, Heap told the Arizona Globe:

“Given his experience as a former Maricopa County Recorder, I appreciate Secretary Fontes’s candor and understanding of the challenges I have faced with the Board of Supervisors under a shared services agreement that was drafted before I began my first day in this role. This once again underscores the Board’s overreach in acting outside of state statutes when it comes to appropriate oversight of the Recorder’s Office. From day one, I have been committed to an honest, transparent, accessible, and lawful election system, and I will remain steadfast in that commitment despite the Board’s continued actions.”

The Gaggle interview continued…

“What has he actually done? Where’s the crime? Where’s the bad act?” Fontes said. “He hasn’t done anything other than change some policies at this stage of the game or make some complaints against the board and their power and the budgets and all this stuff.”

“Has he shifted policies maybe that I disagree with? Yes,” he added. “The voters gave him that power.”

Fontes said his office is deliberately staying out of the dispute for now, describing it as an internal county matter.

“We’re staying as far away from it as possible… because this is an intra-county issue,” he said.

Using a blunt analogy, he added: “You don’t want me coming over to your house and dealing with you and the folks you live with and your issues—that ain’t my business right until it spills out of that house. Y’all deal with it unless there’s a problem, unless somebody’s actually getting hurt.”

Later in the discussion, Fontes was asked about the underlying dispute between Heap and the Board, particularly the shared services agreement governing election responsibilities and how it should have been handled. Fontes pointed to decisions made before Heap took office and said the recorder inherited a difficult situation.

“The Board of Supervisors and former recorder Richard, they handed him a rotten banana with this deal, I don’t blame the guy,” Fontes said.

He expanded on that point by drawing from his own experience as a former Maricopa County Recorder, describing similar tensions with the Board of Supervisors during his tenure.

“Well, you know, having been a county recorder—and I’ll keep that former county recorder hat on—I can sympathize with the recorder,” Fontes said. “When the voters gave me the office… I was appointing the election director on my own. I was doing all the Election Day stuff, the poll worker training and everything fell to the purview of the county recorder.”

He said conflict began when the Board attempted to reassert control over those responsibilities.

“That was the first political fight. The Board trying to claw back some of its responsibilities,” Fontes said.

Fontes acknowledged that he had been open to sharing some authority but said the Board’s approach escalated the situation.

“If they hadn’t been so aggressive in the first place… I had already intended on giving some of it back to them,” he said. “But they started stepping on my toes politically and threatening to take [it] instead of coming and saying, ‘Hey, let’s go have a cup of coffee.'”

Reflecting on the current dispute, Fontes said he understands Heap’s position, even if he does not fully agree with it.

“What Richard did and the Board did… I can see why he was a little upset,” Fontes said. “I don’t know if it’s been handled the right way from either side… but I can totally empathize with his plight and his struggle. Do I agree with him? Maybe not, but I definitely identify with that struggle.”

Fontes ultimately said the responsibility to resolve the dispute lies with county leadership, not the state.

“The voters put him there, and the responsibility falls to those leaders at the county to try to figure out their circumstances,” he said.

For now, he said, the threshold for intervention has not been met.

“If he does something that hurts voters, that prevents access… then we may very well ask the board to act,” Fontes said. “But right now, we don’t have any actual bad acts that I can point to.”