A group of lawyers with deep ties to the Republican Party scrambled over the weekend to rescue an effort to get independent presidential candidate Cornel West on the Arizona ballot, offering one of the clearest examples yet of the GOP’s extensive involvement in furthering the left-wing academic’s long-shot bid.
As a deadline loomed to submit the needed paperwork, two well-known Republican lawyers in the state and a GOP attorney working to get West on the ballot elsewhere learned that two of their would-be electors — Jerry Judie and Denisha Mitchell — were not interested in fulfilling the role. The electors’ decisions led to a barrage of text messages and phone calls looking to keep the operation alive. When those efforts failed, two Republican lawyers visited Judie’s and Mitchell’s homes, seemingly seeking to persuade them to reconsider.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s office said Monday that West did not file the paperwork needed to get on the ballot before Saturday’s deadline.