State Rep. Stahl Hamilton formally censured for hiding Bibles
The Arizona House of Representatives has voted to formally censure Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton for hiding Bibles that were kept in the House members’ lounge.
After a lengthy and heated debate between Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday afternoon and a failed 27-31 vote to expel Stahl Hamilton from the House, the chamber voted 30-28 to formally censure the lawmaker. Two Democrats were absent and did not vote.
In April, Stahl Hamilton, of Tucson, was videotaped placing two Bibles underneath couch cushions in the lounge of the state House of Representatives. She also placed a Bible in a refrigerator. A trio of Republican lawmakers then filed a complaint against Stahl Hamilton, accusing her of theft and disorderly conduct.
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The House Ethics Committee found on Friday that Stahl Hamilton should be punished for disorderly conduct. Stahl Hamilton apologized on the House floor in April, shortly after her actions were discovered, and described them as a protest of the lack of separation between church and state.
Rep. Alexander Kolodin, of Scottsdale, was one of four Republicans who voted against Stahl Hamilton’s expulsion. Kolodin explained that he regrettably felt he must stick to the argument he made when he voted against expulsion of Republican Rep. Liz Harris on April 12.
The Ethics Committee found Harris guilty of disorderly conduct for orchestrating a February meeting in which a member of the public spread wild conspiracy theories about public officials, and then lying about it to the Ethics Committee.
Kolodin said he believed that the government should be run by the representatives elected by the voters, and therefore the House should not overturn the decision of the voters. He added that he did not necessarily believe that Harris did anything wrong, and that Stahl Hamilton’s offense was much worse.
Kolodin voted in favor of Stahl Hamilton’s censure.
Republican Rep. David Cook, of Globe, along with several Democrats, defended Stahl Hamilton’s character, highlighting her previous work, including finding help for Arizonans affected by wildfires.
Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, of Tucson, described Stahl Hamilton as a volunteer, mother and a Presbyterian minister who “never failed to stand up for the people she represents.”
“This was a protest and I think that her apology is plenty,” Gutierrez said.
Republican Rep. Justin Heap, of Mesa, said that the legislature needed to take Stahl Hamilton’s behavior seriously, echoing the words of several of his Republican colleagues in saying that Stahl Hamilton’s actions were offensive to Christians.
“What do we as a body value more: The reputations of Arizona politicians or the reputation of God in the world?” Heap asked.
Heap said he believes Democrats would accuse him of a hate crime and demand he be expelled if he put a Quran, for instance, in the members’ freezer.
“The only hate crime that we’re fine with is with the only religious text believed in by the majority of members and the majority of Arizonans,” Heap said.
After Democrats pointed out that the Bible was the only holy book kept in the members’ lounge, Republican Rep. Rachel Jones, of Tucson said that she would empathize with any lawmaker who had unknowingly sat on their holy book, whether or not they were Christian.
“It is just very disturbing and offensive to think that I may have been sitting on the Bible,” she said.
In the middle of a tense floor session in which representatives from both sides of the aisle accused one another of impugning the other sides’ motives, Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, spoke about the friendship and bipartisan wins that had been achieved this year, but said Democrats’ dismissal of Stahl Hamilton’s actions threatened that.
“It is one thing to be sorry that you did an action, but another to be sorry that you got caught,” she said. “We cannot tolerate when one member of the chamber is so disrespectful to other members.”
Rep. Mae Peshlakai, D-Cameron, who is Navajo, said she was introduced to Christianity in 1958 when she first attended a Bureau of Indian Affairs school.
“One thing I learned from the Bible is to forgive and to be kind to people,” she said. “I still believe in forgiveness.”
Peshlakai voted against the censure.
Democratic Rep. Athena Salman, of Tempe, who was eventually told to stop holding up the proceedings by accusing Republicans of impugning the motives of Democrats, said the whole process leading up to the censure had “gone too far” and was handled poorly.
“I believe that from start to finish, from the moment staff installed a spy cam in the members’ lounge, this has been orchestrated to harass and bully Stahl Hamilton,” Salman said.
Stahl Hamilton made the ethics complaint against Harris in March, which eventually got Harris expelled from her seat in the chamber.
Cook said that he also did not like how the process had been handled and voted against censuring Stahl Hamilton.
“I do not like public shaming,” Cook said. “I don’t like it in schools. I don’t like it in church. I darn sure don’t like it here, as it’s been used as a weapon. This should have all been taken care of by leadership on both sides of the aisle and the members involved.”
Republican Rep. David Marshall accused Stahl Hamilton of finding the Bible itself offensive in some way, after she tweeted in 2020 that she was running for office because she was tired of seeing so many Bibles on legislators’ desks.
“This is not just a protest, this is something that went on for several years, and it was done because of the disdain she has for holy word,” Marshall said.
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