OPINION: Sen. Jake Hoffman, a case study in hypocrisy

Freedom Caucus Leader and hypocrite extraordinaire, state Sen. Jake Hoffman, is again showing his true colors. The last several weeks at the Arizona Legislature have been a Hoffman masterclass on how one can pretend to have morals and principles that they actually do not possess.

Let’s dive in.

First, Jake Hoffman is best known for two things: owning an online troll farm that employed teenagers to post disinformation on social media, and being one of Arizona’s fake electors.

He was indicted for allegedly signing a fake certification to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, then sending that fake certification to Washington, DC, so that then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn a free and fair election Joe Biden won by over 7 million votes.

Thank God, Pence proved he had the morals to stand up and resist.

Petty obstruction

Hoffman’s current fame comes as the Chair of the Senate’s Director Nominations Committee. While some of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominees have made it through the process, an equal number have been the target of politically driven hit jobs that do not reflect their ability to manage and run a state agency.

Take Barbara Richardson, Director of the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. This military veteran came to Arizona with over 20 years of regulatory experience. Yet Hoffman and the Grand Ole Party targeted Richardson because she served on a race and insurance committee with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

The focus wasn’t DEI, it was to encourage financial literacy in high school and to look at how criminal convictions affect insurance underwriting.

But this was the death knell for Richardson. The MAGA Twitter-verse put out the word to Republicans to come and testify, seemingly forgetting that race is (for now) a protected class, and acknowledging that it plays an issue in the industry isn’t a third rail but leads to better regulation of the industry as a whole.

And Richardson agreed with Hoffman, stating she does not believe a regulator’s role is to engage in social engineering and affirming she had neither adopted nor advocated for DEI in the agency. But it was too late, once tagged as a “DEI Director,” her merit no longer mattered.

Offended by free speech

Next up, the Department of Agriculture’s Director, Paul Brierley, who offended Hoffman by exercising his own free speech. In 2020, Brierley, who was a lifelong and active Republican, posted an editorial on his Facebook account. He advocated it was time to move on from Trump, arguing that he ignored constitutional principles and American values.

Like a teenager in 4th-period study hall, Hoffman leapt to Trump’s defense, accusing Brierley of demonizing “the greatest president in modern history.” Trump must have been pleased that his very own Arizona-based “Mean Girl” defended his honor. Because, like Hoffman—who espouses free speech—when you examine their actions, neither man believes in its tenets.

Casting stones in a glass house

And now, in the most recent chapter of The Brierley Affair, one of the 350 employees of the Department of Agriculture was arrested for human smuggling. Under indictment himself, Hoffman used this opportunity to attack Brierley and Gov. Hobbs.

Hoffman, of course, himself allegedly committed the act he’s accused of, while Brierley and Hobbs somehow should have known about a state employee’s off-hours illegal activity, an allegation for which he has been fired.

Accusing Brierly of being responsible for an employee’s crime with no proof of fault is the epitome of hypocrisy, especially when the person making the claim is under indictment and was recorded signing the document allegedly meant to defraud Congress.

Of course, instead of holding himself or the Senate President who empowers him accountable, Hoffman continues to cloak himself in deflection and hypocrisy. Accountability at its finest.