Former Arizona State Senator, Rich Crandall, who is now Wyoming’s Education Department Director, and Wyoming’s Gov. Matt Mead are being sued by school Superintendent Cindy Hill. Hill filed a lawsuit to secure the release of certain records and correspondence.
Hill filed the lawsuit in state district court in Cheyenne last week.
Crandall was removed from the Arizona State Senate by Senate President Andy Biggs after it was discovered that Crandall had abandoned his office.
Hill’s lawsuit seeks correspondence from several employees in the governor’s office and the state agency as well as department contracts and other financial agreements, according to an AP report.
Hill alleges that the governor’s office and the Department of Education is violating the Wyoming Public Records Act. She is asking the court for her immediate access to the records.
Hill has said she needs the information so she can defend herself as lawmakers investigate her management of the state’s Education Department.
Hill was removed as head of the agency earlier this year by a new state law pushed by the governor, which removed the statewide elected Superintendent of Public Instruction as head of the Education Department.
Mead then selected Crandall to run the Wyoming Education Department and oversee $1 billion a year.
As the Wyoming governor and his cronies began the witch hunt against Hill for allegedly corrupt practices, he replaced her with Crandall who, while head of the Senate’s Education Committee, did business with many Arizona school districts through his companies, had often been criticized for not recusing himself from votes in which he might have some personal benefit or other conflict.
Crandall is best known for opposing nearly any and every school reform measure, including any that would increase school choice. Last year, he lost much support after he threatened a fellow lawmaker who had offered an eyewitness account of Crandall’s young daughter allegedly tampering with one of his primary opponent’s campaign signs.
The move by Mead has caused a division in the Republican Party.
In this instance, Crandall walked into the middle of a controversy. However, last year, Crandall is no stranger to causing division in the Republican Party himself. He was instrumental in assisting Governor Brewer in her betrayal of the Republicans in the Arizona Legislature by pushing through her Medicaid expansion program.
While Obamacare is opposed by the majority of Americans, the hospitals stand to gain a tremendous amount of money, and their lobbyists won the day in Arizona with the help of Crandall and a small band of Republicans who joined Democrat legislators.
While Crandall skipped town, his cohorts have won deep disfavor with both Democrats and Republicans, who opposed the expansion, and they will likely face primary oppositions in the next election cycle.