Embattled Pinal supervisor denies changing parties

In ever-growing drama for Kevin Cavanaugh, the Pinal County District 1 supervisor claims he mistakenly changed his party affiliation early this month in a computer mishap.

In a voter document obtained by InMaricopa, Cavanaugh appeared to change his party affiliation on Feb. 9 from Republican to Libertarian. However, the supervisor’s office claimed he “may have clicked ‘libertarian’ from the drop-down menu” when changing his mailing address, and later corrected this.

A review of the Service Arizona voter registration website showed that a drop-down menu for party affiliation is available, but that Libertarian is several options below Republican, followed by a write-in option for “other.” A corrected document for Cavanaugh was not immediately available.

“This has taken us all by surprise,” said District 5 Supervisor and Chairman of the Board Jeff Serdy. “We didn’t know it was happening.”

Serdy said he last spoke with Cavanaugh during a Feb. 3 special board meeting but did not receive any indication about a party change.

“I’m as surprised as anybody I guess,” Serdy said. “Why change?”

Since Pinal County voters leaned heavily Republican in 2022, a party switch seemingly would be curious. However, this also comes after a rough year for the district supervisor, including odd allegations and legal drama.

This month, Cavanaugh was the sole supervisor to pursue retrieving a performance bonus from former Pinal County Elections Director Virginia Ross, claiming the county “didn’t do an election quite right” in 2022. County Attorney Kent Volkmer claimed litigation issues would make retrieval more expensive than the $25,000 bonus, while Supervisor Jeff McClure accused Cavanaugh of driving conspiracy theories.

Last year, Pinal County Chief of Staff Garland Shreves and county Finance Manager Amanda Stanford filed lawsuits against Cavanaugh totaling $13 million. In the suits, each claimed Cavanaugh had started rumors that Stanford was hired in exchange for sexual favors.

An investigation commissioned by Pinal County later found no evidence for Cavanaugh’s claims. The report stated Cavanaugh had “no reasonable basis” for the allegations and that he may have “had some other motive, other than the fulfillment of any official obligation.”

In the Feb. 3 meeting, Cavanaugh dismissed the investigation and was the only board member to oppose releasing its findings. He claimed it could “harm the effectiveness” of the county and that it was not public record.

Additionally, former Apache Junction City Council member and House of Representatives hopeful Braden Biggs dismissed Cavanaugh in May for not living up to his fiscally conservative statements. Biggs claimed Cavanaugh requested an exorbitant budget for his office and employees for the 2022-23 fiscal year, amounting to more than $555,000.