'Baroness of Arizona': Kari Lake ruthlessly mocked with suggestion for how to take over the state

Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has never conceded her election loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

But in a new piece ruthlessly mocking her in The Arizona Republic, E.J. Montini offered her another suggestion for how to take over the state: proclaim herself the Baroness of Arizona.

Montini is referring specifically to a bizarre case in the 19th century, of a man who sought to usurp authority over Arizona — under only slightly less absurd legal grounds than Lake has used to try to claim she is the rightful winner of the 2022 gubernatorial election.

"Something like that almost worked here once, back in the late 1800s, when a man named James Reavis manufactured a fake family tree, forged documents, and with audacity, confidence and a knack for public speaking convinced prominent citizens, politicians and celebrities that he was Mexican royalty with legitimate claims to millions of acres of land under the Treaty of Guadalupe," wrote Montini. "The exploits of Reavis were the subject of a movie in 1950 called 'The Baron of Arizona,' and his story is one of many featured in a book by the indispensable Arizona historian Marshall Trimble."

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Lake has repeatedly filed legal actions claiming the election was illegitimate on various grounds, in particular that her voters were illegally denied access because of a ballot tabulator problem in certain precincts — even though there were alternate ways of casting ballots that avoided the tabulator issues. So far, no court has ruled any of these claims have merit, and Lake actually faces a criminal complaint after tweeting out what appeared to be pictures of voters' signatures in one of her public manifestos — which would be a violation of state law.

"Lake’s lawyers are going to have to convince a court that she should not face sanctions and have to pay legal fees to Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over frivolous lawsuits. They’ll probably fail at that as well. Then Lake will jump into the U.S. Senate race in Arizona, claiming that the only way she could lose is if the voting is rigged and the election is stolen," wrote Montini, concluding, "When that, too, fails Lake could go the Reavis route and claim to be of royal blood."

"It may seem farfetched, but Reavis almost managed to pull it off 130 years ago, a time when Arizona was raw and unsullied, and its wide-eyed, unsophisticated residents were easy marks," wrote Montini sardonically.