Arizona Clean Elections under attack....again
By Dave Algoso
Posted on Thu Apr 06, 2006 at 12:55:15 PM EST
The assault on Arizona Clean Elections is back. A bill (
HCR 2046) to place a repeal in front of voters failed to move out of committee earlier this session, and after the deadline for action on it passed, we thought we were safe.
Oh, how we underestimated the proponents of big money politics. Although the deadline has passed to move their first bill, they're back with a "striker" amendment. This is a neat little legislative trick that guts an entire bill - in this case, one that deals the retirement age of judges (SCR 1013) - and instead turns it into a repeal referendum on Clean Elections.
If you live in Arizona, please take action now: Email your state senator and representatives and ask them to oppose this striker.
But wait, there's more.
In addition to killing Clean Elections, this referendum has a range of other troubling provisions [followed by my thoughts]:
- The Citizens Clean Elections Commission's duties would be reduced to sponsoring voluntary debates and producing a candidate voter guide. [That's just kind of a slap in the face.]
- Political contribution limits would be raised to $5000 for the primary and $5000 for the general election for all state, county and city candidates (current limits at $760 for statewide office, $296 for legislative, $370 for city and county). This goes for both individuals and political action committees. [Hooray for making it easier to buy candidates.]
- Certain small limited liability companies and S corporations would be able to make campaign contributions. Currently, no corporations can make campaign contributions in Arizona. [First off, a corporation is not a citizen but a legal entity created for economic purposes; there's no reason why we should let it have a say in our democracy. Secondly, the owners and employees can already participate in the political process like everyone else; they don't need the corporation as another outlet for that. And to top it off, other states have seen LLCs used as shells to hide the true source of contributions from the public eye; see, for example, CC/Maryland's report (pdf) on a loophole they're fighting to close. I don't know exactly how this provision would play out in Arizona, but it seems like a slippery slope and I'd want a lawyer to take a good hard look at it.]
- Campaign treasurers would no longer be required to obtain information on donors; instead, they would simply have to "request" information such as mailing address and occupation. [This weakens the provision so much that it flies in the face of principles of disclosure and openness.]
- The penalties for violating campaign finance laws would be severely weakened. [To me, someone who brazenly breaks the rules should either be kicked off the ballot or removed from office. Those are real deterrents. If it's just a matter of paying a fine, then a candidate could actually benefit from illegal activity.]
- It would expand the definition of "contribution" to cover "any costs incurred in covering or carrying a news story, commentary or editorial by any telecommunications system, newspaper, magazine, internet web site or other periodical publication unless the facilities are owned or controlled by a political party, political committee or candidate." [Again, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know exactly how this would play out, but this one sounds especially frightening from the perspective of freedom of the press.]
(Many thanks to Barb Lubin of the
Arizona Clean Elections Institute for her astute bill analysis.)
Tags: Arizona, In the States, clean elections (all tags)
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