Arizonans Could Get Last Word On New Campaign Finance Laws

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
Published: Monday, May 16, 2016 - 9:26am
Updated: Monday, May 16, 2016 - 9:47am

Arizonans could get the last word on newly enacted campaign finance laws that would allow more "dark money'' to flow into state elections.

The new law creates exceptions to existing requirements that groups classified by the IRS as social welfare organizations must disclose their donors. Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, has launched an effort to repeal the change by putting the issue to voters.

"Senate Bill 1516 in a very kind of sneaky way abdicates the state's responsibility to oversee expenditures in campaign from dark money groups, also known as 501(c)(4) organizations," he said.

The amount of anonymous donations in the last election was close to $15 million. That includes $9 million in the governor's race alone and $3 million to get Republicans elected to the Arizona Corporation Commission, money which Arizona Public Service (APS) refuses to confirm or deny came from them. 

But Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, said he doesn't see the need for voters to know who's behind the money:

"Somewhere along the line some folks got it into the heads that we have a, quote, unquote, right to know. A right to know what?" he said. "I mean, a message is a message. If it's important to you to know who's behind the message and you don't know who's behind the message, then disregard it. But if it's not important to you and you want to focus on the message itself, then there's no harm done with the current system."

Backers need more than 75,000 signatures by August 5 to put the issue on the ballot.