Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejects ‘Paton’s Law’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ahh, karmic justice. The wheels of justice turn slow, but they turn.

A few years ago, the wannabe tinhorn dictator of Tucson, Jonathan "Payday" Paton, sponsored a bill to punish the City of Tucson for being a "liberal bastion" by dictating to its residents how they are to conduct their local elections. Paton and his pals from the state of Maricopa got together and passed "Paton's Law," a special punitive measure aimed only at the City of Tucson.

I said at the time that Payday's punitive measure was of questionable constitutional validity, and sure enough, on Friday the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously rejected "Paton's Law" as unconstitutional. Can we please exile Payday to Elba now? State Supreme Court tosses law to alter Tucson's city elections:

In a unanimous decision, the justices said charter cities, such as Tucson, have constitutional rights that include the power to decide both whether to elect council members on an at-large or district basis, and whether to conduct elections on a partisan basis.

That means Tucson can continue to have candidates designate their party affiliation despite a 2009 state law that forbids cities from having partisan elections for mayor and council. Only Tucson has such a system.

And the court said lawmakers cannot force Tucson to conduct elections on a ward-only basis. A 2009 state law sought to strike down a hybrid system, used only in Tucson, where council candidates first must be nominated in a primary within their own wards, but then run citywide in the general election.

While the ruling most immediately affects Tucson, it has statewide implications.

There are 18 other charter cities. Friday's ruling spells out that they have certain rights that state lawmakers cannot take away.

The decision is a major defeat for the Republican-leaning Southern Arizona Leadership Council, which pushed for the change in hopes of altering Tucson politics.

It also is a [major defeat] for Jonathan Paton, who used his political capital as a state senator in 2009 to persuade GOP colleagues who control the Legislature to try to undermine a city system that goes back to 1929.

Paton, now a candidate for Congress, did not return calls seeking comment.

I'll bet he didn't.

Payday suffered another major defeat earlier in the week as well.

Payday has been trying to repeal Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections for years. In 2009, Payday sponsored a purposefully deceptively titled ballot measure to to dictate to the residents of the state of Arizona that you are all just a bunch of rubes for enacting Citizens Clean Elections, Proposition 200 approved by voters in 1998. Citizens Clean Elections has proved to be popular with both voters and candidates seeking office.

Payday's bill failed, but his pals from the state of Maricopa continued to bring his purposefully deceptively titled ballot measure back, and it appeared that it might actually make it onto the 2012 ballot, until this week. Deal ends possible ballot fight over Clean Elections program:

A measure given preliminary approval Monday by the state Senate would curb some of the activities of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission in promoting the organization. The new version of HB 2779 also would end the ability of taxpayers to get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to help candidates run for office.

In exchange, though, foes of public financing have agreed to scrap plans to ask voters to kill the system outright, a ballot fight that likely would be expensive, with neither side guaranteed a victory.

The deal to avoid a ballot fight in November over the statewide public financing program also ends any threat to Tucson’s own similar system for mayor and city council. The now-scrapped ballot proposal would have banned all forms of public funding.

Citizens Clean Elections was opposed by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and, but of course, the Goldwater Institute which had sued on behalf of Jonathan "Payday" Paton, chairman of the "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians" ballot committee. Lawsuit alleges Clean Elections illegally using money – Arizona Capitol Times.

I've never been, but I understand that Elba is beautiful this time of year. Take your buddies at the Goldwater Institute and the Rio Nuevo District board with you, Payday. Good riddance.