Arizona's Politics

Last year, Arizona Rep. Martha McSally (R-CD2) voted against permitting Congress to review the tax returns of President Donald Trump (as part of tax reform legislation). This year – as McSally has become a frequent defender of the President – her Senatorial campaign committee has taken the unusual position that there are NO (taxable) employees working on her campaign.

By classifying 13 apparently-full-time persons as independent contractors, McSally has avoided paying the employer’s share of payroll taxes, Social Security and Medicare withholding, unemployment taxes, benefits, etc.

Arizona’s Politics reviewed the campaign filings of the Republican and Democratic candidates running in the 10 highest-spending Senate campaigns and found that McSally is the only one who decided to classify her top staff as independent contractors.  Democratic Senator Bill Nelson’s (D-FL) campaign previously was set up the same way until the Washington Free Beacon publicized the questionable workaround in July.

(Last week, Arizona’s Politics reported on the FEC’s concern about the McSally For Senate committee not disclosing necessary contributor information, despite previous assurances.)

Based on our review of the most recent, 3rd quarter filing, McSally has 13 people receiving monthly payments ranging from between $1,445 and $7,000, and at least that many receiving smaller bi-weekly payments. All of them list “field

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Yes, Martha McSally is passionate when she speaks. The Republican Congresswoman’s passion came through in last night’s debate with fellow Rep. Kyrsten Sinema to help voters decide which should be Arizona’s next Senator. In the most memorable exchange – during and after the debate – McSally accused Sinema of committing treason against the United States.

However, it was 16 months ago this week that McSally (R-CD9) was just as passionately imploring herself and fellow elected officials (including the President) to “look within our hearts” to ensure that “we each need to do our part to ratchet this down.”

Arizona’s Politics wrote about her striking comments in the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, and posted the video of her dual interviews on

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APS’ (Arizona Public Service’s) contributions to help re-elect Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich have now hit – or, exceeded – $150,000, Arizona’s Politics is reporting. The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) filed its third quarter report with the IRS last night, and indicated that APS parent Pinnacle West contributed another $100,000 on July 10.

Pinnacle West spent $425,000 in 2014 to benefit Brnovich’s first campaign, and the Arizona Republic reported last month about the changes the AG’s office
made to Prop. 127. Arizona Public Service is investing heavily in defeating the measure.

In 2014, APS donated much of its money to RAGA after the final pre-election reporting period. Earlier this year,

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After putting together what her spokeswoman said was “the best compliance team in the country”, the Federal Election Commission is telling Rep. Martha McSally that she is STILL not complying with reporting laws. The most recent campaign reports demonstrate that more than 20% of the contributions received this year for the Senate campaign do not properly indicate the employers or occupations of the donor.*

Martha McSally’s House campaign committee had significant problems with complying with these basic Federal Election Commission requirements, and were the subject of a long-running complaint that led to a thorough audit of the campaign’s 2014 election cycle finances. It was concluded earlier this year with findings that more than $600,000 of contributions were not properly identified. (Other findings were that the Committee had overstated its receipts by $94,000, that more than $300,000 was collected above and beyond contribution limits, that timely 48-hour reports were not filed for $100,000 of contributions, and that $32,000 of political committee contributions were not properly itemized.

The FEC adopted the audit findings and indicated that future enforcement actions may be taken. McSally for Senate spokesperson Torunn Sinclair told the Arizona Republic that “we built the best compliance team in the county, compiled of former FEC auditors, accountants and smart legal minds to address any issues and help us stay in compliance.”

That was this past May. However, at that very moment, the campaign was taking

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