Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Tea-Publican candidate for the House in legislative District 10, Todd Clodfelter, is one of the few Tea-Publican candidates running as a Citizens Clean Elections candidate. That should put him at odds with his own party which wants to kill Citizzens Clean Elections.
Clodfelter is also the owner of Ace Graphics. He is a signmaker who prints up political billboards for candidates. You can guess where this is going.
As a Clean Elections candidate, Clodfelter has received $35,888 in matching funds for the primary and general elections, according to his post-primary financial report. Post-Primary Financial Report (.pdf).
That same report indicates that he had paid himself $3,730.57, for "communications – other" through the end of the primary. I assume this was for his campaign mailers, but it is not clear from the report. Expect to see this expenditure to go up significantly for campaign mailers for the general election.
Clodfelter apparently used Victory Campaign for his campaign signs, instead of keeping it in-house, to the tune of $1,603.13. What, Ace Graphics can't do over-sized campaign signs with your photo on them?
It is the rare candidate who can subsidize his business by using matching funds from Citizens Clean Elections. Nice work if you can get it — paying yourself to run for office.
Some of you may remember Todd Clodfelter as a failed Tucson City Council candidate who was beaten badly in 1995.
But others may remember him for this bizarre story back in 2006 when Toni Hellon ran for Congress in the GOP primary. Clodfelter allegedly was responsible for an anonymous web site on which he posted under the name "Thomas Paine" to attack Toni Hellon for — wait for it — misappropriating campaign funds for personal use.
The Tucson Weekly reported in The Skinny | Tucson Weekly:
HOUSE HUNT
For months now, state Sen. Toni Hellon has been the target of an anonymous Web site–www.hellontoni.com–that sprung up after news broke that she had reported using some of her campaign funds to remodel her home office. The brain behind the Web site–who identified himself as one "Thomas Paine"–accused Hellon of remodeling other parts of her home and misappropriating campaign funds for personal use.
To make his case, our mysterious Mr. Paine went the extra step of actually creeping around the Hellon home and taking photos of the windows, as well as posting diagrams of the home's layout on the Web site–which strikes us as just a wee bit invasive.
According to Hellon, authorities tracked the Web site back to Republican Todd Clodfelter, a one-time candidate for the Tucson City Council and signmaker who prints up political billboards for candidates.
But Clodfelter, who denied maintaining the Web site but declined further comment, is a small fish in this fetid tank. Hellon also went down to Pima County Justice Court earlier this week and got an injunction against William "Bill" Arnold, a past president of the Tucson Association of Realtors, accusing him of being the peculiar man in a ballcap and sunglasses who was taking photos outside her home.
Hellon struck back this week, filing an invasion of privacy lawsuit against both Arnold and Clodfelter.
Pima County Superior Court Case. No. C20064507. It appears that there was a court settlement conference, after which Hellon moved to dismiss her amended complaint. I presume the terms of this settlement agreement are confidential. It shouldn't stop a reporter from asking Clodfelter about it.
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Republicans in the legislature have pushed several bills to kill Clean Elections. Jonathan Paton tried when he was in the Senate. Later attempts settled on killing the matching funds provisions rather than sending repeal of Clean Eelctions to the ballot.
There are very strict accounting rules for Clean Elections money, including for in-kind contributions. Clodfelter’s campaign finance reports will be scrutinized for strict accounting.
Your lack of knowledge is what is fact-free my friend.
It must really frost you that non-Dems are getting in on the Clean Elections cash. It’s supposed to be a honeypot just for your side, right? If the state is hell bent on giving cash to candidates, it would be foolish for conservatives to let it all go to the other side. You aren’t the only one who has read Saul Alinsky. As for your comment “That should put him at odds with his own party which wants to kill Citizzens [sic] Clean Elections,” that’s a rather odd statement considering that Gov. Jan Brewer ran as a Clean Elections candidate.
You also apparently want it both ways. On one hand “He is a signmaker who prints up political billboards for candidates. You can guess where this is going.” And on the other “Clodfelter apparently used Victory Campaign for his campaign signs, instead of keeping it in-house, to the tune of $1,603.13. What, Ace Graphics can’t do over-sized campaign signs with your photo on them?” You can guess where this is going. In case you can’t, Todd is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Kind of makes your comment about Todd subsidizing his business with Clean Election funds suspect, don’t you think?
In summary, this is about as close to a fact-free analysis as I’ve seen this election season. If it weren’t for character assassination, smears and innuendo, there would be nothing at all. You are a credit to your party!