Pearce Recall Update: Olivia Cortes to be investigated for campaign-finance law violations

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Let this be a warning to anyone who signs on as the treasurer to a campaign. You are the "designated felon" should you fail to disclose or file your reports improperly.

I almost feel sorry for Olivia Cortes. "King" Russell Pearce's operatives talked her into running as their stalking horse candidate to siphon off votes in the recall election. They also had Ms. Cortes list herself as the treasurer to her own campaign. Not only was Ms. Cortes disgraced when she was exposed as a sham candidate and withdrew from the race, but now she faces an investigation for campaign-finance law violations. LaurieRoberts – Olivia Cortes to be investigated for campaign-finance law violations:

Friday was Disclosure Day, that much anticipated time when we were supposed to find out who put up all those ¡Si, Se Puede! signs for Cortes. It was the day the now-former candidate was required by law to disclose who paid to circulate her nominating petitions – the ones that East Valley Tea Party Chairman Greg Western filed so that she could challenge Senate President Russell Pearce in the Nov. 8 recall.

The ones she had not a clue about.

“I never know who was circulating my petitions,” she told a judge earlier this month. “I was told that people would be helping me.”

Helping her, as it turns out, right into a prosecutor's in-box.

No one's owning up to the signs and the pro-Pearce forces that convinced Cortes to run against one of the state's most powerful politicians – bleeding off votes from his real competition — have left her hanging.

On Friday, the Secretary of State's Office asked the Attorney General's Office to investigate Cortes, saying it found “reasonable cause” to believe she violated campaign finance laws by not reporting who paid for her petitions.

“It is with great trepidation that this referral is made,” State Elections Director Amy Chan wrote, noting that a judge found ‘no wrongdoing' by Cortes but that her campaign still must account for the in-kind donation that paid for her petitions.

Attorney General Tom Horne, who has endorsed Pearce in the recall, plans to transfer the case to Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores.

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 Meanwhile, the schemers who set up a stooge to help their hero eke back into office have gone to ground.

As for Cortes, she's left holding the (tea) bag.