‘Rio Nuevo’ Rick Grinnell comes up short on qualifying matching funds contributions

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

First, we had a slew of Tea-Publican candidates earlier this year who could not count high enough to collect enough qualifying signatures on their petitions and were disqualified from the ballot. Now we have the Tea-Publican's "Hail Mary pass" write-in candidate for mayor, "Rio Nuevo" Rick Grinnell, who could not count high enough to collect enough qualifying contributions for the City of Tucson's clean elections matching funds. No wonder the Rio Nuevo Development Board cannot explain where all the money went. Can any of these guys do math? This is amateurish.

Press release from the Pima County Democratic Party:

Grinnell’s Matching Fund Request Falls Short as GOP Continues to Flout Rules

In the wake of Republican Mayoral candidate Rick Grinnell’s request for city campaign matching funds, the Pima County Democratic Party is left wondering “is there a campaign law that the Republicans intend to follow?”

Grinnell needed 300 donations of $10 from city residents. He claimed to have 324 such donations through last week when he applied for matching funds. However, 20 of his donors gave multiple times and don't count, at least 49 of his $10 donors don't live in the city and don't count. Grinnell came up short but is seeking the matching funds anyway.

The devil-may-care trend is alarming. Already in the 2011 election cycle: Republican mayoral candidates were kicked off the ballot for turning in nominating petitions without enough proper signatures; council candidate Tyler Vogt spammed city employees illegally soliciting campaign donations; candidate Jennifer Rawson sought $2,650 in matching funds she  wasn't entitled to; and Grinnell illegally spammed city employees soliciting campaign contributions.

“When they stop breaking the rules, we’ll stop calling them out,” said Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers. “It’s starting to looking like the Tea Party candidates will try to get away with whatever they can and make the election about us catching them doing shady things, rather than discussing the issues.”

It may take stronger action from the Tucson City Clerk to put a stop to this and send a signal to future candidates that the law will be enforced.

“We get that there is a willingness to cut some slack to first-time candidates,” Rogers said. “But Grinnell has twice before run for council and should know better. It seems the Tea Party is starting to take advantage of the City Clerk's good intentions and making a mockery of the law in the process.”