Arizona Corporation Commission

Pinnacle West (APS) ‘dark money’ in Corporation Commission and Attorney General races

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For much of this year the Carbon Monopoly, led by APS and its parent company Pinnacle West, have been the source of enormous amounts of “dark money” in support of Tea-Publicans Doug Little and Tom Forese in the Arizona Corporation Commission race, in an effort to “capture” the commission so it can write its own policies.

Now APS and its parent company Pinnacle West are big players in the Attorney General race as well. Arizona’s Politics Blog reports, BREAKING: APS Semi-Openly Places $425k Bet On Arizona Attorney General Race:

dark_moneyThe parent company of APS – Pinnacle West Capital – is spending (at least) $425,000 telling Arizonans about the “dangerous views” of Democratic AG nominee Felecia Rotellini.

While APS is widely-believed to be secretly spending large amounts of money on the Corporation Commission election, its $425,000 contribution to the Republican Attorneys General Association is the first (material*) political expenditure to be brought to light, after RAGA filed its quarterly report with the Internal Revenue Service last week.

Interestingly, the third quarter (July – Sept) report (below the jump) only lists one Pinnacle West $175,000 contribution, on September 15 – the day before Arizona’s Politics reported on the $1.6M ad buy by RAGA.  However, it indicates that the aggregate year to date contribution is $425,000.

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Tom Forese and Doug Little admit they broke Arizona’s campaign finance laws

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The “dark money” team of Tea-Publicans Tom Forese and Doug Little, secretly backed by APS and the “Kochtopus” Carbon Monopoly for the Arizona Corporation Commission, are in legal trouble as early ballots are being cast.

The director of Arizona’s Clean Elections Commission yesterday recommended that the commission investigate Tom Forese and Doug Little for violations of campaign finance laws. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Clean Elections director calls for full investigation of Forese, Little:

dark_moneyThe executive director of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission has recommended a full investigation into the campaigns of Republican Corporation Commission candidates Doug Little and Rep. Tom Forese over possible violations of campaign finance laws.

The five-person commission will discuss Executive Director Tom Collins’ recommendation at tomorrow’s meeting, and may vote to move forward with an investigation. The recommendation comes after two complaints were filed with the commission by the state Democratic Party.

Some portions of the complaints were found not to have merit, according to the analysis by the commission’s director and staff. But they found Little and Forese may have violated the law by spending more money than they had on hand when they made some expenditures and failed to report expenditures for campaign signs and paid nominating petition signatures.

Collins’ report also raises questions about the amount each candidate reported paying for materials, specifically signs and associated costs. As the Arizona Capitol Times previously reported, several local sign vendors say the prices Little and Forese say they paid is far below market value. Collins explained that a full investigation could include an analysis of the reported prices.

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GOP pollster shows Dems leading in all statewide races

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In the past week I have seen ads from some “dark money” group attacking Sandra Kennedy in the Arizona Corporation Commission race on the air here in Tucson, which is odd, given that all the Corp. Comm. candidates are running clean elections, we have been assured by all the politicos at the Arizona Capitol Times and the Arizona Republic that the Corp. Comm. race is in the bag for the GOP, and if one was going to make an ad buy it would be in Maricopa County, not Pima. Wassup?

Good-News-702555Now I know why this “dark money” group suddenly started spending money in a down ballot race that does not garner enough attention from the voters: a GOP pollster that has done work for Governor Jan Brewer and the Republican Governors Association — a biased poll for sure — nevertheless shows Democrats leading in all the statewide races. You can choose to believe this GOP pollster or not, but clearly the RGA believes it and it is coordinating last minute ad buys with its “dark money” network accordingly. Believe it!

The Arizona Capitol Times reports, First poll shows DuVal ahead, while Ducey leads most others:

For the first time, a publicly released poll of the Arizona governor’s race showed Democrat Fred DuVal in the lead.

The live-caller poll, conducted on Oct. 7-8 by Oregon-based Moore Information, a respected GOP pollster, showed DuVal leading Republican nominee Doug Ducey 39-36. Libertarian candidate Barry Hess had 3 percent of the vote, Americans Elect candidate John Lewis Mealer had 1 percent and 21 percent were undecided.

No margin of error was made available in the poll. As a live-caller poll of 400 respondents, the margin of error should be around 4.9 percent. The Moore Information poll was not commissioned by either gubernatorial campaign, according to the source who provided it to the Arizona Capitol Times.

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