Vernon Parker

APS cannot sanitize its shameful dark money legacy with strategic philanthropy and Anderson Cooper

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

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Dark money has the power to make a lot happen!

Last Saturday the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy hosted an event, “Delivering Democracy Lecture 2015”, headlined by Anderson Cooper. I know many people who attended it and, from what I understand, it was a fine presentation. One of the main sponsors was Arizona Public Services (commonly known as APS, the state’s largest private utility company), which was apparently lauded several times during the event for its generosity. Which is interesting because it was only a few months ago, during the 2014 midterms, that APS (under the rubric of “independent expenditure” Save Our Future Now) dumped an astounding amount of dark money into Corporation Commission races to defeat Republican candidate Vernon Parker in the GOP primary and Democratic candidate Sandra Kennedy. What the aforementioned people have in common is that they are both African-American and also that the hit pieces and ads run against both were crudely obvious Willie Horton-style racist characterizations as far as many people (myself included) were concerned.

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The ASU Foundation’s dark money contribution to Corp Comm race illustrates everything that is wrong with private “philanthropy” and dark money

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Per AZ Republic reporter Ryan Randazzo:

The non-profit that raises money for Arizona State University accepted money from Arizona Public Service Co. in 2013 and the same year donated to a political group that helped defeat pro-solar candidates in last year’s elections.

The ASU Foundation accepted $181,000 from the non-profit APS Foundation and made a $100,000 donation to a political group called “Save Our Future Now,” which played heavily in the political campaigns last year for the Corporation Commission.

The non-profit, investigative Sunlight Foundation in Washington, D.C., first reported the donations Tuesday, citing public tax records from the non-profits.

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APS stooges running for AZ Corp Comm are shady, even for Republicans.

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Forese Little signCandidates Forese and Little in front of a sign that was not paid for until a month later.

With all the important midterm races going on in Arizona this year, you may not have been following the shocking and brazen behavior of the Republican candidates for AZ Corporation Commission. Doug Forese and Tom Little are the favored candidates of Arizona Public Service (APS), which is the state’s largest utility (and is really a private corporation despite its name). But Forese and Little are running under the state’s Clean Elections funding, which means they have to pretend they aren’t wholly owned subsidiaries of APS for the duration of the election season. This has apparently not been as easy for them to pull off as one might think, since Forese and Little are the subject of complaints to the Clean Elections Commission about their highly dubious campaign activities and finance reporting.

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Boehner and the big money machine come to AZ for McSally, Paton, & Parker

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In case your invitation got lost in the mail, here’s a reminder to dust off your “business attire”, break out a few thousand greenbacks, and hit the road for a Paradise Valley VIP fundraiser.

Arizona’s elite Congressional team will be joined by Speaker of the House John Boehner to raise big bucks for Republican candidates Martha McSally (CD2), Jonathan Paton (CD1), and Vernon Parker (CD9), who are running against Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick, and Kyrsten Sinema, respectively.

I guess the Republicans have really given up on Gabriela Saucedo Mercer (Congressman Raul Grijalva’s Teapublican challenger), since she is not listed on the invitation. It is odd that Senate hopeful Jeff Flake– who is running against Dr. Richard Carmona— is not listed as a beneficiary. (I guess he’s getting plenty of help from the Koch Brothers and their ALEC pals.)

See the rest of the invite after the jump.

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