Terry Goddard said during his campaign for Secretary of State last year that even if he did not win election he would pursue legislation to reform “dark money” in Arizona elections, and pursue a citizens initiative in 2016 if necessary. He is a man true to his word.
Goddard has been waging a PR campaign this past week for legislation to reform “dark money.” He sent an email to supporters asking them for their input.
My advice to Goddard: pursue a “dual track” strategy — file a bill in the legislature and file it as a citizens initiative at the same time — then start collecting signatures. This is how he can gain leverage over the legislature: “Y’all can work with me to pass this bill, or the citizens of Arizona are going to do it for you. Now what’s it going to be?”
Lat week, Godard had an op-ed in The Arizona Republic, Terry Goddard: How I’d fix “dark money”, and a feature article by Jim Nintzel in The Tucson Weekly. Darkness Visible | Currents Feature. Goddard told The Weekly:
[H]e’s still working on legal language for the proposal, but he believes he can pattern it off similar laws in California that have helped uncover some of the donors to dark-money campaigns there. He said one key element would be investing power to investigate dark-money spending not only with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office but also with the Clean Elections Commission and possibly grant private citizens the ability to file complaints in court.
He added that he believes the penalty should have an impact on the candidate being supported rather than the nonprofit orchestrating the campaign because financial sanctions don’t seem to have much of an impact.
Good to hear. I have been advocating for enacting California’s model law for some time.
Today The Arizona Republic editorializes, The ‘dark money’ flashlight gets new batteries. According to The Republic: “In a meeting with The Republic’s editorial board, he floated some admittedly rough ideas, most intended to ferret out the original source of funds.”
Time is running short, Terry. if you are going to file a bill in this session, it has to be soon. (State Rep. Bruce Wheeler said last week that he intends to introduce legislation that will require dark-money groups to reveal their funding. — Tucson Weekly).
Also file it as a citizens initiative, and start collecting signatures. There are lots of volunteers willing to help you walk the petitions.
I was thinking that Arizona Democrats might have learned from the last election what a waste of time, money and energy pursuing this so called “dark money” is. I guess they didn’t. It is a little sad to live in such fear of the shibboleth that haunts their dreams while completely missing the issues that actually matter. But it is a good thing for the GOP, so I shouldn’t lament it too much…the more time you waste chasing windmills, the less time you spend actually doing anything.
Good for Mr Goddard! People like U.S. Senator John McCain and Sheriff Joe Arapio won’t be able to get huge dark money for their campaigns without people knowing where it comes from! AND WHY! And who is buying WHO!
dark money hurts wimp liberal candidates trying to get republicans who hate liberals to vote for them. When the republican house whip lost he out spent his tea party opponent a $100 dollars to 1! Arizona latinos hate republicans and if registered will vote democrat no matter how much dark money is spent. Garcia out spent douglas ;but republicans hate democrats so it didn’t matter!