The Outlaw Dirty Money “dark money” initiative that twice failed to make the ballot due to the lack of a sufficient number of valid signatures — let’s be honest, the fault of organizers for starting far too late in the game to make their goal — has apparently finally learned its lesson and is getting an early start to try again. The third time is the charm. Ex-AG Goddard takes another try at banning ‘dark money’ political donations:
Armed with volunteers and 15 months until a deadline, former Attorney General Terry Goddard launched a new bid Tuesday to end “dark money” anonymous donations to Arizona political campaigns.
The initiative would create a “right to know” provision in the Arizona Constitution requiring public disclosure of the name and address of any individual who has put at least $5,000 into influencing the outcome of any election, whether directly or indirectly.
It would apply not just to donations directly to candidates, which essentially already is covered, but also donations to political action committees that then make their own contributions to candidates solely in the name of the group.
But the more significant provision applies to so-called “social welfare groups” that now can spend unlimited amounts of money on TV ads, mailers, billboards and phone calls both for and against candidates as well as supporting and opposing ballot measures. That would override a law approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature exempting those groups from having to disclose their donors.
Goddard tried a similar measure two years ago, gathering about 285,000 signatures.
But that was challenged by foes who got a trial judge to throw out the signatures of paid circulators who did not show up in court. [A new law enacted by our lawless GOP legislature to restrict your constitutional right to initiative and referendum.] That left the petition drive short of what was needed to make the ballot.
This time, said Goddard, things will be different.
First, he plans on using only volunteers to collect signatures. That curtails the opportunity for legal challenges for failing to meet a new host of requirements that now apply to paid circulators.
What else is different is that those volunteers have 15 months — until July 2, 2020 — to gather the 356,467 valid signatures needed to put the measure on the general election ballot that year. Goddard figures that should be enough, given the volunteers working last time gathered 150,000 signatures in just five months. [It will takes more signatures this year because of the high voter turnout in 2018].
That, however, won’t stop the challenges expected from the same groups that filed suit last time, including Americans for Prosperity, an organization that is part of the Koch brothers network, and the Free Enterprise Club.
And state Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, who has been at the forefront of efforts to protect anonymous donations, said he will do what he can to convince voters that allowing the government to gather that information, even if it is for public disclosure, is a bad idea.
Removing this far-right lunatic from office should be the number one priority of voters in Legislative District 11. This man is an embarrassment to this district and to this state. WTF is wrong with you people? Please. Just. Stop.
In Tempe, a mandatory-disclosure measure was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2017. But the legal fate of that is unclear as Leach has asked Attorney General Mark Brnovich to rule that ordinance runs afoul of Leach’s own bill to pre-empt local regulations of that kind. [A bullshit law that needs to be repealed.]
Phoenix voters approved a similar plan with about 85 percent in favor. That has been held up while Gov. Doug Ducey, a longtime foe of expanded financial disclosure laws [– and the largest beneficiary of “dark money” donations –] exercises his constitutional right to review that public vote.
Can you spell c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n? Sure, I knew you could.
What the initiative seeks to pierce are the records of groups classified by the Internal Revenue Service as “social welfare organizations.” They can spend up to half of their revenues influencing political campaigns.
Arizona law does require them to report their expenditures. But the source of the cash is exempt.
That is what allowed such groups to put $3.2 million into the 2014 campaign on behalf of Republican candidates for Arizona Corporation Commission without disclosing who provided the dollars. Arizona Public Service Co., the state’s largest electric utility, will neither confirm or deny it financed those efforts.
None of that would be possible if voters approve what Goddard hopes to put on the ballot. It is crafted so as not to apply to tiny campaign efforts. Only those groups that spend at least $20,000 on a statewide campaign or $10,000 on a local campaign would be covered.
And within that is the requirement to disclose who has put in at least $5,000. Goddard said that it is crafted to prohibit “chain donations,” ensuring that the mandate applies to the original donor, even if the cash has been run through several different organizations before winding up being spent to influence an Arizona election.
Enforcement would be left to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.
The initiative also contains something else: language designed to protect the commission’s ability to enforce the disclosure requirements.
Last year, voters approved a measure that put the commission under the purview of the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council. That gave the panel, made up entirely of Ducey appointees, the power over the commission’s rules.
The initiative spells out that oversight does not extend to the commission’s ability “to promulgate rules or take necessary actions” to enforce the financial disclosure law if voters approve.
Laurie Roberts of The Republic writes, Outlaw Dirty Money launches 2020 campaign against dark money. Cue the hallelujahs:
A group of Arizona voters is once again preparing to trudge up the slopes of Mount Everest. On roller skates. With hurricane force winds blowing smack into their faces.
Translation: they’re going to take another run at “dark money” – specifically on lifting the shroud on the people and groups that are secretly spending big money to buy elections in this state.
Arizona, get ready for Outlaw Dirty Money 2020. The group on Tuesday filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office, hoping to put a new, improved version of the dark money initiative on the November 2020 ballot.
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In 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative did not get the 225,963 valid signatures needed to put its proposal on the November ballot.
Initiative organizers fell short, thanks in large part to a series of laws our leaders have passed in recent years making it as difficult as possible for citizens to exercise their constitutional right to make law at the ballot box.
It’ll be even more difficult in 2020, as the Legislature continues to impose new requirements designed to trip up groups that dare to launch initiatives.
The biggest obstacles standing in ODM’s way for 2020:
1. The number of petitions needed. Because of last year’s voter turnout, the group will need a daunting 356,467 signatures for a constitutional change. That’s 125,000 more signatures than they needed in 2018.
2. The Supreme Court’s affirmation of a new law that requires judges to toss out all signatures – valid or not – if a paid petition circulator doesn’t show up in court to answer questions when an initiative is challenged. Rather than penalize the petition firm for a no-show, the law disenfranchises every voter who signed those petitions.
As a result, Goddard said ODM, which was a mostly volunteer effort in 2018, will use only volunteers in its 2020 campaign.
That’s where you come in.
The goal: 500,000 signatures (gulp).
For this initiative effort to succeed – for you to actually know who is trying to influence your vote in future elections – more Arizonans are going to have to get involved. If you’re interested, you can find information at OutlawDirtyMoney.com.
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For all the challenges that await Outlaw Dirty Money, there is an upside to the 2020 citizen initiative.
Last year’s campaign was a five-month quest and it nearly succeeded. Roughly 2,000 volunteers gathered the majority of the signatures, 150,000, with a validation rate of an unheard-of 95 percent, Goddard said.
The 2020 campaign will be 16 months long, with an already-in-place base of volunteers who now know what it takes to go up against the well-funded, often-unseen forces that seem to run this state.
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5 reasons to join this initiative
If you were dismayed at the amount of anonymous money spent to attack Martha McSally …
If you were astonished that it took a vote of the people to stop our leaders from implementing a universal voucher program, one they created to divert more tax money to private and religious schools even as public schools were woefully underfunded …
If you questioned the propriety of Arizona Public Service being able to secretly fund a multi-million-dollar campaign in 2014 to elect a pair of regulators who then voted to raise your electric bill …
If you are tired, in general, of attack ads launched by anonymous groups who can be “creative” in their claims because they are hidden and thus not accountable for what they say …
If you ever marvel at our leaders’ constant moves to protect the identities of those who bankroll their campaigns from voters …
Then this campaign’s for you.
Let it begin.
You know what to do. Contact the campaign to volunteer, get a good pair of walking shoes, and your clip board. And go to work.