Link
The Republican-controlled Arizona House on Tuesday voted 31-27 to allow unlimited amounts of dark money to flood into Arizona’s elections this fall, buying candidates under cover of darkness.
“I think transparency is generally a good principle, but it is not the overarching principle,” said Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, adding that anonymous interests need privacy more than you need to know who is secretly doling out big money to get certain people elected..
Good to know, don’t you think?
Transparency is apparently important when our leaders want you to know something. And when they don’t – as in who is secretly funding their campaigns? Not so much.
The top two Democrat recipients of dark money were Sens. Catherine Miranda of Phoenix and Carlyle Begay of Ganado (now a Republican). Coincidentally, they were the only two Democrats to endorse Ducey in 2014.
Miranda enjoyed nearly $64,000 in dark money support – the most of any legislator. Begay benefitted from $44,000 in secret spending.
Who are Miranda and Begay? Well here.
Diaz's group, which like many nonprofits has a broad mission statement of promoting social welfare, has made its biggest investment in promoting Rep. Catherine Miranda's bid to run for the state Senate. As of mid-August, Friends had spent $52,000 to advocate for her election, more than double the money Miranda had raised through June 30, the latest date for which figures are available. She is running against Aaron Marquez, an Afghanistan war veteran and activist who outraised her by a factor of four as of the June 30 filing date.
In addition, Friends has spent $25,000 on mailings in support of state Sen. Carlyle Begay, who is in a three-way primary in a northeastern Arizona district dominated by the Navajo and Hopi reservations, and $21,000 to back Bauer in central Phoenix.
Begay is the only Democratic beneficiary of spending by the American Federation for Children, which advocates for school choice, including using public funds for private schools. The Washington, D.C., group has spent the bulk of its money supporting more conservative legislative incumbents and opposing their more moderate Republican challengers. It spent $22,850 on mailers and radio ads supporting Begay.
Arizona Democrats for Educational Equity has also backed candidates in the competitive races in Districts 24 and 27.
Christina Martinez, a political consultant and lobbyist, said the group supports candidates who challenge the educational status quo.
"We need to look at other options for families, whether it's charters or private (schools)," she said.
And Begay, as noted before, is now a Republican.
This, this is why Hillary’s secret fundraisers, paid speeches and co-ordinated Superpacs to do internet stuff which is skirting the law is why we have issues with her. She rails against Dark Money, yet she keeps taking advantage of it.
Do we, as a country, want transparency or not? That is the simple, black and white question we have to ask ourselves.
As you read those clips, were you pissed off about the fact that Dark Money is now completely legal in AZ? If so, then you should have issues with any and all big dollar, secret or not, fundraisers, bundling and all the other shady shit that both sides, with the exception of one candidate this year, has done.
Who owns the Dem party? Us or them?
And the, forgive the pun, money quote from the top link: A GOP strategist is against this bill. Yeah, that’s right.
Longtime GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin -- the guy who was to run the financially starved and now stalled voter initiative to crack down on dark money -- decried the “massive loopholes” in the bill that essentially allow the state to forgo regulating campaign money.
“Arizonans,” he wrote on Tuesday, “are demanding light and transparency and are being met with darkness and obfuscation.”
Look for Ducey to sign this bill by week's end.
It’s not too often I agree with a Republican, but there are some sane ones, and he’s exactly right.
From the linked article that Coughlin wrote.
SB1516 is nothing short of a pure deregulation of political committees in Arizona. Under the false pretences of streamlining our system, this proposal abdicates nearly all responsibility for regulating political committees. If you think dark money rules our current system now, buckle up because it’s about to get a whole lot darker.
Article 7, Section 16 of the Arizona Constitution enacted in 1910 says, “The legislature, at its first session, shall enact a law providing for a general publicity, before and after election, of all campaign contributions to, and expenditures of campaign committees and candidates for public office.”
SB1516 flies directly in the face of this Constitutional provision by creating massive loopholes for contributors, political committees, parties, and ballot measure committees. Basically, they have legitimized the shady business of setting up dark money 501(c)(4) organizations and then written the rules in such a way that it encourages everyone to go that route.
Under current law, all groups whose primary purpose is to influence Arizona elections must register and report. SB 1516 would change the definition of “primary purpose” to exempt any entity that is recognized as a 501(c)(4) social welfare non-profit by the IRS and is in good standing with the Arizona Corporation Commission
Moreover, by allowing such non-profits, which do not risk their status with the IRS for their work on ballot measures (because the IRS considers such advocacy “lobbying,” and not campaign activity), we will see the rise of these same groups using their ballot measure campaigning to offset candidate spending for tax purposes.
What does that mean? You can expect these shadow organizations to get more involved in local issues, school bonds, overrides, transportation elections, and state and local initiatives because it behooves them to do so. They would be incentivized to meddle in local measures because it just frees up more money to attack whatever candidate is in their cross hairs.
Every local PAC that currently struggles to pass their local school issue year after year should be concerned that they may now face well funded, anonymous opposition looking to launder money into a “No” campaign to free up more ammunition for their candidate races.
(snip)
When it comes to bankrolling, SB1516 also creates colossal loopholes for contributors to throw massive parties with food and beverages, send millions of emails, and use real or personal property to assist the campaign without it being considered a contribution. We repeat – SB1516 allows an individual to spend an unlimited amount on these items to benefit a candidate and those amounts will never be reported.
You mean like huge, big,soirees where people have to pay over $300k to get a seat at the table? You think?
It also allows one candidate to contribute to another candidate’s committee by repealing a 1986 voter-approved provision that prohibited such transfers – a provision that remains in law today in ARS 16-905 (F) until SB 1516 becomes law.
It also allows a wealthy individual, corporation, or union to pay for a committee's legal or accounting expenses and it wouldn’t even be considered a contribution, and thus not disclosed! The icing on the cake is that it eases the rules on people who donate too much money and allows a candidate who receives a contribution in excess of the limits to “reattribute” the excess contribution to someone else. Could people donate “millions” and just “reattribute” to other smaller donors?
Think about it folks, seriously, think about it.