When she campaigned for the office of Arizona secretary of state in 2014, former Republican state Senator Michele Reagan said she intended to dilute the influence of dark money in state politics. She must have known that her party’s nominee for governor, Doug Ducey, had taken gobs of money from the Koch network, which he continues to do, so it wasn’t clear just how serious her anti-dark money campaign was.
Now we know. Not so much. Actually, it’s the opposite.
Tuesday, by a vote of 31-27, the Arizona Senate passed SB 1516, just barely squeaking by, with four Republicans joining every Democrat voting against this stinker. A few weeks ago, when the House version was introduced by Secretary of State Reagan, she described it as little more than a housekeeping item—just cleaning up the books. In her House testimony and that of her staffer, Secretary Reagan never mentioned that the bill, which was pushed by the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, loosens controls on dark money donations to political campaigns, the very opposite of Reagan’s campaign pledge.
Nor did the House committee that Reagan addressed ever mention dark money during any other testimony on the bill. It took an intrepid reporter, plowing through the 54-page document, to discover the measure’s large and terrible back-door policy changes.
(Yeah, Michele Reagan is the same secretary of state who said she knew about the county elections board’s polling place reduction that led to last week’s voting blunder. But she said nothing, undermining democracy and the public’s confidence in these clowns—if we had any left.)
So this week when Reagan testified before the Senate, she couldn’t bury SB 1516’s dreadful implications and describe it, like she did before the House, as merely a technical fix. Democrats were ready for her.
The vote capped emotional debate, mostly from Democratic critics, who said that if Ducey signs the bill, it will usher in greater influence of money in politics while blocking public disclosure.
“This bill makes lawmaking less about merits and more about who can pressure whom with what," said Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix.
Although four Republicans joined the unified Democrats, the bill passed without a vote to spare, and was sent to Gov. Doug Ducey. Does anyone doubt this Koch-ALEC tool will sign it? The Arizona Republic spelled out a handful of the bill’s troubling implications:
1. Today, nonprofits in Arizona that lobby must file with the secretary of state. That provision has been eliminated, meaning groups like Americans for Prosperity, which is a 501C4, don’t have to report lobbying expenditures.
2. Currently, candidates can’t swap campaign funds. Again, that regulation has been dropped, meaning that Joe Arpaio, sitting on a multi-million-dollar war chest, could give some of it to another horrible candidate. Similarly, if a donor gives a candidate more money than the law allows, the excess amount can be given to another campaign, rather than returned to the donor, which is the current law.
3. Campaigns today that receive goods and services termed “in-kind” must report a fair-market amount for the donation. The new bill removes that regulation, meaning, I take it, that a candidate could fly all over the state on a donated jet, stay in a donor’s hotels, and eat donated meals, without telling anyone who provided the services.
4. Currently, even the appearance of collaboration between PACs and campaigns is supposedly illegal. SB 1516 says appearance is not enough; now there must be a proven “intent” to collaborate by both parties.
5. Lastly, the bill removes criminal penalties for violating campaign finance laws. The bill’s author says he’ll add those in later—he just didn’t have the time. Okay, sure. But for now, if you get caught, no big deal.
Democrats and other critics have been trying to undermine the influence of dark money with a petition that’s been circulating, although they lost precious time because the effort ran out of money. Perhaps they should call the Kochs.
Arizona: Making it harder for citizens to vote for candidates, but easier for corporations to buy them.