I've been phone banking in Oro Valley Arizona, calling people in the southern part of Ann Kirkpatrick's district, which stretches from the Tucson northern suburbs to the northern border. This morning a bunch of us were getting ready to begin canvassing or making phone calls. There was a good breakfast spread, and several candidates came to hang out and talk to us. We had Felicia Rotellini, running for Attorney General, Terry Goddard, running for Secretary of State - he's running on the issues of making it easier for people to vote and getting dark money out of the state, but the office is also important for another reason: Arizona does not have an office of Lieutenant Governor. Jan Brewer became governor from being Secretary of State when Janet Napolitano left to become Secretary of Homeland Security.
Jo Holt, running for state Senate in LD 11, was also there, and the two Democratic candidates for Corporation Commission, Jim Holway and Sandra Kennedy.
The Corporation Commission, which oversees the incorporation of new companies, securities and investments, and sets rates for public utilities. Currently all five members are Republicans; Kennedy, however, served a four-year term until she lost her reelection bid in 2012. The biggest issue in the race is how solar power will be treated; tax breaks for homeowners leasing solar systems have already been stopped, and the relationship between renewables and regular energy providers is problematic.
If you don't think this down-ballot office matters, think again. Some three million dollars of dark money have been spent to support the Republican candidates with ads mostly directed at Kennedy.
...Forese and Little’s campaign has benefited from more than $3 million in ‘dark money’ spending, according to campaign finance documents with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. That’s far more than the roughly half-million dollars the solar industry, through a group called Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed, has spent on the race.
The dark money is coming from two groups, Save Our Future Now and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, who don’t disclose their donors because of their 501(c)4 nonprofit statuses.
But it’s widely assumed that APS is the nonprofits’ primary source of funding for this campaign. APS has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
APS, Arizona Public Service Co., a utility company regulated by the Commission. How, you might ask, can a utility company spend so much money to elect the commissioners who would regulate them?
Good question. If they had to donate in the open, I doubt it would be possible. Let's hope Goddard is elected and can work to fight dark money in the state.