Sadie Shaw and her team requested an “investigation” by the City Clerk’s Office into Ward 3 Councilman Kevin Dahl, alleging that he committed campaign finance violations ahead of the Aug. 5 primary.
Shaw, a two-term Tucson Unified School District governing board member, lost to Dahl by 19 votes in the Aug. 5 primary election. Dahl is seeking a second term on the city council.
The margin triggered an automatic recount. Results of that recount will be known next Friday, Aug. 22.
Shaw, in an email to Dahl directly, as well as a Shaw campaign staffer, in an email to the City Clerk’s Office, alleged that Dahl exceeded the personal contribution cap for publicly-funded candidates by $109.
In the email she sent, Shaw said she was offering Dahl “the opportunity concede this election” before violations were “formally pursued.”
“If you proceed as the Democratic nominee and are later found guilty of these violations, you could be disqualified from holding office,” Shaw said to Dahl. “This is your opportunity to step aside and avoid public escalation and the associated penalties.”
Shaw and her team allege that Dahl and his family, by contributing $4,309 to his campaign, violated a personal contribution limit set forth in Tucson city code. That states candidates accepting public-matching funds can’t contribute more than 3% of the “applicable expenditure limit” to their own campaign.
According to a July 28 memo from Tucson City Clerk Suzanne Mesich, the maximum amount a candidate could have spent overall through the day of the primary election was $140,771.70. In that same memo, Mesich says the “personal contribution limit” for candidates receiving public-matching funds for this election cycle was set at $5,630.86.
But Shaw and the co-manager of her campaign have a different interpretation of the city code. They say in emails to the City Clerk’s Office and to Dahl directly that the most he could have given his own campaign is $4,200.
Shaw alleged Dahl and his family exceeded the limit by $109.
According to them, Dahl’s campaign violated the spending cap by not reporting it used a subscription-based campaign technology service, VoteBuilder, which costs $600. Shaw also says that Dahl’s campaign did not fully report its use of campaign signs, reusing materials like signs and stakes from his old campaign but not reporting them as “in-kind contributions.”
Penalties range from requiring the candidate repay the city $3 for every $1 overspent or up to a misdemeanor and being removed from the ballot or being disqualified from holding office if elected, according to city code.
Dahl campaign consultant Rodrigo Guerrero said Thursday that the allegation of not paying for VoteBuilder “was a little confusing” because the campaign did report this expense in its July 20 campaign finance report. The report he referenced listed a $600 expense for the service paid on May 7.
As for the campaign signs and stakes, Guerrero said they feel confident it isn’t a violation.
“Honestly, I haven’t really thought much about it, because it has struck us as confusing ... I think this may be a misunderstanding on their part,” he said. “I’ve never heard of campaign materials being considered as in-kind donations from a previous run, but if that is so, then we can absolutely fix that. That’s not an issue.”
On Thursday, Shaw said that in an election decided by 19 votes, “we believe exceeding the allowable contribution limit could have impacted the results.”
“If I and other candidates must follow these rules, so should an incumbent,” Shaw said.
Goldman drops out
Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman has halted his campaign to be the Democratic candidate against Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Congressional District 6.
A combination of factors led him to pull the plug, Goldman said.
“I struggled in many ways to get the support,” Goldman said. “Fundraising is hard.”
“Also, I was looking at a pretty unimaginable work demand in my own law practice,” he added. “I just started to come to that realization that I needed to focus my energy in a pathway that would be a little more manageable for me.”
Goldman cited the demand for immigration work in announcing the end of his campaign for the nomination.
In a statement, he said “Right now, the crush of demand for help from immigrants, refugees, visa holders, and even U.S. citizens is overwhelming.”
“My clients and our community need me on the frontlines of this battle; and those frontlines are not in Washington, D.C., but right here in southeastern Arizona,” Goldman said in a written statement.
Goldman endorsed the candidacy of Joanna Mendoza, a Democrat from Pinal County who had entered the race before him. She also received the endorsement of Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Thursday.
Chris Donat is the only other Democratic candidate who has filed with the Federal Elections Commission to run in the 2026 Democratic primary.
Dems learn self-defense
As the months have gone by and political tensions have risen, Democratic Party activists have become increasingly worried about their security, Tucson Democrat Larry Bodine said.
“People tell me they’re afraid,” said Bodine a past president of the Democrats of Greater Tucson. “If they go to a protest and somebody grabs them, what’s going to happen to them?
“There have been cases of counter protesters waving guns and intimidating people.”
So Bodine came up with a program to address some their worries. At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the first part takes place: A 90-minute self-defense class at Rising Phoenix Self Defense Studio, 4500 E. Speedway, Suite 4.
The second part, “Know Your Legal Rights During Extreme Immigration Enforcement,” presented by Margo Cowan, is from 5 p.m. to 6:30 on Thursday Aug. 21 at Dusenberry-River Library, 5605 E River Rd, Tucson, AZ 85750.
The third part, “Know Your Legal Rights when ICE comes knocking,” is at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, at Martha Cooper Library, 1377 N Catalina Ave, Tucson, AZ.
Registration for all three events is $50. The capacity for Sunday’s event is 50 people. Sign up online at: https://bit.ly/DGTDefend
Napier running for mayor
Mark Napier, the former Pima County sheriff, is planning to run for mayor of Oro Valley.
In an announcement, Napier said he is setting up a committee to run in the town’s nonpartisan primary in August next year.
Napier, who spent 21 years in the Tucson Police Department, won election as Pima County sheriff in 2016 but lost to the current sheriff, Chris Nanos, in 2020.
While Napier is a Republican, the town’s elections are non-partisan. He would be running to replace Joe Winfield, who has been mayor of Oro Valley since 2018.
