PHOENIX β Gubernatorial hopeful Ken Bennett came up short of the number of $5 donations he needs to qualify for public funding, and heβs blaming Secretary of State Michele Reagan.
Bennett spokeswoman Christine Bauserman said the website run by Reaganβs office for online contributions for Clean Elections funding went dark at 5 p.m. Tuesday. But Bennett had until midnight that night to reach the 4,000 $5 donations he needed to free up $839,704 for his Republican primary race.
Officials in Reaganβs office are not disputing what happened. They say the site was restored β apparently several hours later β after they were informed of the problem.
Office spokesman Matt Roberts said the problem originates with how the site was first programmed years ago, when people were first allowed to make their $5 donations online. He said it was designed to stop taking donations at 5 p.m. on deadline day.
The person in charge of the office at that time was Bennett, who left office as secretary of state at the end of 2014.
That explanation drew an angry response from Bauserman.
βSo youβre telling me that over four years with all the advancements in technology and payment methods, that the system has not been re-looked at or redesigned?β she asked, saying that if thatβs the case it amounts to βgross incompetence.β
βThere wasnβt a reason to change anything,β Roberts responded. He said thatβs backed up by the fact that Bennett, who become secretary of state in 2009, did not do updates of that system ahead of the 2012 or 2014 elections.
Bauserman said Bennett, who hopes to defeat Gov. Doug Ducey in Tuesdayβs GOP primary, is weighing whether to seek a court order to force the web portal to be reopened for some period of time, or to give him some other method to qualify for the public funding.
Tom Collins, executive director of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, said any fight that Bennett has is with Reaganβs office, which operates the website. But he suggested that, at least on a surface level, Bennett has a legitimate complaint about the site going down early.
βI donβt know of any statutory authority to shut it down at 5,β Collins said.
Less clear, Collins said, is whether Bennett can get legal relief from a court or the commission.
βHe would have to show, it seems to me, that he has some reasonable likelihood of collecting some actual qualifying contributions,β Collins said. βAnd heβd have to show that number is the number heβs short by.β
Bauserman declined to say Wednesday how many $5 contributions Bennett has on hand, whether through the website or from people giving in person or by mail.
Collins said it was his understanding that on Aug. 6, the last time he got an update from the Bennett campaign, there were about 3,100 donations. But campaign finance reports filed this week, which cover the period ending Aug. 11, showed just 2,849 qualifying contributions.
For the moment, the threat of litigation remains academic. Bauserman said late Wednesday the campaign was having trouble finding an attorney with sufficient experience in election law who did not have a conflict of interest in working for other candidates.
Even if Bennett gets his day in court, and even if a judge orders he be given more time to get donations, that still leaves a significant issue: How quickly could Bennett get a check from Clean Elections, and could he even make use of it by Tuesdayβs election?
There are very specific rules on how public funding can be used, Collins said.
Bauserman acknowledged it would be a problem if Bennett didnβt get the cash until Monday or Tuesday. But she said the campaign still could use the money in a meaningful and legal fashion with last-minute radio commercials and βrobocalls.β
