PHOENIX — The question of whether Arizonans will get to vote on outlawing “dark money” is headed to courts.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Michele Reagan reported the Outlaw Dirty Money campaign came up 2,071 short of the 225,963 valid signatures needed to put the issue on the November ballot. That follows action by the 15 county recorders, who were each given a 5 percent sample to verify the names.
But Kim Demarchi, who represents the initiative organizers, said the fight to put the issue to voters is far from over.
She claims the Secretary of State’s Office improperly removed 8,042 signatures from the total submitted.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders is expected to rule on that claim no later than Thursday.
At the same time, Sanders is also weighing claims by attorney Kory Langhofer, representing those who want to quash the initiative.
Langhofer contends that Reagan’s office allowed some petitions to be counted that were circulated by legally unqualified people, including convicted felons and people who did not provide a proper address.
Whoever loses in Sanders’ court is virtually certain to seek Arizona Supreme Court review.
Even that is not the end of the legal maneuvering.
Demarchi said she is filing suit against several county recorders, contending they erred in concluding that some signatures in the random samples were not from valid registered voters.
Those cases are likely to drag into next week.
Hanging in the balance is whether Arizona voters have the option of enacting what amounts to a “right-to-know” provision in the state Constitution.
Current law says donors who contribute to candidates must disclose their identities.
There are similar requirements when groups spend money independently to help elect or defeat a candidate.
But the Republican-controlled Legislature has said that groups seeking to influence statewide races need not disclose donors if they are set up under the Internal Revenue Code as “social welfare” organizations.
Those groups qualify for the special charity status if no more than half their spending is on political races.
There is no absolute dollar figure on how much they can give.
And the record shows that they do put a lot of money into Arizona campaigns.
In 2014, for example, American Encore spent more than $1.4 million on Arizona races. While it is known the group originated with an organization founded by the Koch brothers, there is nothing on the record of who put up those dollars.
Some of that American Encore money helped Republican Doug Ducey defeat Democrat Fred DuVal in the 2014 gubernatorial race.
Overall, outside groups spent more than $8 million on Ducey’s behalf in that campaign, outstripping the $7.9 Ducey spent himself that he got from donors whose identities he was required to disclose.
Earlier this year, lawmakers extended the same protection from disclosure to entities seeking to affect local races, effectively overriding a vote by Tempe residents to require financial disclosure of all sources of funding on city races.
This initiative, backed by a bipartisan group including two former attorneys general, would put a provision in the Arizona Constitution to require that the public be given the actual identity of anyone who has contributed more than $2,500 to affect any political campaign. And as a constitutional amendment, it could not be altered by lawmakers without taking the issue back to the ballot.
