A Republican senator is making what appears to be a last-ditch effort to get the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to include the Green Party candidate in next week’s televised debate in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race.
In a new letter, state Sen. Jake Hoffman derided arguments by Tom Collins, the commission’s executive director, about the decision to exclude Eduardo Quintana from the debate set for Oct. 9 as “filled with fluff.’’ The Queen Creek lawmaker contends the action by the commission, in consultation with the Arizona Media Association that is airing the debates, was taken without legal authority.
But it is unclear what Hoffman, the head of the Senate Government Committee who first launched an investigation of the exclusion a month ago, intends to do.
Sen. Jake Hoffman
There is nothing in his letter that even hints at some sort of legal action to force the commission to include Quintana in what otherwise will be a face-off between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego.
The issue has taken on political overtones.
Lake has said she wants Quintana included; Gallego said that wasn’t part of the deal. The general line of thinking is that Green Party candidates take votes from Democrats, as a Libertarian candidate — there isn’t one in the Senate race — would siphon votes from Republicans.
Hoffman contends that excluding Quintana violates state laws that require the commission to propose a change in rules and go through a public hearing process. The commission did not do that, with Collins contending, in essence, this was an administrative decision exempt from such laws.
There is no sign that either the commission or the Arizona Media Association intend to change course.
Eduardo Quintana, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
Up until this general election, the nominees of any party were invited to participate in commission-sponsored debates. They were broadcast on the Phoenix PBS affiliate but available to other outlets.
This year, the commission cut a deal with the Arizona Media Association to have one-hour debates simulcast over participating TV and radio stations.
Chris Kline, the association’s director, said his members wanted debates limited to candidates whose primary election vote tallies showed they had a reasonable chance of winning the general election. That was designed to give the major candidates plenty of time to answer questions and to keep viewer and listener interest over the 56 available minutes.
Stations balked at extending to 90 minutes simply to add a minor party candidate, Kline said, saying they already were giving up revenues from not running commercials during the events.
So the commission adopted a threshold that, in this case, required Senate candidates to have tallied at least 1,239 votes in their party’s primary. Quintana, running as a write-in in the Green Party primary, which is closed to non-party members, got just 282.
Hoffman contends that violates a commission rule about who gets to participate. He said Arizona law requires state agencies, including the commission, to go through a public process before altering or adopting new rules.
Collins, for his part, said it’s not a formal rule, calling it a “discretionary decision about who to invite to the 2024 debates.’’
A spokesman for the commission said the agency is reviewing Hoffman’s letter “and will continue to engage with Sen. Hoffman regarding this issue.’’
Quintana said he filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office. There was no response from that agency about what it received and whether it is something the office has authority to investigate.
