See if you can keep your eye on the card. It won’t be easy, because the Arizona Legislature is trying to sucker you into a game of three-card monte, hoping you won’t notice you’ve been conned until it is too late.
The current version of the shady confidence game is called HCR 2007, a legislative flimflam written to fool Arizona voters into letting dark money gain larger foothold in the state’s elections.
Don’t fall for it.
It was 20 years ago that Arizona voters said they were fed up with the oversize role of money in the state’s political campaigns.
So they approved formation of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, to “improve the integrity of Arizona state government and promote public confidence in the Arizona political process.”
Clean Elections gives candidates the option of receiving public money, giving them more time to meet with voters and discuss issues instead of bowing and scraping for dollars from big-money donors.
It is an effort to free candidates from “dark money,” which exists in a secretive netherworld, created by undermining state and federal disclosure rules meant to inform us who is paying to influence our votes.
The Legislature has fought hard to keep the lights off for dark-money donors. But because the people of Arizona created the Clean Elections Commission, it is only the voters who can eliminate it.
Legislators know that voters are strongly opposed to dark money and won’t support efforts to make it more secretive. So lawmakers have turned to their version of three-card monte, calling it HCR 2007.
Legislators claim the measure is a way to reduce the influence of political parties in elections. That’s deliberately misleading.
HCR 2007 would eliminate the Clean Elections Commission’s independent, nonpartisan authority to administer and enforce the law. Instead the final word on Clean Elections rules would be from the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, a highly partisan body.
HCR 2007 also would nearly double the amount of money individuals can donate to clean candidates, while all but capping the amount of money candidates can receive through the clean funding program.
Legislators call this a “technical” change. Well-informed voters will know it is gutting the Clean Elections program.
HCR 2007 has been approved by the Arizona House and is pending in the state Senate.
Dark money is a rapidly growing stain on politics — nationally and here in Arizona.
In 2014, the two major Arizona gubernatorial candidates raised and spent $12.3 million. Outside organizations nearly equaled that spending, with much of that money spent on negative attack ads.
We know where the candidates’ money came from. We have no idea where the outside funders got their money.
Unknown individuals also have placed their anonymous thumbs on the scales when we decide important issues. In 2012, a “dark money” group spent $1.8 million to successfully persuade Arizonans not to extend a sales tax increase to fund education.
The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission has been on the forefront of efforts to stem the tide of dark money in Arizona — often alone.
When a candidate runs a political ad, it is required to have the tagline: “I’m John Doe and I approved this message.” But if a television ad or a mailer says it was paid for by Americans for Good Stuff, what does that mean? Who are they? Are they Arizonans? Where is their money from? What is their motive?
HCR 2007 would draw that shade of secrecy over more of the money spent on Arizona elections.
Don’t be fooled by the flimflam artists at the Arizona Legislature. Tell your legislators you don’t want this misleading nonsense on the ballot this fall.
