By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) will go broke by the end of this year, according to the party’s own leadership.
News of the party’s financial woes emerged after ADP’s executive committee rejected a budget from the party’s new chairman, Robert Branscomb, in a recent meeting per Arizona Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl.
ADP’s committee reportedly cited the current state of spending and low fundraising for the diminishing funds.
This new development emerged shortly after Branscomb suspended his vice chair, Kim Khoury, through email. Branscomb accused Khoury of working against him — accusations he’s leveled against others early on in his leadership.
“[You engaged] in political activity directed against party leadership while holding an executive officer role,” said Branscomb.
And in recent months, there were reports of infighting between party leadership and the state’s top elected Democrats.
In a tell-all email issued last month, Branscomb provided a 90-day “candidate update” in which he accused his predecessor, Yolanda Bejarano, of undermining him and both U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of threatening him over his decision making. Kelly and Gallego were supportive of Bejarano’s reelection, as were Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
In a joint response to the accusations, Fontes, Gallego, Hobbs, Kelly, and Mayes said they had only sought to support Branscomb from the beginning.
“We’ve spent the last several months meeting regularly with the chair and working to support the party through the transition,” read the statement. “Unfortunately, his statement today includes many false claims and is the kind of bad-faith response we’ve come to expect from the new leadership over the last several weeks.”
ADP is facing financial struggles despite the millions in heavy outside spending given as assistance in key state legislative races across the state last fall — expenditures that surpassed the more successful Republicans, even.
In January, ADP faced accusations of financial wrongdoing from one of the ADP vice chairs at the time, Will Knight. The former treasurer, Rick McGuire, was accused of “self-dealing.” Bejarano denied Knight’s request for an audit of the party’s finances, and denounced the accusations as “defamatory” and “false and damaging.”
ADP’s troubles are consistent with the issues facing the national Democratic Party. Although Democrats outraised and outspent Republicans in last year’s election, they gained only one seat in the House and lost four seats in the Senate — resulting in a Republican control of the Senate that reflected the most gains for either party in a decade.
Major donors to the Democratic Party vented their frustrations to mainstream media this week.
“Why would I write a check when we’re losing everything? We’re losing the airwaves. We’re losing the tech battle. We’re losing the ground game. They have yet to prove that they have learned any real lessons yet,” said one donor anonymously. “So either people start to wake up or we lose again.”
A survey in March of Democratic voters by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only one-third felt optimistic about the party’s future.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
