By Staff Reporter |
Another campaign finance violation complaint has been filed against Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
This latest complaint concerned a $500 donation from District 14 Democrats in April. State law permits political party committees to contribute to party nominees, but not candidates. At the time of the April donation, well before the July primary, Mayes was a candidate but had not yet become the Democratic nominee.
Although Mayes ran unopposed in her primary, the complaint made the case that she could have faced a write-in candidate.
“A.R.S. § 16-645 permits qualified write-in candidates to compete in a primary election,” stated the complaint. “As a result, even an unopposed candidate has not definitively secured the nomination before the primary election because, at least in theory, a qualified write-in candidate could prevail.”
Timothy La Sota, a Phoenix attorney who filed the complaint, urged Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to respond more urgently to the allegations. La Sota stated that Fontes had taken nearly a month to provide acknowledgment of receipt of a prior complaint he filed against Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Concerning that complaint against Hobbs, filed in July, La Sota said nothing has come of it to his knowledge.
“Please take appropriate action, and in a timely fashion. On the last complaint I filed, against your political ally Katie Hobbs, you took twenty-five days simply to send an acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint,” said La Sota. “Since then I have heard nothing. I hope you act with more urgency here.”
That complaint against Hobbs accused her of illegally commingling millions in funds to subsidize her campaign.
In this recent complaint against Mayes, the attorney general was also characterized as displaying “a pattern of remarkable ignorance of basic campaign finance laws.” Supplementing this claim were two examples of refunds given to individual donors for excess contributions.
“[A]s the attorney for the State of Arizona, [she] clearly should know better,” stated the complaint. “Ms. Mayes was apparently unaware of campaign contribution limits applicable in state law to individual contributors, as she had to refund multiple excess contributions this last cycle[.]”
The complaint cited two instances of similar violations: one in the amount of $3,000, and the other in the amount of $500.
Mayes has raised more than $4.6 million this election cycle for her reelection campaign. Republican nominee Warren Petersen, her general election opponent, has raised more than $1.7 million. Petersen didn’t report receiving any contributions from political parties prior to the primary election.
Since state law requires the referral of substantiated campaign finance violations to the attorney general’s office, the complaint suggested any referral for enforcement actions be made elsewhere.
Another complaint filed against Mayes last month on a separate matter accused her, Hobbs, and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of engaging in a straw donor scheme.
The campaigns for the three candidates enjoyed a sizable number of donations from donors who reported that they were not employed, tens of thousands of times greater in number than the unemployed donor donations received by their general election opponents across the aisle.
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