Sen. Hoffman Calls Out Clean Elections Commission For Its Debate Decision
By Daniel Stefanski |
An Arizona Republican legislator continues to hold a government agency accountable to the law.
Last week, State Senator Jake Hoffman sent a letter to the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, which was his second letter to this agency, over a new rule it had adopted “requiring candidates to receive at least 1% of total ballots cast in all primaries for their office to qualify for general election debates.” Hoffman’s latest letter called on the Commission “to submit the rule through the standard rule-making process and to invite all qualified candidates to general election debates until any new rules are appropriately adopted in a transparent and lawful manner.”
In a statement, Hoffman said, “Arizona law only gives the Commission discretion to determine the manner in which debates are conducted. It does not give the Commission unfettered discretion to pick and choose which candidates get to participate. If the Commission believes this rule is a good idea, then there should be nothing to fear from holding an open and public process for promulgating rules. Evading this process invites litigation, calls into question the independence of the Commission, and deprives Arizona citizens of the protections afforded under the APA.”
The issue that prompted the initial inquiry by Hoffman was the confirmation from the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission that Eduardo Quintana, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, would not be allowed in the upcoming October debate with Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego. Quintana received 282 votes in the primary – far less than the one percent threshold established by the Commission.
Hoffman has contended that due to the Commission’s rule not being “submitted for approval to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council for compliance with the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act, [the] maneuver violates the 2018 voter-approved Proposition 306.”
Thomas Collins, the Executive Director of the Commission, sent a letter in response to Hoffman’s first inquiry. He said, in part, that the report of the new rule “mischaracterizes a discretionary decision by the Commission, based on input from its contracted debate production and broadcast consultants, to not include the candidates who had received less than 1% of votes cast in their primaries in the 2024 Commission-sponsored debates.” Collins added, “It is both factually inaccurate and inconsistent with the APA requirements to characterize this decision as adoption of a new ‘rule’ for purposes of the APA.”
Collins’ letter prompted this most recent letter from Hoffman, who argued against the Commission’s justification for its action. Hoffman wrote, “You are sorely mistaken if you expected the serious concerns raised in my letter to be assuaged by a lengthy letter filled with fluff about why you think it’s a good idea to remove candidates from state-recognized parties from public debates. While these policy arguments may be convincing to you, it is really beside the point. I shouldn’t need to remind you that the Commission, as part of the executive branch, implements legislative policy – it does not set it.”
Hoffman concluded his communication to the agency, stating, “Because Arizona requires the Commission to ‘sponsor debates among candidates’ and the Green party candidate certainly meets Arizona’s liberal definition of ‘candidate,’ the only conceivable way the Commission could exclude a Green Party candidate from participating would be through a duly passed rule that complies with Arizona’s APA. This, however, the Commission has not done.”
After Hoffman’s newest letter to the Commission, the Arizona Green Party posted the following to its X account: “By barring the Green Party candidates for statewide & federal offices in Arizona from the televised debates over an arbitrary rule, we believe that the Arizona Clean Elections Commission has violated A.R.S. 16-192, which prohibits the use of public resources to influence the outcome of an election. The commission has used taxpayer dollars to present a false, binary choice between Democrats and Republicans in the races for Senate, Congress, and AZ Corp. Commission. This action deprives AZ voters of the knowledge that they have other options, which WILL influence the outcome.”
The Arizona Green Party also stated, “The Arizona Clean Elections Commission & the AZ Media Association, a private entity interested in profit rather than providing the people of Arizona with all perspectives from all parties, are favoring the duopoly candidates in these races over the grassroots & non-corporate Green Party candidates. Following the lead of candidates such as Quintana for Senate, the AZGP is currently in the process of filing official election complaints on these grounds.”
The Commission’s U.S. Senate debate between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego took place on October 9.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
