CCEC approves report looking into Napolitano's campaign spending 

Following up on a complaint filed by the Arizona Republican Party, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted to approve an independent preliminary report of campaign expenses and contributions made by Gov. Janet Napolitano.
The step is in response to a complaint made in April by Glenn Hamer, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, which alleged Ms. Napolitano violated Arizona campaign finance regulations by entering a contract to operate a campaign website and a mass e-mail system before her candidacy was officially established on March 1.
The report contains no findings or statements regarding the merits of Mr. Hamer’s complaint, said Todd Lang, executive director of the CCEC, which oversees Arizona’s system of publicly funded campaigns.
Rules established by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission prohibit a candidate from incurring debt and Mr. Hamer also alleges the value of the services provided for Ms. Napolitano exceeded cash on hand that her campaign had when the website was launched.
Mr. Hamer said the value of the site and the e-mails were worth about $20,000. He bases that estimation on a formal March 15 contract between IWS and Ms. Napolitano, where she agreed to pay the firm $27,500 to create and maintain the website.
Mr. Hamer also told the commission he believed Ms. Napolitano had unlawfully contracted with IWS before March 1 to assemble and start the website.
Mr. Lang agreed with Andy Gordon, an attorney for Ms. Napolitano, who told the commission that the issue of whether she spent campaign money before the filing date is a legal matter for the Secretary of State and the Attorney General’s Office.
Mr. Gordon also said the campaign had enough cash to pay for the website services when it began verbally contracting with the provider and the version of the website launched March 1, was basic and placed its value then at approximately $1,000.
The independent investigation was unable to determine the value of the services provided to the governor’s campaign.