Martin survives challenge, gets Clean Elections cash

State Treasurer Dean Martin survived a challenge to his Clean Elections qualifying contributions, setting him up to receive $707,443 in public money for his gubernatorial campaign.

Martin was certified for Clean Elections funding June 28 and received his campaign cash the following day, according to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission. The Secretary of State’s Office certified Martin for public funding after it determined that his $5 qualifying contributions did not contain enough “duplicate” contributions to prompt a full review of all 5,453 signatures he submitted.

Martin submitted his $5 contributions in early June, but his Clean Elections funding was delayed when longtime nemesis Bob Haran, a District 6 Republican precinct committeeman, reported that Martin collected multiple $5 contributions from at least 128 people.

If the review had determined that the number of valid $5 contributions was less than 4,851 – 110 percent of the 4,410 contributions needed to qualify for Clean Elections funding – every one of Martin’s contributions would have gone under review by county recorders.

But the full review turned out to be unnecessary. A random sample of 5 percent of Martin’s contributions showed 21 of 264 to be duplicates, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Based on the 243 valid contributions, the office determined that Martin had a total of 4,860 valid fives. He needed 4,851 to avoid a full review.

A full review would’ve been the second major blow to Martin’s campaign finances in recent weeks. A June 8 U.S. Supreme Court decision that blocked Arizona from distributing matching funds to Clean Elections candidates cost Martin, along with incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer, $1.4 million in public funding.

Martin’s campaign did not return calls for comment.