Huppenthal has history of challenges

For political observers, the challenge to Sen. John Huppenthal’s petitions for Superintendent of Public Instruction won’t come as a surprise.

The Chandler Republican and the Arizona Democratic Party have a history of animosity dating back to 2008, when he campaigned for re-election to his Senate seat.

The most recent complaint was filed June 10 by the campaign manager of Rep. Chris Deschene, a Democrat who is running for Secretary of State. The complaint, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleges that Huppenthal illegally gathered all his nominating signatures because they were collected before he officially opened a campaign committee.

The signatures are therefore invalid and Huppenthal has failed to file a sufficient number to qualify for the primary ballot, according to the challenge.

According to the suit, Huppenthal initially filed an exploratory committee on March 19 last year and amended it into an official candidate committee for Superintendent on Jan. 11.

He submitted 11,053 signatures on Jan. 20; he needed 5,609 signatures to qualify.

The challenge relies on statutes governing campaign committees, which state that a candidate committee must be formed “before making any expenditures, accepting any contributions, distributing any campaign literature or circulating any petitions.”

The statute governs exploratory committees, but it doesn’t explicitly list the circulating of nominating petitions as one of the prohibited acts before an exploratory committee is formed.

The case is set to be heard on June 18.

Huppenthal did not return messages seeking comment. But Jason Rose, his campaign spokesman, said Democrats don’t want to face him in the general election, adding it just reinforces the view that his client is the person to beat in this entire election.

“This is a clear shot at a clear conservative reformer in the race and frankly they don’t like the possibility of a general election pitting their nominee against a conservative reformer,” Rose said, adding that he believes the complaint will ultimately be tossed.

Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party, said Huppenthal voted to cut the education budget by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Democrats will be happy to run against a record like that,” she said. “Democrats share voters’ priorities on education. The Republican cuts have been devastating, so we’ll be working hard to help ensure a Democratic win.”

Huppenthal would face fellow GOP challengers Margaret Dugan and Beth Price. On the Democratic side, Penny Kotterman and Jason Williams are squaring off for the party nomination.

The Democrats’ suit against Huppenthal is but the latest salvo of an ongoing feud between the party and Huppenthal.

Democrats targeted Huppenthal in 2008, believing his District 20 seat was vulnerable with retired teacher Ted Maish as the challenger.

Independent expenditure committees supportive of Maish outspent those supporting Huppenthal $53,000 to $30,000.

After the election Huppenthal faced misdemeanor charges for cutting down an opposition campaign sign on Election Day. He was accused of theft and altering or destroying a political sign.
The charges stemmed from a confrontation between Huppenthal and Ruth Levin, a 78-year-old Democratic activist who said the senator cut down the sign and tussled with her over it before driving off in a car.

Huppenthal said he had permission to remove the sign.

A judge ultimately cleared him in the case.

Also in May that year, the Democratic Party filed an election complaint accusing Huppenthal of withholding information about who had paid for automated calls to district residents. The calls related a message about how Huppenthal had helped arrange surgery for a child with a rare case of dwarfism.

Democrats contended the calls should have included a reference to the party that paid for them.

But the Citizens Clean Elections Commission dismissed the complaint.

Democrats had claimed Huppenthal’s calls were made in response to their own automated calls to residents in the district informing them that Huppenthal “voted against emergency funding to clean Corona del Sol High School.”

The school’s ventilation system had been linked to illnesses. At the time, Huppenthal said he voted against legislation to provide the school with emergency funding because the measure was introduced as a floor amendment to a budget bill, and members of leadership do not support any amendments that have not been agreed to beforehand.

He maintained he had worked hard to solve the Tempe school’s problem.

Last year, Huppenthal and several other candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, were also accused of violating the state’s resign-to-run law. The cases were referred to the Pima County Attorney’s office for review. The office subsequently cleared all the candidates.

The question then was whether Huppenthal violated resign-to-run laws when he personally passed out petitions under his exploratory committee.

The Pima County Attorney’s office said the facts in the case were not within the scope of the law’s disqualification, and it would be inappropriate to conclude that Huppenthal violated resign-to-run statutes.

But the county attorney also made this interesting note: “There is a similar suggestion in the Arizona statutes that circulating candidate petitions is not a permitted exploratory activity, at least for campaign finance purposes. Circulating a nominating petition is not listed as being permissible after filing an exploratory committee, but is listed as being permissible after filing a candidate’s committee.”

Huppenthal told Arizona Capitol Times last year he sought legal advice before gathering signatures and was told by his attorney that an Attorney General’s opinion from 1993 allows him to solicit signatures in advance of actually becoming a candidate.

“…(A)s long as an incumbent’s conduct and statements do not constitute a formal declaration of candidacy and he does not file a nomination paper, he has not violated (the law),” then-Attorney General Grant Woods wrote.