Arizona Capitol Times Election Coverage Your Inside Track to Arizona Elections

UPDATE: 6:15 P.M. Brewer and Martin spar over each other’s records. Martin hits her for raising property taxes, while Brewer hits back over Martin’s votes for former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s budgets. Both say the other distorted their records. “We have to be truth tellers tonight, Mr. Martin,” Brewer said. Martin responded: “I think if you’re going to tell the truth, ...

Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign attorney accused the Citizens Clean Elections Commission of abdicating its responsibility after commissioners decided not seek help for publicly financed candidates who are now forced to run their campaigns without the benefit of matching funds.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s challengers for the Republican nomination have been attacking her for months at candidate forums across the state, and on the eve of their first televised debate they got a rare chance to take on the incumbent in person.

Sixteen challenges were filed in Maricopa County Superior Court against candidates' nominating petitions, including allegations that Sen. John Huppenthal collected thousands of invalid signatures and that House candidate Augustus Shaw lives in wrong legislative district.

Without additional campaign cash to fend off better-funded opponents, some Clean Elections candidates will be in dire need of help from their allies.

The US Supreme Court's matching funds ruling will impact just about every state race. Here's how.

Arizona’s matching funds system for publicly financed campaigns may be going down, but it probably won’t go alone.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to block Arizona’s Clean Elections system from distributing matching funds is a bad omen for similar systems in other states, and could portend their end if the court rules that matching funds are unconstitutional, according to legal experts and campaign finance reform advocates.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission decided there is little it can do to help publicly funded candidates who are suddenly without matching funds, and Gov. Jan Brewer won't throw it the lifeline it's asking for either.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission may consider enacting an emergency clause that would allow publicly funded candidates to raise additional campaign cash, a change that Gov. Jan Brewer's campaign is hoping can alleviate the sudden loss of matching funds.

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Arizona's Clean Elections system from distributing matching funds, throwing a number of high profile campaigns into disarray just weeks before candidates were to start receiving money.