The Citizens Clean Elections Commission is continuing to look for sponsors for candidate debates next year in a dozen legislative districts.

The Arizona Clean Elections Act, created through a ballot measure in 1998, requires that candidates who choose to run with public campaign money have to attend at least one public debate in each of the primary and general elections, if those races see competition among publicly funded candidates.

In 2000, the League of Women Voters hosted the candidate debates, while in 2002, the Arizona Community College Association and Arizona State University split the chore. For 2004, six organizations applied to host some of the debates, but one group, the Community College Association, withdrew its application after being approved to host debates in 12 of the legislative districts instead of all 30.

So far, 18 legislative district debates have sponsors.

“It just wasn’t enough of an economy of scale for us to host some of the debates,” said Kim Sheane, executive director of the Arizona Community College Association.

In its application to host the debates, the Community College Association projected it would see $218,500 in expenses, only $126,000 of which would be reimbursed by the Clean Elections Commission.

The remaining $92,500 would amount to “in-kind” contributions, for which the commission would reimburse the Community College Association members. Those expenses would range from office supplies to creation and printing of fliers to the time spent by community college staffs and the use of equipment and facilities for the debates.

“Many of those costs wouldn’t necessarily be scaled down that much by reducing the number of debates, so we were simply looking at the numbers in deciding to withdraw our application,” Ms. Sheane said.

Ms. Sheane said she nonetheless understands the view of the commission to try to spread around the sponsorships, which would be highly prized by a number of organizations.

“We saw an opportunity to be a good citizen of the community and, in turn, showcase what we have to offer,” Ms. Sheane said.

League Of Women Voters Faced ‘Hardship’

The Clean Elections Commission’s use of reimbursement for paying for the cost of the debates led the League of Women Voters to not seek to sponsor any debates in 2004, said Gini McGirr, president of the state chapter.

“I couldn’t give you a dollar figure, because it was spread among the local chapters, but it was tough for many of these chapters to come up with the money ahead of the event and then to be reimbursed,” Ms. McGirr said. “That’s not to be in any way critical of how the commission operates. It just was a bit of a hardship for some of our chapters.”

The Clean Elections Act provides for the debates, but leaves it up to the commission on how to conduct them.

“The notion of doing them in-house hasn’t really come up, as far as I know,” said Eric Gorsegner, deputy director of the Clean Elections Commission. “We’re so leanly staffed here, it would mean either putting everything else on hold or contracting it out. The debates still are some time away, but they will come at a time when the staff is running full speed on doing things like getting [campaign] checks to candidates.”

Beyond the availability of staff resources, the commission sees some value in spreading the sponsorships among several organizations, Mr. Gorsegner said.

“In the end, I think you’ll see a diverse group of organizations with a range of approaches,” Mr. Gorsegner said. “This is still a fairly new process; it’s still evolving. We’ll see what works and what doesn’t.”

Debate Hosts

For 2004, the commission so far has lined up the following sponsors to host debates:

• Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council, to host the candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission.

• Children’s Action Alliance, District 11 legislative races.

• Help Us Get Good Government, District 3 legislative races.

• Arizona Students Association, legislative races in Districts 1, 2, 9, 18, and 26 through 30.

• Arizona State University, legislative Districts 4, 8, 10, 16, 17, 20 and 22. —