Controversial campaign signs in District 9 have the incumbents lobbing accusations of campaign finance violations at a moderate Republican challenger who denies he had anything to do with the signs.
The signs urge voters to vote for “Your trusted leadership team” of Sen. Robert Burns, Rep. Bob Stump and challenger David Fraley. A notation at the bottom says the signs were “Paid for by William Atkinson.” Dozens appeared in the district the last week of August.
Mr. Stump, who says he has not teamed up with anyone in the race, said he wants nothing to do with Mr. Fraley or his politics, as the pair has divergent views.
“This is an attempt to deceive voters,” he said. “I don’t want my name associated with him, frankly. More than that, I don’t appreciate my name being used without my permission.”
He accused Mr. Fraley of knowing about the signs and has asked him publicly to call for the signs to be removed.
Rep. Rick Murphy — the other House incumbent, whose name was omitted from the sign — said the right thing to do would be for Mr. Fraley to work to get the signs taken down.
“If he had any integrity, he’d call to have the signs taken down because they mislead the voters,” he said.
Mr. Fraley, though, denies having anything to do with them, despite a possible link to his campaign.
“I’m not involved in that in any way, shape or form,” he said. “I was as shocked as everybody else.”
A rogue circulator
A “William Atkinson” is listed on the back of more than a dozen of Mr. Fraley’s nominating petitions as the circulator, or the person who gathered petition signatures from voters. The address he gave is in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix.
Mr. Fraley says his family rents a house to that Mr. Atkinson, but says he didn’t know the man’s name was “William” until he saw it on the back of the petitions. He says he has always known the tenant as “Dean” Atkinson.
There was no William Atkinson listed in the phone book at the address provided on the nominating petitions.
Mr. Fraley concedes it is likely the same William Atkinson who helped gather signatures for his campaign, but said he has not sought confirmation of that and has no intention to do so.
He also says he will not take the signs down because they are not his, nor will he ask for the signs to be taken down because they are an exercise of a voter’s free speech right.
“It’s black and white and it’s not beautiful,” Mr. Fraley told an Aug. 28 meeting of the Sun City Republicans, “but it’s someone’s voice.”
He says the signs are an independent expenditure.
Mr. Murphy says state statute clearly identifies the signs as an in-kind contribution since the Mr. Atkinson who paid for the signs allegedly gathered signatures for Mr. Fraley.
State law says in-kind contributions are “goods or services or anything of value and not a monetary contribution.”
Mr. Stump said he is “leaning heavily” toward filing a complaint against Mr. Fraley with the Secretary of State’s Office.