Two little known and apparently newly formed groups are making independent expenditures in the governor’s race, targeting Len Munsil and raising suspicions in the Republican nominee’s campaign about who is behind the effort.
A group calling itself the Arizona Conservative Trust reported paying $8,590 for automated phone calls against Mr. Munsil and also was identified as paying for a newly launched Web site (htt://www.lenmunsilfacts.com) that is critical of Mr. Munsil.
The Web site states that the Arizona Conservative Trust received major funding from another organization, the Arizona Values Coalition.
Individuals listed as officers of the two groups did not immediately return calls for comment, but a leader of another organization said two of the individuals formerly worked for his group, the Project for Arizona’s Future.
Project for Arizona’s Future Executive Director Tom Ziemba said Beau Memory and Seamus Perry, two Phoenix men listed in state campaign finance records as being officers of the Arizona Values Coalition, left because they wanted to take a more active role in political campaigns.
“We don’t do any candidate-specific work,” Mr. Ziemba said. “They left a couple of months ago because they wanted to do something more political than what we do here.”
A Munsil campaign consultant, Nathan Sproul, said the campaign was investigating but was considering legal action that could include a lawsuit and complaints to state officials. “We need to put a few more facts in line before we can be more specific,” Mr. Sproul said.
“What we know for a fact is that we’ve got a bunch of Democratic operatives” masquerading as Republicans “to take shots at Len Munsil,” Mr. Sproul said.
Democratic Party spokesmen Bart Graves said the party had no involvement in either the Web site or the groups responsible for it, and Napolitano campaign spokeswoman Jeanine L’Ecuyer said the campaign was not involved either.
Michael Becker, a spokesman for the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, said the commission had paid Mr. Munsil’s campaign with matching funds of $8,590 for the telephone calls.
The commission is waiting for reports to be filed regarding the Web site, he said.
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