Ken Bennett said Tuesday he finally has gotten the 4,000 contributions he needs to qualify for $839,704 in public funds for his campaign for governor.

Gubernatorial hopeful Ken Bennett is blaming Secretary of State Michele Reagan for coming up short of the $5 donations he needs to qualify for public funding.

While self-funders haven’t been very successful at the state and federal level in Arizona, the strategy has paid off for candidates aiming for lower-level offices, such as the Legislature or a city council.

With just three weeks to go before the primary election, Ken Bennett still needs 900 contributions to qualify for funding from the Clean Elections Commission.

A claim that lawmakers are giving voters a flawed explanation of a measure on the November ballot drew a skeptical reaction Friday from the judge hearing the case.

Arizona voters who want to preclude publicly funded candidates from buying services from political parties also will have to vote for new limits on the powers of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to get that change. And vice versa.

A judge will decide whether lawmakers have an absolute right to ask voters to approve two changes in law in a single act, even if they may only want one of them and not the other.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted unanimously to sue the state over language describing a ballot measure to take away some of the commission’s authority.

Elections officials said they will likely refer several campaigns that have been implicated for fraud and forgery to law enforcement for further investigation.

Gov. Doug Ducey won't debate his Republican foe, with an aide calling Ken Bennett a "fringe'' candidate despite the fact he was elected secretary of state in 2010.