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ACC vote leaves Burns to fend for himself in legal fight with utility
The Arizona Corporation Commission voted today to stop paying an attorney to defend one of its members in a lawsuit from the state’s largest utility.
Campaign finance reform kills dark money bot – for now
Arizona’s dark money bot, the Twitter account set up by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting to blast out notices when dark money groups spend in political campaigns, has sent out its last tweet – for now, at least.
Once a warrior against dark money, Secretary of State Reagan does an about-face
Back when she was a lawmaker and chair of the Senate Elections Committee, Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan made it her top priority to hold political campaigns accountable and shine a light on dark money.
APS offers deal that still shrouds its 2014 spending
APS has made an offer to settle its ongoing dispute with Commissioner Burns: Drop your inquest into our 2014 political spending and we’ll support a commission rule to make sure election spending by any entity (both regulated and unregulated) with business before the commission is disclosed in the future.
Outside spending groups target Arizona races
As the election comes to a close, campaign finance documents filed with the Arizona Clean Elections Commission and the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office show that, with only one statewide race, outside spending is in state and legislative elections is way down from 2014.
Here are the 5 biggest IE spenders for this year’s election
More than 200 independent expenditure committees have filed with the Secretary of State’s Office but not all spend to the same degree. Here are this election’s five biggest spenders.
Dark money group says appeal should go forward
A dark money group urged the Arizona Court of Appeals to allow it to challenge the Citizens Clean Elections Commission’s authority to levy a $96,000 fine against it after a judge ruled that it missed the deadline for filing an appeal, a case that could settle the long-running dispute over the extent of the commission’s jurisdiction.
Three-quarters of ‘outside’ election spending in AZ comes with scant disclosure
Of the $1.9 million spent this cycle by “outside groups” to affect Arizona elections, $565,000 – or about 30 percent – comes with no disclosure of the source of the money.
Nearly $500K in ‘dark money’ spent on Arizona 2016 legislative primary
With just one week until Arizona’s primary election, political spending to affect legislative races paid for by outside groups that don’t disclose the source of the money amounts to almost half a million dollars.
Anti-dark money referendum calls it quits
The organizer of a bid to quash a new state law easing rules on anonymous "dark money'' donations in political races has folded his tent.
FEC fines 3 dark money groups over cash from Arizona operative
The Federal Election Commission levied nearly a quarter-million dollars’ worth of fines against three dark money groups for failing to report contributions from an organization run by Sean Noble after the Arizona political operative inadvertently disclosed the alleged violations in a 2014 interview.
Complaint with IRS highlights SB1516 ‘dark money’ enforcement issues
A complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service against a “dark money” group that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2014 governor’s race appears to provide a stark example of the way new campaign finance laws could bar Arizona election officials from punishing a violation, even when it’s right in front of their faces.
