A group that spent $260,000 attacking a 2014 foe of Doug Ducey in his first gubernatorial race is trying again to escape paying a fine for violating state campaign finance laws.

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.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted to impose a $96,000 fine against the Legacy Foundation Action Fund over ads it ran criticizing then-Mesa Mayor Scott Smith after deciding that they should have been reported as campaign commercials for the governor’s race.

Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins said a recent court ruling on what constitutes electioneering confirms his findings that a group that ran ads against Scott Smith in the governor’s race violated campaign laws.

The Legacy Foundation Action Fund, an Iowa-based 501(c)(4) tied to consultant and Ducey ally Sean Noble that ran ads in April criticizing Smith for his leadership of the US Conference of Mayors, is suing the Clean Elections Commission and Maricopa County elections officials in response to the complaint filed by Smith’s campaign.

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission lacks jurisdiction to investigate a complaint filed against GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey, according to a response filed by Ducey’s attorneys.

An attorney for Arizona gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey filed a complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State Thursday alleging that the IE group Better Leaders for Arizona violated state law by failing to provide Ducey timely notice of an attack.

Conservative groups backed by dark money or yet to be-disclosed funding sources are trading blows on the airwaves now that a pro-Christine Jones IE began airing ads attacking Doug Ducey for his own alleged ties to dark money ads.

A Virginia-based conservative group is airing ads in Phoenix and Tucson attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith for supporting an international agreement to combat global warming.

Attorneys for Scott Smith filed a complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office and the Citizens Clean Elections Commission today alleging illegal coordination between Doug Ducey’s campaign for governor and an outside group that funded an ad blasting Smith.