Arizona voters demanded disclosure of dark money. Where is it?

Two years ago, voters in Arizona rose up to demand to know who was secretly spending huge sums of money to buy our elections.

Nearly three-quarters of voters approved the Voters Right to Know Act in November 2022, which requires the bigwigs who fund dark money campaigns to come out of hiding.

So that we know who is trying to influence our vote.

Today, two years and at least three court cases in a desperate attempt to stop the law later, we are still in the dark.

The Arizona Secretary of State's office has not published a single report about a dark money group on its stupid campaign finance website, hilariously named “See the Money.”

This is because early voting for the July 3 primaries begins on Wednesday.

Are candidates or fontes not following the rules?

The word “outrageous” is an understatement.

“I'm in shock,” Terry Goddard, who spent six years getting the black money disclosure law on the ballot and two years defending it in court, told me on Monday.

“I ask the SOS what is being done to fix this farce. I know Adrian (Fontes) and his top people believe in full disclosure, but apparently some SOS people in IT don't. They've had two years to complete the disclosure documents and I don't expect there will be very much documentation.”

Although the law requires disclosure, Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic reports that the SOS website does not contain any reports of dark money spending in the state.

This means either:

That no dark money groups are complying with the new law, and that if this is the case, Fontes should cry to heaven and ask Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate. Or:
Fontes' office simply does not post the reports online where the public can view them.

It's hard to say which of these is true.

The Foreign Minister's office has not spoken to Pitzl and has not responded to my request for an explanation.

Virginia group spends. No idea how much

Meanwhile, voters are wondering who is funding some of the dark money campaigns aimed at putting certain people in office.

Take Senator Justine Wadsack, for example.

She is a far-right MAGA candidate who rented a room in a heavily Republican district in southern Arizona and ousted Senator Vince Leach two years ago. Now Leach, a business-backed conservative, is hoping to win back his seat.

Enter Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based PAC that is spending money to re-elect Wadsack and her seatmates, Reps. Cory McGarr and Rachel Jones.

Who is behind the PAC? No idea.

Why would a group from Virginia that also ran ads targeting select Republicans in the recent Idaho primary be involved in the Republican primary in southern Arizona? I can't tell you.

How much is this mysterious out-of-state PAC spending to ensure Wadsack stays in the Arizona Capitol? No idea.

Where did the money come from?

No, we don't know that either.

This is what we get after 6 years of fighting?

And yet we should definitely do so.

“This rogue operation is getting free rein because SOS is not doing its job,” Chris Baker, the manager of Leach’s campaign, told me.

It took six years to pass a campaign finance law requiring the disclosure of major dark money donors on Arizona ballots. Dark money operations and Republican operatives did everything in their power to prevent the curtain from being lifted and the public from seeing who was trying to buy our vote…

And possibly our politicians.

Score a win for the sunshine:With the Dark Money Law

An astonishing, rock-solid 73% of voters approved Proposition 211 (Voters' Right to Know Act) when it finally came to the ballot in November 2022.

It passed on the early ballot. It passed by voters on Election Day. It passed in every county in Arizona.

The fund survived lawsuits from the Goldwater Institute and three dark money groups – Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Americans for Prosperity and Center for Arizona Policy Action – all hoping to protect their major donors.

It survived a lawsuit by House Speaker Ben Toma and Senate President Warren Petersen.

And yet we remain in the dark, thanks to a State Department that is either incompetent or simply not very interested in letting the sun in.

Two years have passed, Minister Fontes.

Why are we still in the dark?

Contact Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or in the threads at laurierobertsaz.

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Arizona voters demanded disclosure of dark money. Where is it?

Anna Harden

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