Campaign Finance & Election
Campaigns should be open and free, not prone to manipulation through government financing schemes. And now the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.
The Clean Elections Act was supposed to level the electoral playing field and remove special interest influence from Arizona politics. But one group has found ways to skirt the law: incumbents.
Last week, Justice Samuel Alito penned a Supreme Court decision that could be the beginning of the end for Arizona Clean Elections.
The Goldwater Institute scored a victory for free speech last week when the Arizona Attorney General abandoned a campaign finance regulation.
Responding to a cease and desist letter written by the Goldwater Institute on March 26, the Arizona Attorney General said, "[i]n light of the Supreme Court's decision in Davis v. FEC ... our office does not intend to enforce the provisions of current A.R.S. § 16-905(f)."
Whenever local bureaucrats or special-interest groups want to neutralize conservative legislators, one of their most-potent weapons is two words: “local control.”
By Nick Dranias and Lucy Morrow Caldwell
Ask any grassroots activist and he’ll tell you that getting out the vote is tough, because the majority of Arizonans have busy lives beyond the ballot-box. Worse still, with elections happening at a variety of times throughout a two-year cycle, many voters don’t know when an election is taking place.
PHOENIX — Clint Bolick looks like any other high-powered lawyer, for the most part. But glance down at his index finger, which sports a scorpion tattoo, for first-hand evidence of his unconventional streak.
Arizona Republic Editorial
Nothing against the practice of advertising your product, mind you -- institutionally speaking, we strongly endorse it -- but perhaps you too have wondered, as we have:
By Paul Atkinson, KJZZ
11/22/2011
You may have heard or seen one of the advertisements…
TV ADVERTISEMENT: “Clean Elections, everybody wins…"
In its lawsuit, Goldwater Institute attorney Carrie Ann Sitren cites the Clean Election Commission’s own marketing plan that says it ‘Needs to raise its profile and begin laying the groundwork to counter charges that the system doesn’t work.’