On May 4, 2018, in the wee hours of the morning, the Arizona legislature approved a bill that would put a two-subject measure on the ballot. The Legislature picked one subject that they thought would appeal to voters – prohibiting candidates from providing campaign funds to political parties. But the legislature tacked on an additional provision that would allow the partisan and politically appointed members of Governor Ducey’s Regulatory Review Council to control all rulemaking by the non-partisan Clean Elections Commission.
Putting these two unrelated issues on the ballot together in a “take it or leave it” measure is an unconstitutional attempt to trick Arizona voters into allowing Governor Ducey’s appointees to control and politicize the non-partisan Clean Elections Commission.
Arizona voters created the Clean Elections Commission in 1998 to protect our political system from special-interest money. The Commission educates voters, provides campaign funding, and enforces campaign finance rules.
Under the auspices of preventing public campaign finance money from being diverted to political parties, the legislature seeks to take-away the Commission’s independence by shifting control of the Commission’s rules to a partisan committee controlled by the Governor.
To prevent this type of sneaky ballot measure aimed at duping the voters, the Arizona Constitution explicitly prohibits measures, such as this one, that ask voters to approve two separate and unrelated subjects.
The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest immediately filed a lawsuit to prevent the measure from appearing on the November ballot. A hearing on our emergency request to stop this bill is fast-approaching.
