The two Republican Arizona Corporation Commission hopefuls admitted to breaking campaign finance laws, and the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission approved the candidates’ proposed $2,000 settlement at its Thursday meeting.
As a result, Tom Forese and Doug Little avoided a full-blown investigation into their campaign spending as well as a more hefty $58,000 in fines.
On Wednesday, Clean Elections Executive Director Thomas Collins said he planned to recommend that the commission approve the investigation during the next day’s meeting.
But by the time the meeting began Thursday morning, Forese and Little had admitted their guilt and proposed the settlement.
The violations include spending more money than their campaigns had on hand and failing to report expenses made for collecting signatures and buying and setting up campaign signs. The Republicans were accused of additional violations, such as spending primary election funds on general election expenses, but those were tossed out.
Forese and Little didn’t show up for the meeting, but their attorney, Lee Miller, did on their behalf. Miller told the commission that things were moving so fast that the candidates didn’t document all the expenses along the way.
“There was no work-order, there was no invoice, there was no definitive agreement that Americopy, on this day, agreed to provide services associated with putting up 100 signs or 200 signs,” Miller told the commission. “It was a very fluid situation.”
But local activist Rev. Jarrett Maupin spent a half-hour trying to convince the commission that it was letting Forese and Little off too easy.
“I’d hate to think that, at least with so many questions left unanswered, that the commission would sell its integrity for a $2,000 settlement,” Maupin said.
One commissioner, Steve Titla, agreed the settlement fine was too low. He said it’s the commission’s job to punish Forese and Little according to the law.
“We know as this commission that the public has passed this law and we are simply trying to comply with the law as passed by the public … and so I would disagree with my esteemed colleagues and ask for a higher penalty,” Tilta said.
Tilta was the only commissioner who voted against the settlement, while Commissioner Louis Hoffman abstained, saying he was too undecided.
It’s the latest controversy for Forese and Little, who have already been under intense scrutiny this election for benefiting from more than $3 million in dark money spending. The primary source of that money is widely assumed to be Arizona Public Service Co., which is the same utility that Forese and Little would regulate if elected to the Corporation Commission in November.
The GOP candidates are running against Democrats Jim Holway and Sandra Kennedy for the two open Corporation Commission seats.
All four candidates are campaigning with $146,430 each in Clean Elections money in the general election. The GOP candidates’ campaign finance issues began last month when the Arizona Democratic Party filed two complaints.