The Attorney General's office is expanding its inquiry into allegations of improper conduct by members of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
The agency already is investigating a whistle blower's complaint that Gary Pierce, then the commission's chairman, met secretly with executives of Arizona Public Service while they were seeking a rate hike. The complaint also alleges Pierce pushed commission staff to expedite formation of a corporation that then spend money in 2012 to help reelect Bob Stump and elect two other Republicans.
On Tuesday the Attorney General's office got hold of the phone Stump was using ahead of the 2014 GOP primary to determine whether it can retrieve texts Stump was sending and receiving. Attorney General spokesman Ryan Anderson would not say how investigators think that Stump's activities in 2014 are related to the original probe.
"I will let investigators make that determination in terms of what they see as relevant to the ongoing whistle blower complaint," Anderson said. "Obviously, they felt there was enough of a need to analyze the phone and see, in fact, what sort of information was there."
There are some common players in both issues. One of these includes Scot Mussi, head of the Free Enterprise Club. His group last year spent more than $500,000 on behalf of Justin Pierce, the son of the utility regulator, in his bid to become Secretary of State. Mussi's phone number also shows up repeatedly on a log of Stump's texts last year at the same time the Free Enterprise Club was spending money to help secure the election of Tom Forese and Doug Little over two other Republicans running on a platform of more solar energy. Stump's name also shows up in the whistle blower complaint, with the former staffer saying he informed the commissioner about what he said were irregular activities by Pierce, but he said Stump never did anything about them.