Now that Arizona Corporation Commission Chair Susan Bitter Smith will resign, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he believes the case against her should be dropped.
On Thursday afternoon, Bitter Smith made the unexpected announcement following months of scrutiny that eventually resulted in an attorney general's investigation, which found the commissioner had violated conflict of interest laws. Bitter Smith serves as director of a cable trade group and is a registered lobbyist for Cox. While the commission does not regulate cable or internet, it does oversee the telephone affiliates of some cable companies represented by Bitter Smith
Brnovich had requested the Arizona Supreme Court remove her from office because of those industry ties. A hearing on how the court should proceed in the case is set for early January.
Brnovich said he learned of Bitter Smith’s plan to step down next month at the same time as everyone else. In fact, his office had just begun preparing its response to her attorney’s filing in the case, which came late Wednesday night. Bitter Smith still refutes that she has violated any laws, but said the ongoing attention had become too distracting for her to carry out the last year of her term.
That claim does not make a lot of sense to Brnovich, though.
“It’s a red herring, and it seems like a strange legal position to take. You spent all the time and effort filing a response and then you resign one day before the court is going to meet to decide how to move forward on the case,” he said.
Brnovich was very confident in their arguments and believed Bitter Smith ultimately took the right course.
"I fully appreciate the gravity of the action we took," he said.
"We're not going to spike the football. We're not going to do some victory lap. For us, we are doing our job and our job was to enforce the state law, and our position was that she had violated the state's conflict of interest law and was ineligible to hold office."
In her resignation announcement, Bitter Smith said Brnovich's investigation was a reaction to "dark money" groups.
Brnovich dismissed that claim as “silly” and politically motivated.
Brnovich had previously stated that there is an open criminal case connected to Bitter Smith, but declined to comment on the status of that.
The Arizona Supreme Court will ultimately decided on whether to proceed with the case.
