The state Court of Appeals rejected a bid to appeal a fine after a group ran an ad targeting former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith in his run against Doug Ducey in the 2014 gubernatorial race.
The court ruled the group, Legacy Foundation Action Fund, waited too long before appealing a nearly $100,000 fine imposed by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.
Arizona law requires those attempting to influence an election to publicly disclose the spending, which the fund did not do after releasing the ad, which led to the fine from the election commission.
Attorneys for the group made a new legal bid arguing the elections commission does not have the authority to impose a fine in the first place.
But the majority of appellate judges denied the claim that the commission abused any authority it had. The court added that the fund lost the chance to make new arguments due to missing the deadline to appeal the fine.
