A Republican state lawmaker has accused the Citizens Clean Elections Commission of violating the law when it adopted a new rule this year that excluded Green Party candidates from participating in some general elections debates.
The new rule requires candidates to receive at least 1% of the total ballots cast in all primaries for their office to qualify for statewide and federal general election debates, a barrier that made it virtually impossible for the Green Party candidates to qualify for debates for U.S. Senate, Congress and the Arizona Corporation Commission.
For example, Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Eduardo Quintana needed approximately 12,400 primary votes to qualify for the upcoming debate with Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego, even though there are only 3,300 total Green Party voters statewide.
That rule wasn’t in place in 2022, when Libertarian Marc Victor participated in Clean Elections’ U.S. Senate debate after receiving only 0.22% of the total primary vote.
Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who chairs the Senate Government Committee, said the new 1% rule did not undergo proper vetting.
In a letter to the commission that cited reporting by KJZZ News, Hoffman cited Prop. 306, a voter-approved law that required the Clean Elections Commission to comply with the Administrative Procedures Act. Among other requirements, that act requires a public commenting period for new rules and approval from the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council.
That, Hoffman said, would have given the Green Party the opportunity to comment on the rule.
“That didn't happen in this case, and it resulted in the commission creating a rule that would be impossible for certain small approved political parties to ever meet, meaning that their candidates would never be eligible under this rule to participate in debates,” Hoffman said.
The Citizens Clean Elections Commission did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday but previously said the 1% rule was implemented by the Arizona Media Association, its broadcast partner for debates in statewide and federal races. The rule does not apply to the commission’s legislative debates.
“The ‘1% total ballots cast threshold’ for general elections debates was established this election cycle as an editorial policy of the Arizona Media Association and informed by an evaluation of Clean Elections’ debate work group, which met in 2023,” according to a statement from the commission. “The editorial decision is designed to dedicate studio resources in a way that maximizes the limited airtime and for voters to have visibility to the candidates that met the votes threshold.”
The Clean Elections Commission also cited the Green Party’s relatively small footprint in Arizona, noting Green Party voters make up just 0.08% of Arizona’s total electorate.
Hoffman, who is also facing allegations he broke state law in the Arizona fake electors case, said his committee will investigate whether the commission violated the 2018 law.
“From my view, at best, the Clean Elections Commission seems to be creatively blocking some candidates from participating in the debate, not to mention subverting the will of the voters that requires proper transparency in the actions that the agency takes,” Hoffman said. “But at worst this seems like this taxpayer-funded Commission has knowingly broken the law in an apparent attempt to benefit one political party.”
Hoffman asked the commission to respond to the allegations by Sept. 12 and said he will confer with Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), the Government Committee’s vice-chair, to determine the next steps in the investigation.
