Facing investigation, 2 candidates file lawsuit against Arizona Clean Elections Commission

Two third-party candidates who are under an investigation by the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission that could force them to pay back millions in public funding have filed a lawsuit challenging the commission’s power to claw back the money.

The commission provides public dollars to candidates for office who agree to abide by campaign finance rules, including foregoing large private donations and contributions from PACS and corporations.

To unlock that funding, candidates must first collect a specific number of $5 qualifying contributions from Arizona voters.

Earlier this year, state and county election officials confirmed that Green Party candidates Risa Lombardo and Duwayne Collier qualified for that funding. That unlocked a total of $2.8 million in primary and general election funding for Lombardo, a gubernatorial candidate, and nearly $740,000 for Collier, who is running for secretary of state.

But last month, the commission voted unanimously to continue an investigation into whether Lombardo and Collier actually collected enough $5 contributions to qualify for funding after Executive Director Thomas Collins said he found evidence questioning the validity of some of those donations.

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The Arizona Mirror also reported that six donors listed by the candidates said they never actually made the contributions in question.

“We do have our own field work, and that field work is consistent with what the Mirror has reported,” Collins said during a hearing in August.

Lombardo and Collier denied the allegations through their attorney, Timothy La Sota.

The lawsuit

As first reported by the Arizona Mirror, Lombardo and Collier are suing the commission, arguing it doesn’t have the power to decertify funded candidates after the fact, arguing it is the Secretary of State and county election officials who certify $5 contributions.

“The Commission is without power to subsequently declare, months after the Secretary of State’s certification has been completed, that a candidate should not have qualified for Clean Elections funding in the first instance and must repay their funding back to the Commission,” according to a complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.

La Sota argued that the Clean Elections process has violated his clients’ free speech rights by effectively curtailing their ability to campaign in the months before the November election.

Chelsey Heath

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He pointed to communications from Collins, the commission director, notifying Lombardo and Collier that he plans to ask the commission to force them to repay the money when the investigation is complete.

“I strongly encourage you to seek legal counsel for this matter immediately and cease spending money from the Clean Elections Funds,” Collins wrote to Lombardo.

At the same time, Lombardo and Collier, like all Clean Elections candidates, cannot fundraise through traditional means due to restrictions put on candidates participating in the program.

All of this is playing out with less than a month before early ballots go in the mail.

And the investigation could drag on until the commission’s scheduled meeting on Oct. 29, according to a commission order. That’s five days before the election.

“Defendants are trying to bully and intimate Plaintiffs into effectively dropping their campaigns, campaigns the Commission disapproves of, by depriving them of Commission funding, or threatening to subject each to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in repayment obligations,” La Sota wrote.

Though the commission has yet to seek repayment, La Sota is asking a judge to preemptively block commissioners from decertifying Lombardo and Collier from the Clean Elections program.

Collins declined to comment on the lawsuit.