The Democratic candidate running to be the state’s next schools chief is facing allegations her campaign brought politics too close to Arizona classrooms.
The social media pages for Dr. Teresa Leyba Ruiz’s state superintendent campaign are filled with photos and videos from her statewide Arizona Classroom Conversation tour.
“I’ve already visited all 15 Arizona counties,” Leyba Ruiz posted to Facebook on Aug. 28. “As Superintendent, I’ll do it again, because Arizona’s students and families deserve to be heard.”
In many of the posts, Leyba Ruiz, a retired teacher and former Glendale Community College president, visits with teachers and students, who appear to be in the middle of the school day.
That includes an Aug. 24 post that includes photos with students and staff at Tuba City High School.
In another photo, posted Aug. 11, Leyba Ruiz smiles in a classroom while talking to what appear to be high school students, though it is unclear where the photo was taken. She wears a campaign pin in the photo, which includes the caption, “Kinda chic to focus on students over politics.”
Republican state Treasurer Kimberly Yee, Leyba Ruiz’s Republican opponent, believes those photos violate state law and asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate the situation.
In a complaint filed with the Attorney General’s Office, Yee’s attorney cites a state law barring the use of school district resources to influence an election.
“A person acting on behalf of a school district or a person who aids another person acting on behalf of a school district shall not spend or use school district or charter school resources … or any other thing of value of the school district or charter school, for the purpose of influencing the outcomes of elections,” according to the law.
The statute defines school district resources to include facilities, personnel and buildings.
“Ms. Ruiz aided school district employees — including teachers and administrators who are persons acting on behalf of the school district — in using personnel and school district buildings for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the election,” Linley Wilson, an attorney for the Yee campaign, wrote in the complaint.
She also cited a handbook published by the Attorney General’s Office in 2004, which explicitly bars districts from allowing candidates to “advocate their election or the defeat of their opponents in school buildings or on school property, except for times when they are participating in public forums.”
The handbook also requires schools that allow candidates to visit to provide equal access to all candidates in the race.
Leyba Ruiz’s campaign dismissed the complaint as a political hit designed to distract from negative headlines after Yee criticized a former Washington Elementary School Board member who wore cat ears and repeated a false hoax that schools provide litter boxes for children who identify as cats.
Leyba Ruiz campaign spokesperson Christy Chavis also suggested that Yee was given equal access to at least some of the school facilities featured in her campaign posts.
“It’s surprising to see a complaint like this, given that in the last eight years, Ms. Yee has frequently been in classrooms in her capacity as treasurer while also running for three different statewide offices,” Chavis said. “Terry has been invited to many districts and they usually indicate that the treasurer does not respond to their invitations.”
Chavis said she does not believe the visits and associated campaign posts violated other parts of the state law banning the use of school resources to influence elections.
“Both candidates are invited to schools in that capacity (as candidates) because districts want the people running for superintendent to come see what they’re doing,” she said. “That’s exactly what Terry does. She shows up and listens. Images of Terry listening to educators and talking to students about math isn’t in any way improper.”
The Yee campaign disagreed.
“These social media posts are not incidental photographs taken in Ms. Ruiz’s personal capacity,” Wilson wrote in the complaint. “Rather, they are carefully produced campaign content — branded with her campaign logo, posted to her official campaign social media pages, and disseminated to the public for the express purpose of influencing voters and promoting her election.”
Wilson asked Mayes to require Leyba Ruiz to delete the social media posts and fully investigate whether school district resources were used to create them. She also asked the attorney general to impose applicable penalties, which could include fines up to $5,000 for each violation of the law.
That request is complicated by the fact that Mayes has already endorsed Leyba Ruiz, her fellow Democrat, in the superintendent’s race.
Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for the attorney general, said the case will be referred to a county attorney for investigation “if we determine a conflict exists.”
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