Rich Man’s Recall Stumbles Out of the Gate

The well-financed but misguided forces behind a spurious recall effort could not go one day without breaking campaign law and the Pima County Democratic Party is calling them on it.

The PCDP filed a complaint this morning with the Tucson City Clerk's office over the first piece of political literature the recall supporters distributed.

The recall team, led by one rich man demanding an election do-over, created their political committee on Wednesday, January 6, but they had already paid for and printed their electioneering materials without saying who paid for it. The flier seeks to influence the outcome of an election and is therefore subject to state election law requiring a political committee pay for such material out of money subject to public review.

Here's how the recall backers broke the law. According to ARS 16-912, campaign literature must be paid for by a committee on file with City Clerk's office, all printed materials must include a paid for disclaimer and the top donors (over $10,000) must be listed.

None of this was included on the flier, which solicits money and action, while using the magic word "recall" as a call to action. It was distributed during Tuesday's City Council meeting, a day before the committee to pay for the flier was established.

“This is a clear-cut, indisputable violation of campaign law," said Pima County Democratic Party Chair Jeff Rogers. "It shows how little regard the backers have for the electoral process. If you don't like the result? Pay signature gatherers to get you a do-over. If there's an inconvenient campaign law? Go ahead and break it. Breaking the law right out of the gate should give voters and donors pause before joining up with an effort led by such careless narrow interests."

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