PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Citizens Clean Elections Commission has no legal authority to overturn the secretary of state’s decision to qualify a candidate for the ballot, the Arizona Mirror reported.
At the same time, the justices declined to stop the commission’s investigation into whether three long-shot candidates used falsified paperwork to qualify for public campaign money.
The probe involves Green Party candidates Risa Lombardo, who is running for governor, and Duwayne Collier, running for secretary of state, along with Republican Scott Neely, who lost the July gubernatorial primary. The three are accused of faking documentation of enough $5 qualifying contributions to collect about $4.7 million combined in Clean Elections funding. They are also the subjects of a criminal investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.
Lombardo and Collier had sued, arguing the commission was overstepping by effectively trying to decertify them. The ruling leaves open whether the commission can ultimately force candidates to repay money if fraud is found.
The commission’s executive director, Tom Collins, notified the candidates in August that they could be required to return some or all of the funds.
Sources: Arizona Mirror. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: davidpinter / CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
