Millions of dollars are being poured into Arizona this year to sway your vote. I’m sure you have seen the street signs, the social media posts, and the TV commercials and received the emails, robocalls, text messages, mailers, and pamphlets dropped quietly at your doorstep.
Candidates raise and spend money to get elected, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Special Interest Groups create Political Action Committees (PACs) to raise and spend money to support some candidates and causes and attack others. Donations to PACs are transparent. Independent Expenditures (IEs) are non-transparent, dirty money campaign expenditures that are not supposed to be coordinated with the candidate. There were millions of dollars in IEs spent to tear down or build up candidates in the August 2020 primary in both Democratic and Republican races. In the General Election, the money is even worse.
Next time you receive a mailer or see a TV commercial, check who paid for it. IEs are usually behind the really nasty mailers based on half-truths, heavy spin, or just lies.
Fun Fact: Thanks to the Supreme Court, campaign advertising doesn’t have to be true! I am proud to be one of the few Clean Elections candidates left in the Arizona House. I don’t take any big-money donations from people or PACs. In fact, I have PAC checks to mail back.I think it should be easier to run clean and harder (or impossible) to game the election system with money.