Arizona Senate investigates Clean Elections Commission

(The Center Square) – Arizona Senate Government Committee Chairman Jake Hoffman sent a letter to the Clean Elections Commission, an organization that hosts most debates in Arizona, warning them that a new rule they’ve adopted this year could be illegal and the Senate will be investigating.

The rule adopted requires U.S. Senate candidates to receive at least 1% of the total ballots cast in the primary election to participate in debates hosted by the Commission, blocking out Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Eduardo Quintana from participating as he only received 282 votes. Quintana is running for the open Arizona U.S. Senate seat against Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Ruben Gallego.

However, this rule does not apply for those competing in legislative races, meaning that Quintana is the only candidate being left out of the debates.

This rule makes it practically impossible for Green Party candidates to participate in the debates as there’s only a little over 3,000 registered Green party voters statewide.

At this time, the Green Party has 100 elected officials across the country. However, Arizona has never had a Green Party candidate elected into a federal or state office.

According to the letter sent by Hoffman, the Commission did not submit this rule for approval to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council as required under the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act.

“Had the Commission followed the Administrative Procedures Act as voters mandated under Prop 306, the Arizona Green Party would have had the opportunity to protest the unreasonableness of a rule that effectively precludes their participation based on party registration numbers,” reads the letter. “The Green Party could have also appealed to GRRC for fairness in application of Clean Elections Commission policies, citing the fact that the Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate was invited to participate in the 2022 General Election Debate.”

Hoffman requested a response from the Clean Elections Committee by Sept. 12 as to why this regulatory requirement and review was ignored.

"At best, the Clean Elections Commission seems to be creatively, yet intentionally, blocking some candidates from participating in the debate, not to mention subverting the will of the voters to require proper transparency in agency actions through the Administrative Procedures Act," Hoffman said. "At worst, the taxpayer-funded Commission has knowingly broken the law. Either action offends the non-partisan intent of the Clean Elections Act. Voters deserve an explanation from the Commission as to why the intent, or the actual text, of the voter-approved Prop 306 was ignored by the Commission."

According to Quintana’s campaign website, he is running with the Arizona Green Party to “offer a political choice outside our failed two-party system careening towards nuclear war and environmental catastrophe.”