ARIZONA GOVERNOR'S RACE: Pro-Jones IE Group Spends $750,000 (More) To Attack Ducey; Ducey Pleads For $250K To Respond

Arizona's Politics has been reporting on the meteoric rise of a pro-Christine Jones Independent Expenditure group, and Better Leaders for Arizona has now committed $775,000 into attacking State Treasurer Doug Ducey in the ever-escalating battle for the GOP nomination for Governor.  Now, Ducey is pleading with supporters to pour $250,000 into his already well-funded campaign to respond to the ad blitz.

When Arizona's Politics spoke with BLA co-founder and treasurer Virginia Simpson yesterday afternoon, BLA had only filed an $80,000 ad expenditure.  Though she indicated that she was raising more money to support Jones, she avoided noting the $775,000 "trigger") report she was about to file.  That report is published below.

That was filed last night, and this morning, the Ducey campaign began fundraising off of it.  Under the email subject line "$750,000 in negative attack ads coming against our campaign", the Ducey camp pleaded with its donors who have already given $1,000 (many) to "max out" and give a second $1,000.  With a "$250,000 short term infusion", they will refute the ads.  The text of the email is published below.

The current ad (ice cream) sandwiches attacks used against Ducey in his (successful) 2010 campaign for Treasurer with statements about Ducey using "front groups" and "dark money".

Simpson attempted to assure Arizona's Politics that all of BLA's money is (1) locally raised, (2) is not from the Quayle family, and (3) will be fully disclosed in the next required campaign finance report.  She declined to share the information early, even just to confirm claims (1) and (2).

Simpson served on the Paradise Valley Town Council for a number of years until 2010, but has not been a political consultant or player since then; some might say that that has now changed.

  Better Leaders 4 Az July 8 Trigger 750000

Ducey campaign email (rec'd 8:15am, 7/9/14):

Friend--

As you may know, a deep-pocketed third party group has begun airing TV ads recycling all the false charges leveled at me during the 2010 campaign.

It’s the first wave of several attacks to come, both personally and about my leadership of Cold Stone Creamery.  Our campaign has vaulted into a strong position for the August primary, and so the negative ads against me have now begun.

Last night the group filed intentions to spend $750,000 in negative ads, and I need your help to fight back.

If you or a family member haven’t contributed recently to the campaign, please do so TODAY.  We’re going to fight back with ads of our own, and they’re expensive.  We need a short-term infusion of $250,000 to help tell our side of the story, and I can’t do that without your assistance.

The maximum donation for the primary is $2000 per person.  If you’ve given $1000, now is the time to “max out” and get to the $2000 level.  This is crunch time, and this is when I need your help the most.

Please go to www.DougDucey.com and click on the donation tab, today if possible.  The stakes are high for our campaign, and I need your support now more than ever.  Please help if you can!

Thank you,

Doug

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