THIS IS HOW WE DO IT: Updates On Tom Horne Whistleblower, Ken Bennett Campaign Spokesman (There IS a Connection)

As the investigations of Tom Horne proceed (and the Tom Horne investigation of Tom Horne does not proceed), we have a couple of related items:

1) Whistleblower Sarah Beattie has moved on from her dual positions in the AG's Office and the AG's re-election campaign, and is fundraising for at least three different political committees.  Arizona's Politics previously reported that she had landed on her feet and had been retained as a self-employed fundraising consultant by the House Victory PAC.

With the rest of the June 30 campaign finance reports filed, we can report that Beattie has also consulted with the Senate Victory PAC (same leadership as House Victory PAC) and the Paul Babeu for Arizona PAC.  All told, she received more than $8,000 from the three committees in the latter half of May - nothing to sneeze at, but nothing outrageous.  There were also no apparent connections to Horne opponents, as has been alleged by the Attorney General.

An update update (10:15am): Ms. Beattie tells Arizona's Politics that she is also working with Adam Kwasman's campaign for the GOP nomination in Congressional District 1.  However, her "main focus" is school.

2) Upon learning that the Arizona Secretary of State's Office had found reasonable cause in Beattie's complaint to forward to the Solicitor General for full investigation, Arizona's Politics picked up the phone to obtain a copy of the determination.  That is when we learned that Secretary of State Director of Communications Matt Roberts* was no longer with the office. Hmmm.

We received confirmation from both the governmental agency and Ken Bennett's campaign office that Roberts has taken a leave (presumably, unpaid) of absence from the Secretary of State's office to work on Bennett's candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor.  According to the SoS Office, the leave will only be through the August 26 primary election - win or lose.  Kim Crawford is handling communications for the Secretary of State's office in the meantime.

As the song goes...


* A big, albeit temporary, loss for the SoS Office - Mr. Roberts is a great spokesman whom Arizona's Politics has tried to pester regularly. 

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