McSALLY MAKES IT OFFICIAL: 1st To Sign and File For 2020 Senate Special Election

Arizona's appointed Senator-To-Be Martha McSally made it official last night when she signed and filed her Statement of Candidacy to retain her seat in the Senate in the 2020 Special Election.

It is not uncommon for Members of Congress (including Senators) to file their Statement of Candidacy shortly after the just-passed election, because it allows them to continue to accept contributions from individuals, PACs, etc. In fact, Sen.-Elect Kyrsten Sinema filed her 2024 Statement of Candidacy on November 19, one week after McSally conceded the election to replace Sen. Jeff Flake.

Nearly half of Arizona's new delegation in the House of Representatives have also filed their statements to seek re-election in 2020. Perhaps more notable are a couple of the Representatives who have NOT yet filed - Ruben Gallego (D-CD7) has expressed interest in running for the Democratic nomination in the Senatorial Special Election, and Paul Gosar (R-CD4) had been interested in running to replace Flake. Less likely: Ann Kirkpatrick (D-CD2) previously ran against the late Sen. John McCain (2016), and Andy Biggs (R-CD5) and David Schweikert (R-CD6).

(Four challengers have already filed for various House seats, with the best-known of those being Dave Giles (R) in CD9.*)

McSally will enter the Senate with more than $1M already in her re-election war chest. Arizona's Politics reported on her latest campaign finance filing earlier this month. ("McSally Locked, Loaded and Ready For 2020 Run - Well, Definitely Loaded")

Arizona's Politics previously reported on the lawsuit to attempt to force Governor Doug Ducey to hold the Special Election for McCain's seat this year, by declaring Arizona's replacement law unconstitutional. An Amended Complaint was filed last week, and is pending response.

(If the embedded filing below is not working, you may click on this link to open it in another window.)

   McSally Statement of Candidacy, for Senate Special Election in 2020 by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

*The others are Robert Musselwhite (D, CD8), Scott Menor (U, CD5), and James Schmidt (R, CD2).

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One of Arizona's retiring Senators may be a lame duck, but it appears Jeff Flake is quacking - that IS part of the job description for both, after all -  through the closing bell. Politico included his actions in their narrative of the frantic negotiations to avert the partial government shutdown today.

Flake - along with fellow retiring Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) - initially withheld votes to open Senate debate on the House-passed bill that includes $5B for a border wall. After they - along with Democrat Doug Jones (D-AL) - opened debate, that allowed Flake to apparently conduct some shuttle diplomacy on a compromise that could both pass the Senate and gain both House and presidential approval.

Here is how Politico describes it, after noting that Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer were barely speaking Friday morning:

In fact, things were so bad and GOP senators so disgusted with the state of play that two of them, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), couldn’t be convinced to even open debate on a doomed House-passed bill that delivered $5 billion for the border wall. The vote stayed open for more than five hours as Perdue and Gardner backchanneled with the administration, and as Schumer spoke to Trump officials and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Eventually, Flake, Corker and Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) voted to move forward on the bill and allow leaders to keep talking. Seemingly minor, the procedural move makes it possible for the Senate to act as quickly as a deal can be struck. 

“Mitch certainly doesn’t want to put us out voting on something that the president has not agreed to. The key is that the president has to agree that he will [sign] this,” Flake said. 

Flake met with Corker, then with Schumer, McConnell, and finally the two leaders together to move the Senate’s funding effort forward. Yet while that procedural fracas was playing out, Republicans were frantically trying to come up with something they could put on the floor. 

The shuttle diplomacy continued throughout the day. 

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BREAKING: 2019 Special Election To Replace McCain/Kyl Less Likely After Court Filing

Plaintiffs pushing Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to call an immediate special election to re-fill the late Sen. John McCain's have backed off a bit after consulting with Gov. Ducey's attorney.

The suit claims the Arizona law permitting Ducey to name the again-retiring Jon Kyl - and, now, a 2nd appointment for a full two year Congressional session - is unconstitutional.  Filed Nov. 29, the suit asks for a court order which would set an election within 6 months.

Mike Liburdi represents the Governor and conferred with plaintiffs' counsel last week. Subsequently, plaintiffs have asked the judge to NOT setoral argument on their motion for an injunction. Instead, they would like to amend their Complaint.

Arizona's Politics has requested comments from both sides and will update as necessary.

http://arizonaspolitics.blogspot.com/2018/11/az-law-unconstitutional-special.html?m=1
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BREAKING: Sen. Kyl Will Still Need To File Financial Disclosure Statement - Even If He's Already Gone

It has apparently become a universally-accepted fact that a key reason Arizona Senator* Jon Kyl is resigning on December 31 is so he will not need to file the Senate's Personal Financial Disclosure statement that all federal elected officials (and, some in their offices) are obligated to file. It is unlikely that it was a motivation, because Kyl will still be required to file his statement.

The widely-accepted speculation centered around Kyl's inter-Senatorial stint (2013-18) as a high-powered lobbyist at one of the nation's biggest lobbying law firms (Covington & Burling). Arizona's Politics first reported on Kyl's financial disclosure statement back when he first announced his retirement from the Senate, in 2011. He then had a mid-range net worth estimate of $554k, which ranked him as only the 82nd richest member of that body. (Bonus fun fact: he said then he did not want to be a lobbyist.)

Soon after Governor Doug Ducey appointed him to fill out at least a portion of the late Senator John McCain's term, Kyl asked for an extension from the October 5 deadline to file his new disclosure statement, and it was granted. His new filing date is January 3.

So, the extension request combined with Kyl's initial announcement that he might only serve a few months to create the impression. And, the savvy Senator seemed to encourage that impression to flourish. Arizona's Politics has asked him, his staff and associates several times during the past 2+ months whether or not he would file the disclosure statement. (We have been asking many other questions, as well.) Crickets.

The assumption that the filing requirement would vanish if he was not in the Senate on January 3 thus flourished. However, the law does not allow for such a work-around.

The Ethics In Government Act (which Sen. Kyl helped amend in 2012), published in part below,  require reports to be filed by an individual who serves in an office for at least 60 days. And, even after leaving the government position, the individual has 30 days to file a report for the calendar year that he was in office. (Subsections (d) and (e).) Kyl will have served 117 days as of December 31.

Interestingly, the law does permit Senator Kyl to request a WAIVER of the disclosure statement requirement if he served fewer than 130 days. However, the Secretary of the Senate could only approve such a request if he was not a full-time employee, if his services were "specially needed by the Government", if his "outside employment or financial interests" were unlikely to create a conflict of interest, and if the disclosure "is not necessary in the circumstances." Even if Kyl requested such a waiver, it is highly unlikely the Senate could reasonably approve it. (Subsection (i).)

Arizona's Politics has (again) reached out to Sen. Kyl for comment, and will update as needed.

(Arizona's Politics has published several articles about Sen. Kyl, his lobbying and sherpaing, and his disclosures. Here are a few:

BREAKING, WATCH: Arizona Senator Kyl's Presentation Supporting Kavanaugh Confirmation http://bit.ly/AZp1636

NEW! AZ Sen. Jon Kyl Did Work For Dark Money Giant JCN In Preparing For This Supreme Court Vacancy - How Much Involved Kavanaugh?http://bit.ly/AZp1631 

MOUNTAINS OF MONEY: Arizona's Sen. Jon Kyl Is Top Sherpa For Trump Administration, Lobbyist For Dark Money Judicial Crisis Network 

"16-Year (So Far) Senate Career Has Not Been (Financially) Rewarding For Arizona Senator Jon Kyl...Yet"http://bit.ly/AZpKylNetWorth   (a real oldie!))

   United States Code_ Title 5a,101. Persons Required to File _ LII _ Legal Information Institute by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

*Technically, "former-, current- and future-former-Senator".

(This article was contributed by Tempe attorney Paul Weich.)


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BREAKING: MCSO Deputy arrested for stealing money from a dead person in Mesa, while on duty.

MCSO Deputy arrested for stealing money from a dead person in Mesa, while on duty. This happened on October 28.

   Deputy Arrest, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

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BREAKING: McSally Locked, Loaded and Ready For 2020 Run - Well, Definitely Loaded

Outgoing Rep. Martha McSally is locked, loaded and ready for another run at a U.S. Senate seat from Arizona. Or, at a minimum, she is loaded. The former fighter pilot, who narrowly lost an expensive campaign to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, keeps more than $1M in the McSally For Senate bank account.

Considering that she spent more than $19.7M on the race against fellow Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, keeping approximately 5% in the tank may not seem like much. But, given that there is already pressure on Governor Doug Ducey to appoint her to take Sen. Jon Kyl's place serving out the term for the late Sen. John McCain, having a significant head start has already increased speculation that she will soon join Sinema in the Senate.

The ongoing war-chest numbers come from the campaign's latest FEC filing, which is re-produced below in all of its 5,073-page glory. For comparison, the Sinema campaign has $212k in the tank, although she will not be running for re-election until 2024.

We have requested a response from the McSally campaign, and will update as needed.

McSally Post-Gen FEC by on Scribd

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