Wednesday, March 6, 2019

ARIZONA'S POLITICAL SHORTS: Gallego Calls Kelly Pledge To Not Take Corporate PAC $$$ "Weird"

4:50pm: Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-CD7) has not yet announced that he will run for the Senate next year, but he is already taking shots at announced candidate Mark Kelly, calling his pledge to not accept corporate PAC money "weird".

When asked by The Intercept about the pledge, despite Kelly being paid by corporations for speaking engagements, Gallego said "“It’s kind of weird, though, to say you’re not taking corporate PAC money, but then also directly taking corporate PAC money into your personal account.* I don’t understand why even take that pledge if you’re not personally living that.”

The article also points out that Gallego has accepted more than $700,000 in corporate PAC contributions during his Congressional career.

Gallego has indicated that he will make a decision about whether or not to oppose Kelly for the Democratic nomination within the next few weeks. The nominee will likely face Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) who was appointed to the seat that had been filled by the late Sen. John McCain. Governor Ducey appointed her to serve until the special election can be held in November 2020.

*It is unlikely that the corporations exhaustively listed in The Intercept article used PAC money. "PAC" stands for "Political Action Committees", and the corporations were paying Kelly money for speaking engagements. Kelly's campaign points out that the speeches were generally not political, but were motivational and about his time as a Space Shuttle Commander. Also, the amounts of PAC contributions are strictly limited by law; it is likely Kelly was paid larger sums from the corporation.

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