Babeu's Headmaster Days Subject Of DCCC's 1st $170,000 Ad Campaign In AZ01 (FOLLOWING MONEY IN ARIZONA'S POLITICS)

The DCCC jumped right into the mucky part of the AZ01 pool this week, with it's first, $170,000 ad buy against GOP nominee Paul Babeu. The ad focuses entirely on Babeu's controversial tenure as the headmaster at the DeSisto School in Massachusetts.

Although the ad started running two days after the current Pinal County Sheriff won the hotly-contested primary for the swing seat in CD1, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has not yet posted it online.

Phoenix's KNXV (Ch.15), which has been in the forefront of reporting the allegations of abuse, did run snippets of the ad as part of a news package explaining that it has nothing to do with the DCCC ad.


On Friday, the DCCC filed its 48-hour disclosure report, detailing that it spent $14,000 producing the ad and $155,000 on airtime. It appears to be airing on the Phoenix stations, although the mammoth district is also partly served by the Tucson market.

Former State Sen. Tom O'Halleran (then, a Republican) is the Democratic candidate for the seat opened up by Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick's run for the U.S. Senate.

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FLAKE CHECK-IN: CBS' Face the Nation Brings Back Arizona Senator Jeff Flake: How Do You Feel About Trump NOW?

Get ready for the regular feature on CBS's Face the Nation: "How does Arizona Senator Jeff Flake feel about Donald Trump NOW?"  Flake will re-join John Dickerson tomorrow morning, only 4 weeks after he last listed things he wanted Trump to change.

Here is how FTN is teasing tomorrow's update: "Was Flake encouraged by Trump’s recent moves on immigration policy? Or has he fully closed the door on the possibility of supporting the GOP nominee?"

And, here is the link to our previous article on his August 7 appearance. It includes video, so you can try to  do your own side-by-side with tomrorrow's interview.

With tomorrow's program, Flake may have also officially supplanted Arizona's other Senator as the Sunday news show go-to guy. At least temporarily. (It could be attributed to McCain facing re-election this year, Flake's Trump position, Flake's widely-acclaimed handsomeness, or all of the above.)

Face the Nation airs at 8:30am in both Tucson (KOLD, Ch.13) and Phoenix (KPHO, Ch.5).

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BREAKING/READ: Federal Case Stemming From Maricopa County's Mega-Long Lines In March Presidential Election May Be Nearing Settlement; Supervisors To Meet On Issue Wednesday

Arizona, Maricopa County and a coalition of Democratic interests may be close to resolving part of the federal lawsuit stemming from the disastrously-long lines (in Maricopa County) in March's Presidential Preference Election.

State Elections Director Eric Spencer tweeted on Friday that the Democrats' attorneys - the national firm of Perkins Coie - was "walk(ing) away" from the polling place allocations issue because they were "headed to certain defeat".

Headed to certain defeat, @PerkinsCoieLLP walks away from polling place claims against Arizona in federal court.

— Eric Spencer (@Eric_Spencer) September 2, 2016

The tweet was made during a 2-hour hearing, at which time U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes took the motion for a preliminary injunction under advisement.

Earlier in the week, the Plaintiffs and the Maricopa County Defendants filed a "Joint Motion Regarding Possibility of Settlement..." regarding polling place locations, stating that the Board of Supervisors was not going to be able to meet before yesterday's hearing. (The Joint Motion is published below.)

Yesterday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors posted their agenda for a meeting to take place this coming Wednesday morning (Sept. 7). The polling places for the November general election are not on the Agenda, but the proposed settlement could be discussed in Executive Session.

The Plaintiffs (including the DNC, the DSCC, the Clinton and the Kirkpatrick campaigns, and individuals) and Plaintiff-Intervenors (Bernie Sanders' campaign) have raised additional issues in the legal action that do not appear to be close to resolution, including restricting enforcement of Arizona's new law prohibiting what is euphemistically known as "ballot harvesting" - the delivery of early, mail-in ballots to elections officials by groups not related to the people who voted the ballots.

  Dems vs Arizona Motion Re Possible Settlement 083016 by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

Added at 12:35pm, partial PACER docket. Last entry shows (barebones info from) Friday hearing.

  Dems vs Arizona Voting Rights Suit Docket 090316 by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

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BREAKING: The "King of Debt" Has No Disclose!; Reuters Article Exposes Donald Trump's Likely Campaign Finance Violations By Failing To List Amounts Owed To Former Staffer(s)

Reuters published an article this afternoon about how Donald Trump's campaign has benefitted from not paying "at least 10 top staffers, consultants and advisers". In so doing, the article may have exposed an important campaign finance law violation.*

The self-declared "King of Debt" 's (aka Donald Trump) campaign committee is required to regularly disclose all debts that it either owes to others or that are owed to the committee. While the Reuters article notes that some of the top-level staffers (etc) may have been volunteering their time - as unusual as that may be - the reporters did get a hold of Michael Caputo. Caputo told the reporters yesterday that he has sent the committee invoices for his unpaid work.

Caputo resigned from the Trump campaign 2 1/2 months ago following his "Ding dong the witch is dead" tweet (following the resignation of Corey Lewandowski, following...).  The monies have been owing since at least that point, and the Trump campaign committee has filed two reports to date which included ZERO debts owed by the committee. (Example at right) 

It was only the month before that Trump had declared himself to be the "King of Debt" (See video below) His campaign committee does not appear to be as in tune with the requirements of their boss's moniker.  Campaign finance law clearly requires that all debts must be reported, whether or not they are disputed. (Even the reasoning behind such a requirement is obvious to anyone who has been paying any attention to this campaign: it is important to know the persons or entities that the committee may be in debt to or that may be in debt to the committee.)

Arizona's Politics has contacted various individuals seeking further details, and will update as warranted.

Donald Trump: "I love debt," but I would not bail out Puerto Rico https://t.co/M2VnbabDtJ https://t.co/C3NkClSOm6

— CNN (@CNN) May 4, 2016

*The article does lay out other possible campaign finance law when it notes that two committee staffers immediately jumped to a pro-Trump SuperPAC.

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UPDATE (READ): APS/Pinnacle West File SEC Disclosure: "Cannot Predict...Outcome" Of Burns' Political Contribution Subpoenas

APS and its parent company, Pinnacle West Capital Corp., filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC" and shareholders this afternoon, reporting the subpoenas filed by Arizona Corporation Commissioner Bob Burns. They told shareholders they "are considering their respective responses to the subpoenas and cannot predict the outcome of this matter."

Burns served the subpoenas last week, seeking information about all political-related spending during the past five years, and requesting the testimony of CEO Don Brandt. Through the reporting of the Arizona Republic, Arizona's Politics and others, it is widely believed that APS/PWCC put several million dollars into a "dark money washing machine" and spent it in on Arizona Corporation Commission races and net metering issues, as well as other political races. APS/PWCC also made political contributions that were not put through a full wash cycle, such as to the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican Governors Association.

APS/PWCC gave $50,000 to a pro-McCain SuperPAC just this past month, as reported by Arizona's Politics.

Burns' seat on the Corporation Commission is on today's GOP ballot, and he is facing challenges in both the primary and general elections. That could be one of the reasons APS/PWCC is hesitant to predict the outcome.

  Pinnacle West Aps Disclosure by arizonaspolitics on Scribd

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WATCH: Brewer Backs Off Of Bold Statement Re: Hillary Clinton Health Rumors, Wants Trump To Stick To Deporting All

Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ALMOST made a bold statement telling GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump - and, key surrogates such as Rudy Giuliani - to stop trafficking in internet conspiracy videos regarding Hillary Clinton's health. However, Brewer backed off of the statement when directly asked if Giuliani and others should cut it out.

Brewer also said that she hopes that Trump WILL retain his promise to deport the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. illegally when he takes to the stage in Phoenix tomorrow.

The former Governor has become a popular Trump surrogate, and was interviewed today by CNN's Jake Tapper on primary election day here in Arizona.

Tapper asked whether people should use the Pandora's Box of anonymous internet videos. Brewer agreed that it is "irritating, frustrating", before trying to quote Benjamin Franklin. It did not quite come out right: "Believe half of what you see, and only half of what you read, I guess.".*

But, when Tapper followed up and asked if she would tell Giuliani to cut it out, she backed off and recited a laundry list of Clinton's possible health issues.

click on picture, interview will be in new Facebook window

Brewer also tried to avoid making any definitive pronouncements about Trump's illegal immigration speech tomorrow in Phoenix. She finished with a strong opinion that he should stick with him promise to get all of them out:

"He has said that they're going to go back and get in line, and come back across the legal way. And, that's what we want. We all believe in the rule of law."

*Not quite as savvy-sounding as Franklin's actual saying: “Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.”

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WATCH, WATCH, WATCH: Rep. Gallego Ready To Tag "Friend" McCain With "Trumpublican" Label; Jim Sharpe On Arizona's "Battleground" Status

The cable news networks have been focusing on Arizona and our primary election today. The most-talked about topic, obviously, is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his GOP primary; however, they have also found plenty of other things to talk about with Arizonans.

We already posted video of Rep. Grijalva (D-CD3) suggesting that Democratic Presidential nominee should cut ties with the Clinton Foundation.

Here is video of Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-CD7) on MSNBC a bit later, attempting to tag McCain with a "Trumpublican" dart.


Minutes earlier, Snow interviewed KTAR's Jim Sharpe about Arizona's political landscape. Sharpe touted AZ as a closely-fought battleground state come November.


We are still keeping our eyes open for video of former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's interview by Jake Tapper on CNN. It was quite the segment. If you have a copy of the video, please drop us a note and/or link.
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WATCH: Rep. Grijalva Says Clinton Should "Get Rid Of It (Ties To Foundation)"

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-CD3) - who is currently facing noone on the ballot either today or in November - told MSNBC's Tamron Hall that Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton should "cut off" ties with the Clinton Foundation.

The relationship between Clinton's State Department and the non-profit Clinton Foundation has been the subject of much discussion and allegations that Foundation donors often had a leg up on non-donors in dealing with the U.S. State Department.

Grijalva said that it has become "an extraneous matter" and that Clinton needs to focus on the critical issues.

"We've got to get rid of extraneous issues, and if this Foundation is an extraneous issue that goes to the heart of whether it's trust and transparency, then get rid of it. Because, there is so much on the table right now for the American people and for the future of this nation, that extraneous issues such as a Foundation which - if that is something that needs to be cut off, then it should be cut off.

Hall praised him for being one "of the few lawmakers" saying this.



H/t to YouTube account "GOP War Room"

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