Part of Clean Elections law found unconstitutional

PHOENIX (AP)—A judge has ruled that a key provision of Arizona’s public campaign financing system violates constitutional free speech rights but that a challenge came too late to warrant immediately putting it on hold.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver’s ruling came late Friday in a suit filed on Aug. 21 by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of some Republican legislative candidates.

The plaintiffs who sued include Republican state Reps. John McComish of Phoenix and Nancy McLain of Bullhead City. Others are GOP legislative candidates Frank Antenori, Tony Bouie, Kevin Gibbons, and Doug Sposito.

The suit asked the judge to bar the state Clean Elections Commission from paying so-called “matching funds” to candidates who are outspent by opponents who don’t sign up for state financing.

The judge refused to do that outright, though, denying a request for a temporary restraining order. She wrote that the late challenge, filed just before Tuesday’s primary election, hasn’t given either side time to present evidence. She set a hearing for Wednesday to consider issuing a preliminary injunction or holding further hearings.

Still, the ruling could have a major impact in November’s general election. If Silver follows though and issues a preliminary injunction, candidates who opted not to take public financing could spend as much as they want without worrying that their opponents would get a supplemental cash infusion from the state.

“If matching funds were denied for the general election, that would put any participating candidate at the mercy of a candidate who spends more,” Eric Ehst, executive director of the private Clean Elections Institute, said Saturday. “Once they’ve received funds there’s no way for them to get out of the system and no way for them to raise private funds.”

At this stage in the process, with more than 100 candidates signed up for public financing, barring the matching funds would severely disrupt the election, Ehst said.

The preliminary ruling was hailed by a lawyer for the Republicans who filed the suit.

“We think yesterday’s ruling was a victory for free speech rights,” attorney Clint Bolick told The Associated Press on Saturday.