HB 2157, has passed in the Arizona House of Representatives, which amends Arizona’s Resign to Run law. Under Resign to Run elected or appointed officials are prevented from launching new campaigns without resigning.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, sponsored the bill, which allows an “incumbent elected official to make a formal declaration of candidacy for another office without having been deemed to have offered himself up for nomination.”
Currently incumbent officials must leave their post if they file nomination papers with the Secretary of State or announce their candidacy for another position. Codified in statute, the Arizona Revised Statutes § 38-296 “provides that an incumbent elected officer is deemed to have offered himself up for nomination in two ways: On the filing of a nomination paper or by making a formal public declaration of candidacy for such office, whichever occurs first.”
Kavanagh calls the legislation the ‘truth shall set you free’ bill because it allows candidates to tell the public what they are planning to do.
Arizona voters approved the Resign to Run law in 1980.
According to the Verde Independent, “the law has claimed its share of politicians. In 1982, Pima County Supervisor Conrad Joyner and Tucson Councilman Roy Laos, both in the middle of their respective terms, launched congressional campaigns. Judges subsequently ruled that both had violated the law, with Joyner quitting and Laos being forced out by court order.”