Amended opinion concurs with Secretary of State
The Arizona Solicitor General has released an amended opinion concerning Arizona’s campaign finance laws under HB 2593 requiring separate committees for elections and limits transfered.
In response to a request from the Arizona Secretary of State, the Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion on August 27, 2013 concerning the interpretation and implementation of amendments to Arizona’s campaign finance laws under HB 2593, a bill passed in the last legislative session.
The Office of the Attorney General opinion stated, “The best practice might be to set up two separate candidate committees (for the primary and general elections), but the statutes do not necessarily require it.”
The Secretary of State later issued guidance stating that a candidate must designate a political committee for each election, and may have only one campaign committee designated for each election.
Consequently, a discrepancy existed between the “best practices” statement in the Office of the Attorney General’s opinion and the statement in the Secretary’s guidance requiring a candidate to have separate committees for the primary and general elections.
In order to resolve the discrepancy and clarify the limits of committee-to-committee transfer of funds, the Attorney General’s Office is today issuing an amended opinion. The opinion concurs with the Secretary of State’s conclusion that the statute requires separate committees for the primary and general elections, and that contribution limits still apply to committee-to-committee transfers.