Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has won victory against the hand-picked candidate for Attorney General Felecia Rotellini. On Thursday, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Secretary of State in the matter of Committee for Justice & Fairness (CJF) v. Arizona.
In that case, Rotellini was accused by Horne of coordinating campaign activities with an independent expenditure group. The Secretary of State argued that when it comes to elections there is no constitutional right to anonymous speech.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, they have “consistently maintained that the essence of campaign finance laws require: Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure.” For big money spending groups, there is no constitutional right to anonymous speech.
“The people of the state of Arizona have a right to know who is funding advertisements attempting to influence elections,” said Secretary of State Ken Bennett. “I am pleased the Court sided with voters in this matter.”
Just days before the 2010 General Election, CJF spent approximately $1.5 million running an attack advertisement against then Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne as he ran for the State Attorney General.
CJF argued that because the attack ad on Horne was limited to his record in the Legislature and as Superintendent and made no mention of the Attorney General race or his opponent, the ads were issue-oriented speech and not express advocacy.
However, the court ruled that while Horne was not identified as a candidate by the ad, nor did the ad state “do not elect Tom Horne;” the timing and tone of the ad occurred at a time when people were well aware of Horne’s candidacy in the Attorney General race. Therefore, according to the Court, the ad could have no other reasonable interpretation and was found to be express advocacy.
Additionally, the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and found that the bedrock of Arizona’s campaign finance reporting system is constitutional. The Court, in keeping with longstanding Supreme Court jurisprudence, found that disclosure does not have a chilling effect on speech.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, said in a press release that the “ruling upholds the principle that outside interest groups cannot hide behind attack ads like the ones funded by the Democratic Attorneys General Association through CJF.” Montgomery, whose office pressed a complaint against CJF, is not hiding the use of his office to attack Horne in support of Horne’s Republican Primary challenger Mark Brnovich.