Following Governor Katie Hobbs’ admission that she personally approved the plan to use dark money to fund her inaugural events, Arizona attorney Tim La Sota filed a public records request with the Governor’s Office requesting information related to the dark money sources.
Hobbs has refused to disclose how much her inauguration ceremony cost and how much her dark money sources paid for it.
Hobbs’ decision stunned both critics and supporters due to the fact that she has claimed to be a staunch supporter of transparency in campaign finance matters and promised transparency as part of her gubernatorial campaign.
OOPS!
Democrat @KatieHobbs admitted during an interview with @BrahmResnik that she did, in fact, "sign off" on the dark-money apparatus secretly funding her inaugural events — right before asking him to change the subject.
MORE ➡️ https://t.co/kDC3t97W7H pic.twitter.com/FjGilOyKlz
— Brian Anderson (@AZBrianAnderson) January 11, 2023
The popular political blog, StopKatieHobbs.com, was the first to reveal “the existence of two 501(c) entities connected to the Democrat’s campaign and inauguration a few days before her 12 News interview.”
In that interview, the anchor asked Hobbs if it was “a mistake to pay for the ceremonies using a dark money fund that does not disclose how much each donor paid.” Hobbs readily admitted that she did approve of the plan but dismissed the subject as unimportant and insisted the subject be changed to the “priorities” of her new administration.
Hobbs’ insistence on not answering questions has not silenced them. To the contrary, it has encouraged more of them.
La Sota is hoping to get them answered, at least in part, with his public records request, and he believes the law is on his side:
“You have taken the position that information pertaining to the Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund is “private” and thus you can successfully shield it from being accessed through the Arizona Public Records Law. To try to effectuate this secrecy you formed the Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund as an Arizona non-profit corporation and presumably will seek to be recognized as a tax exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Your position that your actions shield the requested records from disclosure represents a fundamental and elementary misunderstanding of the Arizona Public Records law.
Under the Arizona public records law, the actual repository of information is not dispositive of whether that information is a public record. That is, even if information is kept by a purportedly private entity, that does not mean the information kept is automatically not a public record. See, e.g., Lunney v. State, 244 Ariz. 170, 173 (App. 2017)(“ “a public employee’s private cell phone records pertaining to the conduct of public business may become public records subject to disclosure if a public records requestor establishes the employee used the cell phone for a public purpose…””)
If a government official could simply use a private media or entity to shield correspondence or activities from the public, public officials could avoid the Arizona public records law altogether by communicating through a Gmail account.”
La Sota points out that not only did Hobbs use government resources to host the website used to secure the unknown sums she raised, prison labor provided by Arizona’s Department of Corrections set up her inaugural ceremony at the Capitol.
La Sota is requesting “all correspondence from or to any of the following individuals, with regard to solicitations, or funds raised for your gubernatorial inaugural events, including the Arizona non-profit organization named Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund, regardless of where these public records are stored:
- Yourself
- Nicole DeMont
- Any of the staff of the Governor’s Office
- Any of your campaign staff
- Moe Asnani
- Reginald Ballantyne III
- Mario E Diaz and Veronica De La O
- Toni Denis and Andy Denis
- Fred and Jennifer DuVal Neil Giuliano
- John and Kathleen Graham
- Balbir Grewal
- Pam Grissom
- Daryl Kling and Lewis Guthrie
- Nestor and Susan Guzman
- Sharon and Oliver Harper
- Kim Khoury
- Gizette Knight
- Simon and Elizabeth Kottoor
- Donalyn Mikles
- Francis and Dionne Najafi
- Ron Ober and Gail Gordon
- William Perry
- Victor Smith
- Benee Hilton-Spiegel and Dr. Jay Spiegel
- David Tedesco
Specifically, La Sota is asking for “all spreadsheets, financial statements, or other documents pertaining to revenues received, and expenditures made, in regard to your inauguration….” He made clear that he is only seeking public records with regard to the non-profit corporation Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund.