By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services/East Valley Tribune
The state may be getting an all-Republican Corporation Commission (ACC) because of a last-minute move by the Arizona Association of Realtors to get a panel they think will be friendlier to their issues.
And hanging in the balance could be higher costs for existing electric ratepayers.
Campaign finance reports show the organization, with the aid of its national parent, spent more than $186,000 on two mailers designed to drum up support for incumbent Bob Stump and challengers Bob Burns and Susan Bitter Smith.
The amount is significant in this race because all three Republicans, along with the three Democrats, were running with public financing. And that limited them to $137,811 apiece.
Final results had Stump retaining his seat, with the other two ousting incumbents Paul Newman and Sandra Kennedy. The third Democrat, Marcia Busching, also lost.
The margin of difference between Newman, as the top Democrat vote-getter, and Bitter Smith at the bottom of the GOP was 66,874 votes. About 2.3 million Arizonans went to the polls.
Tom Farley, who until recently was the organization’s chief executive officer, told Capitol Media Services the decision to get involved was deliberate.
Also: AP reports the ACC ordered restitution in the case of Edward Mazur and Ronnie Williams, who were accused of fraudulently promoting an unregistered investment program involving wind energy development.
