By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Daily Sun
Arizona voters who want to preclude publicly funded candidates from buying services from political parties will have to vote for new limits on the powers of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to get that change.
And vice versa.
In an extensive ruling Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanders rejected arguments by supporters of the commission that it’s illegal to put voters in the position where they have to support both changes just to get the one they want — and even if they don’t like the other one.
Sanders acknowledged that the Arizona Constitution does have a requirement for changes in that document to be presented to voters as separate proposals. But the judge noted that the two changes the Republican-controlled Legislature wants voters to approve are statutory, not constitutional.
