By Mary Jo Pitzl | Arizona Capitol Times
Key Points:
- Arizona election officials may face conflict of interest concerns
- Secretary Adrian Fontes endorses candidate who filed campaign finance complaint
- Arizona law does not bar election officials from endorsing candidates
A campaign finance complaint filed with the Arizona Secretary of State has unwittingly provoked a perennial election question in Arizona: Can state officials carry out their election duties while also exercising their free speech rights?
To Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who has endorsed the candidate making the complaint, the answer is simple.
“I can chew gum and walk at the same time,” said Fontes, a Democrat who is backing fellow veteran Dan Toporek in a contested legislative district in north Phoenix. “I’m a voter, too, and I have a First Amendment right to express myself.”
There is no clear answer to the possible conflict of interest. Arizona law doesn’t bar endorsements or block an election official’s management and oversight of elections when they themselves are on the ballot.
