(APS responded to Arizona’s Politics’ emails after hours last night. Though they didn’t answer the specific questions, their statement is incorporated at the end of this article.)
Arizona’s Politics
Arizona Public Service continues ramping up for both state and federal elections this year, with the new news that Pinnacle West (APS’ parent) has given $1.2M to federal SuperPACs in this election cycle – more than any other public corporation in the nation.
Related:Secret money in Arizona is a monster, says a retiring lobbyist
Arizona’s Politics earlier reported that PinnWest had re-started its elections money machine by contributing $150,000 to groups who will be supporting Gov. Doug Ducey and Attorney General Mark Brnovich in their re-election campaigns. And, there has been widespread reporting on APS’s spending money to oppose an initiative effort related to renewable energy.
However, the $1,160,000 which PinnWest has already contributed to Arizona Grassroots Action PAC since the last election is large in its own right. This nearly doubles its contribution to AGA in all of 2016, which was used to support the re-election of Sen. John McCain (both in the primary and in the general).
It is not clear who controls where the AGA PAC spends its money, and which campaign(s) it might get involved in. Significantly, though, APS/PinnWest has contributed about half of the $1.2M before Sen. Jeff Flake announced he would not seek re-election, and slightly more than half after the (Oct. 24) announcement.
