State Senator Hoffman Opens Investigation Against 'AZ Clean Elections' for 1% Rule

Alleges the commission is rigging the senate debate in favor of Democrats.

State Senator Jake Hoffman, the Chairman of the #Arizona Senate Committee on Government, has initiated an investigation into the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (AZCCEC) over a rule recently implemented that essentially bars Arizona Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana (G) and four other candidates from upcoming debates.

Hoffman opened this investigation this past Thursday stating:

“I opened an investigation into allegations that the (Clean Elections Commission) illegally engaged in rulemaking designed to exclude certain qualified candidates from participating in the U.S. Senate debate”.

“At best, the Clean Elections Commission seems to be creatively, yet intentionally, blocking some candidates from participating in the debate… At worst, the taxpayer-funded Commission has knowingly broken the law, in an apparent attempt to benefit one particular political party,” says Hoffman.

“Either action offends the non-partisan intent of the Clean Elections Act.”

Quintana, the senate candidate in question, won the Green Party’s nomination in the recent party primary, but was excluded because he had not received 1% of the total vote from the state-wide primary, a rule placed on him by the commission despite not being in the commission’s own approved rule book.

Eduardo Quintana (G) is running for U.S. Senate against Ruben Gallego (D) and Kari Lake (R). The AZCCEC has invoked a rule against him barring him from debating his opponents.

To qualify under this prescribed rule, Quintana would have needed some 12K votes, despite the fact that the Green Party in Arizona only has around 3K registered voters (as of July’s primary), making this rule practically unattainable.

This prescribed rule is not in the official ‘Clean Elections’ rulebook (section R2-20-107 ‘Candidate Debates’, paragraph (C)), which lists two disqualifying reasons that a candidate would not be invited to debate. It explicitly states that a candidate is disqualified to debate if for the general election, they are a write-in candidate.

Paragraph (C), Section R2-20-107 (Candidate Debates) from the ‘Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act & Rules Manual’.

Quintana was officially placed on the ballot by the Secretary of State (i.e. not a write-in candidate) and should be eligible.

Senator Hoffman goes further accusing the commission of “rigging the U.S. Senate debates to help Democrat Ruben Gallego against Republican Kari Lake”.

“(This) rule was not submitted for approval to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC) for approval under the Arizona Administrative Procedures Act,” adds Hoffman.

When the story broke, Lake (who supports the idea of debating Quintana), made mention in a X/Twitter post that the decision was up to Gallego to approve of Quintana’s inclusion, beckoning questions as to:

1) Did the commission tell Lake (or her campaign) that it was up to Gallego for Quintana to debate? What is the actual procedure being used to disqualify Quintana? Is it this 1% rule or is it lack of approval from Gallego?

2) Why/how has this 1% rule been applied by the commission without legislative oversight or approval?

Despite all the fire and fury, Quintana says, “One of the primary goals of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act is to promote public confidence in the Arizona political process… Do the right thing so we can all move on and address the important business at hand”.

AZCCEC has until Thursday, Sep. 12th to respond to the senator.