Farcical Dist. 28 race: Follow the money

Do lobbyist’s $$ speak Republicanese?

After interminable negative ads, Arizona’s 2018 mid-term elections have mercifully ended, except for a couple of too-close-to-call races that should have already been resolved. In this post, however, the focus is on who the state legislators actually answer to. These are the elected officials closest to the people, representing the 30 statewide legislative districts. Each district elects a state senator and two state representatives who serve two year terms and are term-limited to eight consecutive years in office, with novel ways of skirting those restrictions. They work on Washington Street in Phoenix, not D.C.

SRAZ has described the unsavory machinations in Legislative District 28, where district voters were barraged with campaign flyers emanating from the Arizona Republican Party — omitting the photo of conservative incumbent Maria Syms.  Highlighted were former state Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, running for the state senate and her recruited rabble rouser Kathy Pappas Petsas. One of the mailers is included in this post, “AZ GOP ignores conservative Syms, endorses LD 28 RINOs.”

For their efforts, the AZ GOP and Brophy McGee got double payback.  Not only did they score what they foolishly considered a win in replacing the highly qualified Rep. Maria Syms, but their schemes shamefully worked to elect two Democrats to the state House, in what was once known as a solid red district. Kathy Pappas Petsas went down in flames, coming in dead last of the four running for the LD 28 two House seats.

Today’s post provides a literal wealth of information that few voters bother to check. It’s all public information available on the Secretary of State‘s website, and is a primo primer of who our legislators actually answer to — those who fund them. Congressional candidates funding sources are easily available on the Federal Elections Commission website.

Since Kathy Pappas Petsas lost, we’ll direct you to her funding sources, who would have done equally well throwing their money down a rat hole. All statewide candidates can be found here. Chances are you might not recognize the lobbyists, but they are rife in her reporting. Which leads us to wonder how a political newcomer develops these insider moneyed connections and what did they expect in return?

Scroll through to her name, and then click on the “Individual Contributions” list and “Contributions from Political Committees.”

It’s a given that candidates need money to finance increasingly expensive campaigns. There’s nothing wrong with fundraising which is integral to campaigning. The question is how did fresh out of the political chute Kathy Pappas Petsas establish these contacts and what were their expectations?