Thursday, July 31, 2003
Arizona's Clean Elections law: Trio is in hot water over meaning of political 'party'
Commission orders the Dist. 17 candidates to repay $104,237 they spent on booze, food.
DAVID PITTMAN
Tucson Citizen
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Second day of a three-day series
A trio of defeated Phoenix-area legislative candidates spent thousands of dollars on alcohol, food, rental cars and entertainment expenses at trendy Scottsdale nightspots - and used Clean Elections money to do it.
The three District 17 Libertarian candidates - Yuri Downing, 32; Trevor Clevenger, 32; and Paul DeDonati, 30, who ran as a team - were ordered by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to repay $104,237 in state campaign cash.
The Libertarian candidates are appealing the commission ruling and an administrative hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 22 in Phoenix. Regardless of the result of that hearing, Downing said the trio will likely file a lawsuit against the commission, which he charges is trying to limit political speech.
In recommending that Downing, Clevenger and DeDonati be found in violation of Clean Election laws, Colleen Connor, the commission's executive director, said "there does not appear to be any evidence" the three candidates "used the clean election funding for a political campaign."
The five-member commission voted unanimously April 29 to order the Libertarian triumvirate to repay all the Clean Elections money they received.
Each of the candidates spent between $31,417 and $41,156 in public campaign funds in their failed races.
Yuri Downing, the son of state Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, said the trio is guilty of only one thing: attempting to run an unorthodox campaign to attract youthful voters.
District 17 includes south Scottsdale and most of Tempe. It takes in all of the Arizona State University campus and most of the students attending the university.
"We are Libertarian candidates, we knew going into the campaign that the odds of us winning were very small," said Yuri Downing. "The only hope we had was to go after the younger demographic, get them registered and to the polls. Those people aren't in church on Sunday morning. So we targeted the places where they do go."
What the three Libertarian candidates did was campaign at sporting events and at campus-area parties and popular watering holes. Yuri Downing said there is nothing wrong with that, accusing the commission of trying to "micro-manage" the trio's campaign.
"Are they saying I didn't run the campaign the way they would have run it?" he asked. "They have no right, either legally or morally, to make that decision."
Yuri Downing charges the commission with employing "Gestapo tactics" against him.
"The commission is taking a huge chunk of my reputation and throwing it down the drain without one shred of evidence," he said. "Show me the rule I am violating."
Connor counters that the three Libertarian candidates violated several Clean Elections Laws, including failing to keep adequate records of expenditures, using campaign accounts for both personal and campaign-related expenditures and having more than $1,000 in the petty cash account.
Yuri Downing says he documented every cent given to him and that Connor's claims the trio of candidates did not provide a full accounting of their spending is "patently inaccurate."
A review of campaign finance documents filed with the Secretary of State's Office showed that Yuri Downing's campaign alone spent $1,819 at restaurants and for catering, including $300 of Clean Elections money at a Scottsdale Sushi restaurant.
"That was a dinner for campaign workers," Downing said of the Sushi restaurant tab.
Clevenger ran up a $1,188 bill at COSTCO for such items as cooked shrimp, ham, smoked turkey breast, as well as several bottles of Cuervo Gold, Bombay Gin, Absolute Vodka, Captain Morgan Rum and wine.
Yuri Downing, who was listed as treasurer of all three campaigns, described the COSTCO purchase as items needed for "a party on primary night."
"Perhaps I should have paid for some things, like the liquor, out of my own pocket," he said. "If I had maybe I wouldn't have gotten in such hot water. But the rules are pretty straight forward. They say not to spend any money on the election that is not clean elections money - and I followed the rules to the 'T.' "
The three candidates funneled more than $6,000 to Yuri Downing's brother, Demetri, for consulting and a strategic campaign plan.
Demetri Downing defended the right of his brother and the other Libertarian candidates to spend Clean Elections money at restaurants and nightclubs.
"If a candidate believes the best way to spend campaign money is to hire 10 psychics at $1,000 a pop to communicate his message to voters, he is free to do so, regardless of what the Clean Elections Commission thinks of the behavior," he said.
According to documents filed by the campaigns with the Clean Elections Commission, the campaigns hired a firm to promote the candidates every week at 18 nightclubs during October.
Connor said the idea that legitimate campaigning was going on in these bars is not credible because "the nightclubs and restaurants where the expenditures were made are not even in District 17."
Downing said the clubs may be outside District 17, but many of the students who live in the district frequent those nightspots. He said the Libertarian trio ran a vigorous campaign.
"We inundated the district up here with 250 or 260 political signs," he said.
The Libertarian candidates took the campaign to football games, campus parties, nightclubs and busy street corners by hiring college kids, dressed in costume, to hand out fliers. Those handing out the fliers were dressed as Abe Lincoln, the Statue of Liberty, a firefighter, an astronaut, an American Indian, Evel Knievel and as hippies.
Steve May, a former state lawmaker and an outspoken critic of the Clean Elections system, said the campaign practices of the District 17 Libertarians creates a public relations nightmare for the commission.
"The Libertarians simply took taxpayer money and went out to the clubs and bought booze and champagne for their girlfriends and everyone else in the club," May said.
"The commission knows such flagrant abuse of taxpayer funds looks terrible," he continued, "but they aren't going to get the money back because what the boys did is clearly within the scope of the Clean Elections Act."
Connor disputes that view. She said the commission's ruling against the trio was made because they committed multiple violations of Clean Elections Law.
Scrutiny of the District 17 Libertarian candidates began Oct. 7 when Robert Kamman, a Phoenix tax attorney and self-appointed campaign finance watchdog, filed a complaint with the commission.
Kamman wrote that the trio's spending immediately before the primary election reflected "a considerable amount of shopping, and no degree of campaigning."
CLEAN ELECTIONS ENFORCEMENT:
Enforcement of election law by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission in 2002:
- The commission received 75 complaints. Forty-seven were against participating candidates and 28 were against nonparticipating candidates.
- The commission investigated 24 complaints and fined 18 candidates.
- Of those fined, seven took Clean Elections money and 11 were privately funded.
- Enforcement imposed $45,120 in fines, $32,075 of which has been paid.
Source: Citizens Clean Elections Commission
