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Arizona Corporation Commissioners' Bid To Keep Utilities Out Of Elections Could Test Power Limits

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
Published: Monday, August 31, 2015 - 9:34am
Updated: Monday, August 31, 2015 - 10:25am

It's no secret that Save Our State Now and the Free Enterprise Club spent more than $3 million last year to elect Doug Little and Tom Forese to the Arizona Corporation Commission.

They defeated opponents — both in the Republican primary and the general election —  who ran on platforms of promoting more solar power. What is not known is where those groups got their money.

They claim exemptions from campaign finance laws as social-welfare organizations. But a spokesman for Arizona Public Service, while refusing to confirm or deny donations, defended his company's "right to participate in the political process."

Commission Chair Susan Bitter Smith does not dispute that right. But she said the apparent involvement of APS has tainted the public's perception of the panel and its work.

Bitter Smith and Bob Burns, who are both up for re-election next year, want to find ways to keep utility money out of the race.

"Commissioner Burns and I think it would just be a productive opportunity for the commission to collectively articulate what we think the role of entities that appear in front of the commission should have in upcoming elections," said Bitter Smith.

Questions about the commission already have been raised with the 3-2 vote earlier this month to allow APS to seek higher charges from customers who also have solar cells on their roofs. It carried with support from Forese and Little as well as Bob Stump whose cellphone texts to the pair and APS executives around the time of the GOP primary are being probed.

Forese said his vote had nothing to do with donations. But he said there is a problem with utilities spending money to elect or defeat candidates for the commission that regulates them. Forese said the question is what can be done legally, given court rulings saying that corporations have a constitutional right to affect political races.

"It's come down from the highest court that spending money on a campaign is free speech. But it ought to be crystal clear you ought to have transparency in knowing who did what, and who was behind what. I think that is what the public deserves," Forese said.

Acknowledging those constitutional issues, nothing in what Bitter Smith and Burns are proposing at this time would actually bar a utility from pouring money into campaigns through outside groups. But the commission has other ways of getting the attention of utilities if they don't back off — or at least shining some light on donations to "dark money'' groups.

The proposal said the commission will consider "whether and to what extent an audit of any public service corporation would be warranted."

While commissioners have no purview over groups who get the money, they do have broad authority to demand the financial records of utilities to see if they're giving contributions to them.

Little would not comment, saying through a spokesman he wants to study the issue further.
 

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