A judge Wednesday rejected a bid by Arizona Public Service to let the Arizona Corporation Commission vote on the company's rate hike request before considering claims about the utility’s political influence on regulators.

APS attorneys argued the judge cannot consider the legal bid by commission member Bob Burns to subpoena company officials until the pending rate case is completed.

A Maricopa County Superior Court Judge disagreed, ruling that it would undermine Burns efforts to get to the bottom of the political influence on the panel.

Burns’ attorney Bill Richards told Capitol Media Services the decision makes sense.

If you allow the rate case to be completed and now people are being charged if there's a rate increase that's been approved, and now you're sort of battling all that after the fact, it's a little bit difficult, yeah, to put the genie back in the bottle at that point," said Richards.

Central to the issue are questions about who put $3.2 million into the 2014 race to help secure the election of Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little.

APS officials will not confirm nor deny they were behind any of that cash.

Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services joins us with an update.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Capitol Media Services contributed to this story.