BREAKING: Dark Money Champions File Suit To Stop "Stop Dark Money" (READ Complaint)

UPDATE, 12/20: AZFEC and Center for Arizona Policy have removed Judge John Hannah from hearing their case to keep the voter-approved Stop Dark Money initiative from going into law. They exercised their one change of judge by matter of right, and Judge Scott McCoy is now the assigned judge. Judge Hannah has angered Republican interests with rulings in previous cases. A hearing date has not yet been set on their motion for a preliminary injunction.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE, 12/15: BREAKING: Dark Money Champions File Suit To Stop "Stop Dark Money" (READ Complaint)

The dark money pioneer Arizona Free Enterprise Club ("AZFEC") and the conservative Center for Arizona Policy today filed a lawsuit to stop the "Stop Dark Money" initiative passed by more than 72% of Arizona voters last month.

The groups are joined by two anonymous plaintiffs who believe that the act - formally known as the "Voters' Right To Know Act" (Prop. 211). The plaintiffs are being represented by the Goldwater Institute's litigation arm.

The named defendants are (outgoing) Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, and the Commissioners and Executive Director of the state's Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

AZFEC tried unsuccessfully to prevent Prop. 211 from being placed on the ballot after former Attorney General Terry Goddard's group turned in more than 350,000 signatures. Because of the wide public support, there was less of a campaign to try to defeat it at the ballot box. 

The measure requires disclosure of the original large sources of funding for expenditures of more than $50,000 in advertising.

The new law went into effect on December 5, upon certification of the results. The other citizens' initiative on the ballot, the "Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act", has also been challenged in court.

The case has been randomly assigned to Judge John Hannah.

(This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.)

Disclosure: This article and website are written by Paul Weich. Paul was very active in promoting this initiative.

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