YESTERDAY'S* STATUTE OF THE DAY: History and Explanation of Arizona's RESIGN TO RUN Law (A.R.S. §38-296)

With Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announcing yesterday that he will run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate - a seat currently held by Independent Kyrsten Sinema - there have been many questions about whether Arizona has a "resign-to-run" law and whether it applies to Lamb and his current office.

It is also a question that is likely to come up again has more people line up to run for the Senate or the U.S. House next year.

Yes, Arizona is one of only a few states to have such a law. And since I am old enough to remember some of the history and news surrounding it, I wanted to offer some explanation.

HISTORY: The law was actually initiated by the Arizona Legislature in 1979, and it actually *loosened* the then-existing law! The Legislature referred the proposed CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to the voters on the 1980 ballot. It was approved by a resounding 540,605-241,625 vote. 

The simple Constitutional Amendment is still on the books as passed, Article 22, Section 18: "Except during the final year of the term being served, no incumbent of a salaried elective office, whether holding by election or appointment, may offer himself for nomination or election to any salaried local, State or federal office."

It promptly tripped up a couple of Tucsonans who wanted to run for Congress in 1982. (I was a Tucson resident voting for the first time that year.) Court cases followed and neither Roy Laos nor Conrad Joyner went to Congress. However, Laos was actually removed from his Tucson City Council seat because he had violated the new law by running for Congress. (He was later elected to his old seat.)

In 1984, the Legislature amended the statute to more fully enact the voters' constitutional amendment, and it was a STRICT resign to run measure which was triggered by *either* the nomination paper OR a "formal public declaration of candidacy".

A nomination paper is filed the year of the election, with the necessary petition signatures. A public declaration occurs much earlier and is triggered when the candidate begins to raise money.

In 2013, the Legislature made a simple change to the statute, saying that the candidate is "NOT deemed...by making a formal declaration of candidacy."

Lamb filed both his Statement of Candidacy with the Federal Election Commission AND his Statement of Interest with the Arizona Secretary of State this week. NEITHER trigger the resign to run provision.

That is the way the statute (below) - and the constitutional provision - currently stand. It has fewer teeth than it did between 1984-2013, but still prevents someone from ditching their elected office in the first couple of years of a four-year term.

Therefore, since Lamb's term of office expires at the end of 2024 (or January 2025), and he will not file his nomination paper until before April 4, 2024, he is not risking being removed as Sheriff. Much as then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs did not need to resign to run for Governor last year.

"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet. 

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