Taxpayer-funded resources should not be used to tilt the scales of any election. This isn’t a difficult concept to understand. So, when Arizona State University (ASU) and PBS were exposed for colluding to help Katie Hobbs in the 2022 governor’s race against Kari Lake, we demanded accountability. We called on Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to launch a full investigation. After all, Arizona law is clear that universities must remain impartial and neutral in election-related activities.
In a ridiculous decision, both Mayes and Mitchell refused to take action on our complaint. But this battle is far from over.
The Illegal Use of Public Funds
This all began back in 2022 when Katie Hobbs was ducking just about everyone during her campaign for governor, most especially Kari Lake. It culminated in Hobbs’ refusal to debate Lake on Arizona PBS. From there, the process should’ve been simple. According to long-standing Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (AZCCEC) rules, Kari Lake should have been provided with airtime, and the AZCCEC planned to do just that. But hours before Lake’s interview was scheduled to take place, the AZCCEC learned that Arizona PBS went behind their back to schedule an exclusive interview with Katie Hobbs—moving them to postpone Lake’s interview.
Then, last month, a series of emails came to light revealing that ASU leaders including President Michael Crow, former Arizona Republic publisher Mi-Ai Parrish, and Arizona PBS leaders allegedly colluded to jettison the debate rules to help Hobbs. This was a blatant and illegal use of taxpayer funds, and that’s why we filed a Hatch Act complaint with Mayes and Mitchell against ASU. But in a shocking and shameful decision, both decided against taking action.
Mayes and Mitchell Abdicate Their Responsibility to Taxpayers
In her response to our complaint Arizona AG Kris Mayes claimed to have a conflict of interest because she supposedly represents ASU. But that’s laughable. Mayes has never seemed to have a problem attacking the Department of Water Resources or going after the Department of Education over Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA). Did you notice that? She only seems to claim a conflict of interest when it suits her political appetite. Additionally, Mayes was employed by ASU as a professor. Could it be that she has a financial interest in protecting the guy who signed the front of her checks? Hmmm…
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell was also a big disappointment, stating that her office simply “isn’t interested” in our complaint.
Isn’t interested? We have evidence of taxpayer-funded organizations allegedly colluding to help one gubernatorial candidate over another. And her office won’t even bother to look at it? This is outrageous! Either Mitchell’s office is afraid of ASU, or she is ok with the illegal use of taxpayer resources because it targeted a politician that her office didn’t like. In both scenarios, she appears to be giving the green light for any political subdivision to break the law and engage in electioneering since apparently her office has no interest in investigating these cases.
So while both have decided not to investigate, we believed a response to their failure to act was appropriate, so we sent a letter to both offices outlining why their decision to roll over for ASU was wrong on both the facts and the law.
We’re Not Giving up The Fight
While Kris Mayes and Rachel Mitchell may be content to abandon their responsibilities to Arizona taxpayers, we won’t give up the fight. That’s why we have referred our complaint to Mohave, Yuma, and Pinal County. We believe all three counties retain jurisdiction over this matter and we are hopeful their offices will take the issue much more seriously.
The people of Arizona deserve to know that our public universities and media will be prohibited from any more collusion in future elections. That begins with accountability for both ASU and PBS. And we are hopeful that these county attorneys will be much more interested in upholding the law than Mayes and Mitchell have shown.
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