Christie

Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday campaigned for Arizona's Republican candidate, Doug Ducey.

(Claude Brodesser-Akner)

PHOENIX — Questioning the lack of transparency about who has been funneling millions of dollars in negative campaign ads into the Arizona governor's race is "silliness" and "sophistry," Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday night while stumping for Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey.

A record-breaking $16.2 million has been spent in the Arizona gubernatorial primary alone, with $3.2 million of that total coming from "dark money" sources: vaguely-titled, not-for-profit shell corporations set up by business groups and wealthy individuals to mask their true identities. Compared with the last Arizona governor's election, campaign spending has doubled, but spending from dark money increased ten-fold, according to an analysis by the Arizona Republic.

Much of the "dark money" in the Arizona governor's race has come from tycoons Charles and David Koch, whose combined net worth is above $100 billion and whose Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in the U.S.

One of several conservative advocacy groups funded largely by the billionaire Koch brothers political network, the 60 Plus Association, spent more than $250,000 running hundreds of attack ads against Ducey's Republican competition in the primary, Christine Jones and Scott Smith, according to the Center for Public Integrity's analysis of Kantar Media/CMAG and National Institute on Money in State Politics data.

And the Republican Governors Association, which is chaired by Christie, has spent $1.4 million on some 2,100 negative ads targeting Ducey's Democratic opponent, Fred DuVal.

When a reporter from the local NBC affiliate asked Ducey if he wanted to stop criticizing DuVal for his acceptance of "dark money" given that his Koch Brothers backers were "some of the biggest dark money givers out there?" Christie icily interjected, "Yeah, well that's your opinion. Your opinion is that these folks are 'dark money,' we ... The facts on Fred Duval are pretty clear."

DuVal had issued a challenge in July to his Republican rivals that if they refused "dark money" contributions, DuVal's campaign would as well. Thus far, neither side has agreed, and DuVal has since accepted some $375,000 in funds from the Democratic dark money source Restore Arizona's Future and the Democratic Governors Association for some 450 ads attacking Doug Ducey.

Asked if he was seriously suggesting that the Koch Brothers were not purveyors of dark money, Christie responded, "Listen, what I'm saying is that everybody has a right to participate in the political process, and let's let people judge these folks, up or down, based on what they do. But, no: I don't believe that the Koch Brothers are that (dark money contributors), nor any of these other folks (who gave money anonymously).

"The fact is that people who want to make this an issue in the campaign are people who have a much, much different agenda than what the people of Arizona have. So, you know, this is, this is the kind of stuff that gets people, real people in the public crazy about the way you guys ask these questions. It's ... it's silliness. It's sophistry to me."

Asked by the reporter if the people of Arizona shared the same priorities as the Koch Brothers and other dark money sources, Christie said, "The people of Arizona care about growing jobs, a prosperous economy, they want a good education system for their kids."

He added, "They want a place where honesty and integrity is hallmark in government. That's what they want. They want nothing different than anybody else. And so, you know, you all love these kinds of questions, the fact is they're not what people out there really care about."

When asked if the RGA would fully disclose its donors, Christie grew impatient and snapped back, "If you do a little bit of homework, before you come in to, like, throw all your fancy questions at us and act like you're a member of the DuVal campaign? The RGA discloses all its donors, so if you want to go on the website, and do the work, you'll be able to find it out. I don't think this is just your press conference."

The RGA does disclose the names of its donors, but some are "dark money" contributors who are masked by not-for-profit shell companies. Two weeks ago, the New York Times reported that an error in web coding of the RGA¹s online documents had "resulted in the disclosure of exactly the kind of information that political committees given tax-exempt status usually keep secret, namely their corporate donors and the size of their checks."

The Times reported that among the largest donors to the RGA's normally-secret list of members to its policy committee, "the most elite group, known as 'the Statesmen,' whose members donated $250,000" was Koch Companies Public Sector, the lobbying arm of Koch Industries.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @claudebrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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