An Oklahoma City group is mounting an 11th-hour blitz to get its chosen candidate elected mayor of Phoenix next week.

Advancing Freedom Inc., took out a front-page ad in Tuesday’s Arizona Republic and a full-page ad on Wednesday, extolling Valenzuela’s virtues and listing his prominent local supporters.

“Phoenix deserves a leader who answers the call every time!” the Oklahoma City non-profit tells us.

So, why, you might wonder would an Oklahoma City 501c4 non-profit be interested in getting Daniel Valenzuela elected mayor of a city that is 959 miles away from the Sooner State’s capital?

Couldn’t tell you.

Was that secret donor APS?

Gov. Doug Ducey and the Arizona Legislature have made sure of that, every time they have rejected proposals to require transparency in political campaigns.

Advancing Freedom Inc., is a "dark money" group and thus doesn’t have to tell us who is funding its last-minute independent campaign for Valenzuela, just a week before the March 12 election.

Could it be … Arizona Public Service?

Valenzuela’s wife, Wendy, has worked as a lobbyist for APS since 2014, when she left her previous job as Valenzuela’s chief of staff.

APS CEO Don Brandt has donated $1,000 to Valenzuela’s campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed with the city. Earlier this week, Brandt co-hosted a fundraiser for Valenzuela.

APS is widely suspected of secretly funding an independent campaign for a pair of candidates it wanted on the Arizona Corporation Commission a few years ago.

Of course, the advantage of an independent campaign is that there are no limits on the amount you can spend on a candidate. And no fingerprints to be made public if your preferred candidate gets into office.

Or maybe it was the Phoenix Suns?

Could it be … the Phoenix Suns?

Suns CEO Robert Sarver gave Valenzuela $6,300 last year, according to campaign finance reports. He has long been pressing the city for a major upgrade to Talking Stick Resort Arena.

Valenzuela, who resigned his City Council position last year to run for mayor, supported the city’s recently approved deal to spend $150 million to upgrade the city-owned arena. The city will take out a loan in order to put in $2 for every $1 kicked in by the Suns, a sports franchise that has exploded in value in recent years.

Of course, it may not be either of those special interests. But it appears somebody is using Advancing Freedom to shield its support for Valenzuela.

That's a lot of cash, all of a sudden

According to Guidestar, which monitors non-profits, Advancing Freedom qualifies to file abbreviated IRS reports, which means it has had annual gross receipts of just $50,000 or less.

Now, suddenly, it's got the dough to pay for pricey newspaper ads and other campaign materials.

I’ve tried calling and e-mailing Advancing Freedom Inc. The e-mail address listed on the non-profit’s website bounced back – twice – as undeliverable. Every time I tried to call the non-profit, an automated voice explained to me that “all of our agents are busy at this time …”

We’ll see if anybody calls me back when all their agents are less busy, to explain the non-profit's interest in who becomes the next mayor of Phoenix.

Valenzuela’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment either. But then, independent campaigns cannot coordinate with the candidates they support, so presumably Valenzuela doesn’t know who’s behind the secretly funded campaign.

Yet, that is.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.

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