Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, and Ronald J. Hansen

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Arizona Republican Party is trying to keep the pressure on U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema over donations she accepted from the founders of Backpage.com, including an offer to reimburse people who paid to attend a Wednesday night campaign event for the Arizona Democrat.

The efforts to press Sinema came as the congresswoman made her first public remarks on the controversy over donations from Michael Lacey and James Larkin, founders of Backpage.com and former Phoenix New Times executives. She promised closer scrutiny of future contributions.

"I am really sorry that this happened. I have asked my campaign to create better vetting procedures to make sure something like this never happens again," Sinema said in an interview earlier in the day. "We looked through the entire history of my congressional donor history, and it took a little bit of time, because none of the people who made these contributions noted any affiliation with Backpage on their contribution forms or their identifying information. I was not aware these individuals were affiliated with Backpage."

Sinema donated the money from the Backpage.com executives and their spouses to a group that combats sexual abuse. The website is accused of knowingly accepting ads offering sex with underage girls.

But for some that didn't end the controversy. Cindy McCain and other anti-trafficking activists groused that the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence had accepted the $53,000.

GOP: 'Hold her accountable'

In an email to GOP party officials obtained by The Arizona Republic, political coordinator Kyle Pierce urged Republicans in Sinema's district to attend the congresswoman's "Coffee Club" and ask about the donations. To those who attended, the party offered to reimburse the Coffee Club's $25 membership fee.

"It would be absolutely wonderful if we had as many of her Republican consituents (sic) as possible attend this event to ask her why she accepted thousands of dollars from the creator of Backpage.com," Pierce wrote in the email. "I'm sure most of you have been keeping up with the news on this. It's pretty bad, and we're trying to hold her accountable for it."

The email noted that to attend the event required joining the coffee club and paying $25. "If someone does have to pay, the Party is willing to reimburse the expense," the email stated.

Kory Langhofer, attorney for the state Republican Party, said if people are reimbursed the $25 entry fee, the party will "make sure it's fully disclosed and reported correctly. As long as the transaction is disclosed and transparent, it's perfectly acceptable," he said.

A spokeswoman for Sinema said she could not immediately comment because she was unaware of the Arizona Republican Party's plans.

Asked about the state GOP's efforts to boost turnout at Sinema's event, a spokeswoman for the state party, Torunn Sinclair, said it's not unusual.

"The Republican Party is always encouraging its members to get involved and talk with their elected officials," she said. "Congresswoman Sinema received over $50,000 from Backpage.com executives and their family members. Constituents, both Republicans and Democrats, deserve to know the extent to which she’s involved with the disgraced CEO of Backpage.com."

Kathy Petsas, Republican chairwoman of Legislative District 28 in north-central Phoenix, received Pierce's email, but said she doesn't support such tactics.

"This behavior is not the value and culture of Republicans," said Petsas, who lives in Paradise Valley. "Democrats like to go out and act like they did at the (U.S. Sen. Jeff) Flake town hall," she added, referencing the raucous crowd that battered the senator for 2 1/2 hours at a town hall last week.

"Republicans don’t do that," Petsas said. "They simmer quietly and vote."

McCain criticizes Sinema, non-profit

McCain, who co-chairs the Arizona Human Trafficking Council, was appalled that the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence had accepted the money.

"I am stunned that Congresswoman Sinema would take their money. She should have known better, but she still took it," McCain said. "And then she thinks she can just say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, let me give it away,' that it's somehow less tainted if she gives it to someone else.

"And the Coalition took it! I am horribly dismayed by that decision. I find it obscene that they think they can take dirty money like this and think they can put it to better use.''

A Coalition board member said Wednesday that taking the cash is "one of the best things that can be done with that money under the circumstances is to work directly with programs that will protect people from ... what Backpage was doing."

Two attempts to shed donations

Sinema is believed to have received the largest share of campaign money directly from Lacey and Larkin, taking in at least $10,600 in 2013 and 2016.

Federal campaign-finance records show Sinema received an additional $10,800 in donations from the spouses of two other Backpage.com executives on the same day in 2016 when Lacey donated $5,400 to her. A political-action committee affiliated with Sinema also received $16,200.

Following publication of a story detailing the donations in The Arizona Republic, Sinema first attempted to donate the money to an organization affiliated with KJZZ and Spot 127, a media center to help "teens find their voices and engage with their communities." That group rejected the money, which included only the direct contributions from Lacey and Larkin.

On Tuesday, the Coalition decided to accept the money.

Larkin and Lacey, along with their business partners, have been besieged by a growing number of legal difficulties: criminal charges in California; lawsuits by trafficking victims in six states; and a blistering report in January by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. That report, “Backpage.com’s Knowing Facilitation of Online Sex Trafficking,” concluded that Backpage.com knowingly accepted ads from pimps who had coerced underage children into having sex for money. A federal grand jury is reviewing evidence against both men, and lawyers for Lacey and Larkin expect the men to be indicted.

The original story about the donations published in The Republic was written by students at Arizona State University under the supervision of Walter V. Robinson, who edited the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of sexual predators in the Catholic Church.

Sarah Jarvis, Lily Altavena and Walter Robinson contributed to this report.

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