Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The Republic | azcentral.com

Early voting for the primary election has begun

Primary election day is Aug. 26

Ducey%2C Smith and Jones have been vying for a lead in the polls

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GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons dumped another $1 million into the governor's race in an effort to help his company's former legal counsel, Christine Jones.

Parsons made the hefty donation to Better Leaders for Arizona, an independent political group that supports Jones while attacking her key Republican primary rival, Doug Ducey.

Parsons' total contributions to the group now stand at $2,070,000, he told The Arizona Republic during a Monday morning phone interview.

Parsons said he was disgusted by a recent mailer he saw that attacks Jones for appearing in a GoDaddy commercial.

The company is known for sexually provocative ads. The television ad in question was from 2009. In it, Jones appeared as an attorney who sat behind a table in a mock courtroom.

It's not clear which group funded the attack mailer, but Parsons said it's an example of misleading information being put before voters by "dark money" groups. Such organizations are not required to disclose their donors.

Parsons said he believes Ducey's campaign is behind the attack ad; in an e-mailed statement, Ducey's camp emphatically denied the charge.

"There's all this dark money coming in for the Ducey campaign, and you know, they're really beating up Christine with it — quite unfairly in my opinion," he said. "This is not dark money, this is bright money."

"They're using things like her affiliation with a GoDaddy commercial wearing a suit," Parsons added. "Mr. Ducey has some very definite ideas about what a woman's place is. It's insulting."

But Melissa DeLaney, Ducey's campaign spokeswoman, said the campaign had no connection to the mailer. She also took issue with Parsons' accusations of sexism.

"We are not involved with any mailer like the one you mention and haven't seen or heard about it," DeLaney said in an e-mail. She further noted, "We have no further comment on these ridiculous and unwarranted claims."

The Ducey camp has previously dismissed such criticism as a desperate ploy to try to sink their candidate, who is leading the six-way contest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

More than $2 million has poured into the GOP primary race from outside groups who are trying to influence the race.

Better Leaders for Arizona has spent more than $1 million in the Republican primary race, mostly on ads to lambaste Ducey.

The attack ads have focused on everything from his own dark-money backers, to a 31 percent failure rate among Cold Stone Creamery franchises, the candidate's traffic citations and delinquent property taxes dating to 2008 and 2009.

Parsons has previously suggested Ducey is sexist for calling Jones a "line employee" during her tenure with GoDaddy. Jones and former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith in recent days have also criticized Ducey's membership in groups that only have male members, suggesting it offers insight into his views on women.

Dark-money mailers have tried to rewrite the story lines of the Jones campaign and of that of Smith. One of the anti-Jones ads paints her as a supporter of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; the anti-Smith ad suggests he is President Barack Obama's "favorite mayor."

Parsons said he gives $1 million to charities in Arizona about every 10 days. His contribution to Better Leaders for Arizona, he said, is for the betterment of the state.

"Christine would make a fantastic governor," he said.