Mary Jo Pitzl, and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The Republic | azcentral.com

The attorney who unsuccessfully tried to cancel Tuesday’s election on Friday called for the immediate dismissal of the state’s elections director and asked the Legislature to impeach Secretary of State Michele Reagan.

Attorney Tom Ryan faulted Reagan for her office’s failure to send publicity pamphlets to an estimated 200,000 households in advance of Tuesday’s election, as required by law.

“She put her thumb on the scale and deprived hundreds of thousands of Arizona citizens on one of the most important issues of the day,” said Ryan said, who is working with the campaign that opposes Proposition 123, one of the two issues on Tuesday's ballot.

The pamphlet contains arguments for and against Prop. 123, which deals with education funding, as well as Prop. 124, a public-safety pension reform measure. Ryan has argued without timely access to that information, Reagan not only violated state law, but deprived voters of vital information as they research the ballot issues.

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While he conceded his call for impeachment will go nowhere, but he said his complaint highlights his concern over the agenda Reagan's office has been pushing.

He cited her office's sponsorship of Senate Bill 1516, dubbed the "dark-money bill" because it minimizes the state's authority to compel political non-profit corporations to disclose their donors. It passed this spring with strong GOP support and Democratic opposition.

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On Friday, a group called Stop Corruption Now filed its intent to run a referendum drive to put the legislation on hold and refer the issue to voters this November. Volunteers will hit the streets Saturday, organizers said. They have 90 days to gather the signatures of 75,321 registered voters.

The group also plans to run an identical referendum on a last-minute bill that puts the same dark-money provisions in another part of state law. However, that legislation, House Bill 2296, has not yet been acted on by Gov. Doug Ducey, so there is nothing yet to refer.

Ryan is the treasurer for the referendum drive.

With the election going forward, Ryan trained his fire on Reagan and her office, and their failure to not immediately notify the public, the attorney general and the governor of the latest election mess.

Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts rejected the suggestions out of hand.

"We're not intending to make any staff changes, nor is the secretary intending to step down," Roberts said.

Reagan recognizes this year has seen more than its share of election problems, but said they are inadvertent. And Roberts reiterated the office's defense on the publicity pamphlets, noting they have accepted responsibility for the error and, more importantly, sent pamphlets to those who were left out of the original mailing.

Ryan, who is serving free of charge as the attorney for the opposition campaign to Prop. 123, charged Reagan has been campaigning for the ballot measure.

He offered as evidence a poster erected by the Governor's Office last summer, after Gov. Ducey had unveiled a plan to boost school funding. But those posters came before the proposal became legislation and appeared on the ballot. In his mind, her pro statements on the posters violate the neutrality she should maintain as the state’s chief elections officer, he said.

On Thursday, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said there was no legal remedy for Reagan’s failure to deliver the publicity pamphlets in a timely manner. But, he said, he has launched an investigation into how the problem happened and expressed disgust with Arizona’s apparent inability to conduct proper elections.

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At his news conference Friday, Ryan lambasted Reagan and her elections director. He charged they have been distracted by pushing pro-dark money legislation instead of properly performing their basic duties. He was referring to legislation that loosens state control over anonymous campaign donations while making numerous changes to campaign-finance rules.

"The first remedy is, the director of elections, Eric Spencer, must resign effective immediately, and absent that, the secretary of state must fire him, if he does not resign," Ryan said. "The other remedy that should happen is we have to have a Legislature that has the moral courage and the ethical spine to start the impeachment proceedings of a secretary of state who has screwed up ..."

Ryan acknowledged it's highly unlikely Reagan would terminate Spencer or that the GOP-controlled Legislature would initiate impeachment proceedings against a Republican official: “Of course, they’re not going to agree to that.”

His goal, he said, is to highlight the agenda of Reagan’s office — to diminish state authority to require political non-profits to disclose their donors.