The last hope plaintiffs had to disqualify Rep. Alma Hernandez from running in a Democratic primary for a state senate seat was dashed when the Arizona Supreme Court tossed their lawsuit this week.
On May 4, the state’s highest court affirmed an April ruling by the Pima County Superior Court that leaned on the supreme court’s 2018 Reyes v. Del Palacio decision to determine that unpaid financial reporting penalties had to have been enforced to disqualify political campaigns.
Arizona law bars candidates who owe over $1,000 in “fines, penalties, late fees or administrative or civil judgments” from running for office. Old fundraising committees used by Hernandez during past state house runs owe $20,355 in fines for late campaign finance reports, according to an online portal run by the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. But courts found that state agencies didn’t sufficiently enforce those fees to warrant disqualifying Hernandez’s newest campaign.
Attorneys representing a resident of Hernandez’s district hoped the supreme court would take up the challenge against Hernandez and overturn its 2018 decision, leading to stricter enforcement of Arizona campaign finance laws.
Rocque Perez, the progressive former Tucson city councilman waging a primary campaign against Hernandez, was one of the case’s original plaintiffs but chose not to appeal to the supreme court.
“I respect the court’s decision, but this ruling makes plain that Arizona’s campaign finance laws remain weak and easy to evade. I filed one report late by a single day to observe the process and received several notices, made one call to the Secretary of State’s Office, and cleared a one-day $10 balance immediately. For Alma Hernandez to navigate around this process for nearly a decade without meaningful consequence is astonishing. This ruling keeps her on the ballot, but it also affirms bad actors can continue exploiting gaps in our election system,” Perez wrote in a statement to AZPM.
Hernandez has served in the Arizona House of Representatives since 2019, representing the 20th legislative district, a heavily Democratic district in inner-city Tucson.
“The Arizona Supreme Court has rejected yet another baseless attempt to remove me from the primary ballot, ensuring I remain on it despite efforts to silence a successful Latina Democratic candidate,” Hernandez wrote in a statement posted to her Facebook page.
“But this is only the beginning. My opponent and their allies know they can’t beat our record, so they’re turning to distractions, negative tactics, and attempts to undermine the democratic process. We can’t let them succeed,” she wrote.
At least three Arizona state lawmakers owe six-digit fines for late campaign finance reports, the Arizona Republic reported. Pending legislation could erase fines automatically incurred by inactive campaign committees that no longer file campaign finance reports. An amendment to that bill would cap fines at $5,000 for any single report.
