Since we’re talking about LD23…
Posted by: Krista
which happens to be a district I know a bit about, let’s just mention how lucky we are to have Senator Rebecca Rios running for re-election.
Now, if you’re from the Pinal County ‘hood, you may have your own views on the Rios clan. The truth is, the Rios clan isn’t perfect, but we’ve gotten some fine legislation out of them during their tenure. Senator Rios is a stalwart supporter of families, including providing access to health care for more families and improving education (one of my passions). That’s just part of what I like about her as a legislator.
But we were talking about LD23, right? One of Donna’s earlier posts got me interested in learning more about Senator Rios’ opponent, Andre Campos, so I delved into the campaign finance reports and found some interesting things that led to other interesting things:
- Campos received Clean Elections money for the Primary on 8/27/08, which means he only had a few days to spend it. Ya’ll can help me out with this one – when I took the Clean Elections training, I remember something about having to use at least half of materials purchased during the Primary on the Primary. So, hypothetically speaking, if you spent $1000 on 5000 flyers, you would have to hand out at least 2500 flyers during Primary season. Am I remembering this correctly?
- On 8/29/08, Campos gave $12,635.47 to Image Design Communications, LLC. That’s almost all his Clean Elections money.
- The $12,635.47 was spent on signs, Web site, and flyers.
- The memo line for these signs, Web site, and flyers says “Actual Trans. Date 09/30/2008″. Wait a minute – the Primary was on Sept. 2nd. What does that memo line mean?
- That’s a lot of money to Image Design Communications, LLC. Who’s behind that company? The Campos finance report shows a PO Box in Arizona City as its address (not unusual since Arizona City is all PO Boxes). So time for some research…
- A search for Image Design Communications shows its Web site at www.idcprint.com, which is registered to Andre Campos.
- The contact page on idcprint.com shows Image Design’s address as 5006 E. Barwick Dr., Cave Creek, AZ, which is co-owned by Andre Campos.
- But the pièce de résistance is found on the AZ Corporation Commission Web site. It shows that Andre Campos is also a co-owner of Image Design Communications, LLC… co-owner with one Astrid Campos (his wife?). It’s nice to see that they’ve kept the money in the family – oh wait, it’s taxpayer money they’re keeping.
- Conclusion: Andre Campos paid $12,635.47 to his own company for his own campaign. Not a bad gig. One can only assume similar expenditures for the General election, so even if he loses, he’s made tens of thousands of dollars on his race. Wow! That’s what I call milking the system.
What did I say, interesting things that led to other interesting things.
This left me with quite a few thoughts and questions. First, were the Campos purchases made during the last few days of the Primary really used during the Primary? What’s with using a Cave Creek address on the idcprint.com contact page and using an Arizona City PO Box on the finance report? Since it’s Campos’ company, shouldn’t he know his address (note, Campos is listed as being his Campaign Treasurer, too)? Is giving your own company $12,635.47 for campaign materials unethical or illegal? Is this information anything people would really be interested in?
Regardless, it wasn’t like I was ever going to vote for Campos. I’m a Rios supporter all the way and will be voting for Rebecca as soon as my VBM shows up.
In case you’re interested in my sources:
- AZSOS campaign committee search: http://www.azsos.gov/cfs/CommitteeSearch.aspx
- www.idcprint.com. which redirects to http://www.wearables4you.com/idcprint/
- idcprint.com contact page: http://www.wearables4you.com/idcprint/contact.cfm
- County Assessor’s office: http://www.maricopa.gov/Assessor/ParcelApplication/Default.aspx. Search by Street Number 5006 and Street (name only) Barwick
- Arizona Corporation Commission Web site: http://starpas.azcc.gov/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=wsbroker1/connect.p?app=names-report.p
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You mean to tell me he PAID someone for that website? That alone should disqualify him for any office. The man clearly doesn’t have the judgment to lead.
Otherwise, great job digging, Krista.
Oh wait, I get it now. He paid HIMSELF for it.
I love looking at candidate Web sites and then finding out how much they paid for them. Makes me think I’m in the wrong business :)
Someone should definately file a Clean Elections complaint about this one!
Excellent piece Krista!
A Republican mishandling taxpayer dollars? Say it ain’t so, Joe! Seriously, I think voters should be educated about this issue. Most people won’t be bothered with learning the vagaries of the Clean Elections laws, but they should be interested in knowing that a candidate is using the money to pay himself. It sounds like a spot of dodgy paperwork creates enough of a gray area that no one can really accuse Campos of breaking the law.
I’m also surprised at how little oversight there seems to be in the Clean Elections laws. Isn’t there someone checking those invoices to make sure the company actually exists and that they weren’t paid some astronomical rate? Oh, and that they aren’t OWNED by the candidate? Sheesh.
Disgusting. Andre Campos must suspend his campaign immediately and pay back all money received from Arizona Taxpayers. I wan’t my money back, you unethical swine!
Great investigative reporting, Krista! Has this info been forwarded to Joe Robison and the Rios campaign? The complaint should be filed immediately with CCEC; they have an interest in challenging this kind of abuse.
Thanks everyone!
I passed this entry on to the Pinal County Democrats and a reporter with the East Valley Tribune. I didn’t think about forwarding to Senator Rios, but I will. I’ve heard there may be a CCEC complaint that’s already been filed. Guess I’ll need to check up on that, too :)
Krista
Andy,
Clean Elections should be checking all reports, and they’re checking to make sure candidate expenditures are correct. As for checking the companies candidates use, I don’t think they do that and think it might be a difficult thing for the commission to do. So, it’s up to us to find the problems and report them.
Krista