AZ GOP Lawmakers Move to Block Private Funds For Elections After Analysis Finds ‘Funding a County Helps Democrats Almost Twice as Much as it Helps Republicans’

Republican lawmakers in Arizona moved yesterday to block counties from taking money from any private source to help run future elections.

The vote by the Senate Government Committee on HB 2569 was approved on party lines and follows the disclosure that nine Arizona counties got more than $6 million last year from the Center for Tech and Civic Life.

Jennifer Marson, executive director for the Arizona Association of Counties said that the grants were to help defray some of the costs of running an election during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scott Walter, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush who now heads the Capital Research Center, said that “In funded counties, Democratic turnout rocketed upward” and that his analysis shows “Funding a county helps Democrats almost twice as much as it helps Republicans.”

In those nine funded counties, Walter said, Democrats beat Republicans by close to 122,000 votes, far more than the 10,457-vote edge that Joe Biden had statewide over Donald Trump.

Republicans did better in turnout in 2020 than prior years in the six counties which didn’t get CTCL grants he added, which he believes proves that they don’t help Republicans as much as the Democrats.

Republican AZ State Senator J.D. Mesnard said he’s surprised that Democrats are OK with these outside grants and that “If this model of influence sort of works out in one party’s favor in one instance, the other party’s going to be right back at it the next time using the same tools and this will cascade into a brand new way that outside influence, particularly from extremely wealthy people, can very covertly, influence our elections.”

In a tweet that was retweeted by Republican AZ State Senator Wendy Rogers, Former Kansas Republican Attorney General Phillip Kline applauded the legislation and said, “Arizona is demonstrating the proper way to eliminate private funding of our elections: no loopholes, exceptions, or carve-outs. Clearly, Arizona legislators understand the problem and how to fix it.”

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Arizona is demonstrating the proper way to eliminate private funding of our elections: no loopholes, exceptions, or carve-outs. Clearly, Arizona legislators understand the problem and how to fix it. <a href="https://t.co/YMjLYYJQdu">https://t.co/YMjLYYJQdu</a></p>&mdash; Phillip Kline (@PhillDKline) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhillDKline/status/1371842868889915396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>

In another tweet of Kline’s retweeted by Rogers, he said that “Lawmakers in Florida, Texas and Georgia should follow this lead and push for a straightforward ban on private election funding.”

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Arizona passed new legislation banning election officials from taking money from private donations to help run future elections.<br><br>Lawmakers in Florida, Texas and Georgia should follow this lead and push for a straightforward ban on private election funding.</p>&mdash; Phillip Kline (@PhillDKline) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhillDKline/status/1371843678159912976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>