Eleven Democratic Arizona legislative candidates, ten challengers and one incumbent, sent a letter today to the Arizona State Legislature calling for the passage of major democracy reforms to be a top priority in the 55th Legislative Session. These candidates, who commended their sitting Democratic colleagues for proposing bold good-government initiatives, are sending a historic message to voters and to the establishment in Phoenix that they are committed to passing these reforms and unrigging the broken system so that Arizona’s government is responsive to the people and not beholden to big donors and corporate special interests.
Key elements of the letter include: Strengthening the Clean Elections program; protecting tribal voting rights; ending the outsized influence of corporate interests over government; protecting Arizonans’ ability to engage in direct democracy through the ballot initiative process; defending Arizonans’ right to know the original sources of all political spending that tries to influence their votes; and protecting and expanding Arizonans’ right to vote.
You can read the full text of the letter here.
The full list of candidates who signed the letter includes: Felicia French (LD-6), Coral Evans (LD-6), JoAnna Mendoza (LD-11), Kathy Knecht (LD-21), Sharon Girard (LD-8), Ajlan Kurdoglu (LD-17), Douglas Ervin (LD-20), Judy Schwiebert (LD-20), Eric Kurland (LD-23), Christine Marsh (LD-28) and Rep. Kelli Butler (LD-28).
“Arizonans’ voice in democracy is overpowered by the outsized influence of dark money and orchestrated attacks on their sacred right to vote, especially tribal communities,” said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United and Let America Vote. “These eleven candidates are taking a stand by listening to voters and posing concrete solutions to prioritize bold democracy reforms in 2021. They know that a pro-democracy majority in the State Legislature will lead to progress on critical issues impacting Arizonans’ daily lives, like expanding quality healthcare, saving public schools and rebuilding the economy. We applaud these candidates’ efforts to combat corruption and repair democracy for all Arizonans.”
ECU and LAV merged in January to combat the two biggest challenges facing our democracy: Big Money and voter suppression. Its affiliated project, Fight for Reform (FFR), focuses on bringing transparency and accountability to state and local elections around the country.
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