Accountability and Transparency

Fighting for Arizona

Ken became Secretary of State in early 2009 following an election cycle marred by petition fraud and abuse involving Arizona citizen’s initiatives. He quickly pushed for and achieved legislation that cracks down on petition fraud and unscrupulous signature-gatherers.

A year later, Ken led reform efforts in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that suddenly – and contrary to decades of statutory and case law – cleared the way for corporations and unions to spend from their general treasuries in directly advocating for or against candidates in the weeks immediately prior to an election. Through a series of stakeholder meetings, Ken and his staff developed legislation that brings Arizona into compliance with the Supreme Court ruling, protects the free-speech rights of unions and corporations and ensures near-immediate public disclosure of the campaign activities of these groups in candidate races. What could have been a nasty legislative fight was a slam-dunk instead, with nary a single “no” vote cast en route to the proposal passing the Legislature and being signed into law. Who says government can’t work?