SCA

The Maricopa County Attorney office has fined Joel Fox, a Maricopa County Sheriff, $315,000 for his SCA donation to the Arizona Republican Party earlier this year. His group, Sheriff's Command Association donated $105K to the party while never filing the proper paperwork with the state.

The office of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas will tell the lawyer for the Tim Nelson campaign that it has no records of any communications between anyone in it and SCA, the anonymous Mesa group whose contributions to the Arizona Republican Party allegedly went toward funding an ad attacking Nelson.

On Tuesday, the campaign of Tim Nelson, who is running to unseat Thomas, says it sent a public records request to the offices of Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio regarding the ad. The campaign quoted a section from the request that read: 

It appears that your campaign for re-election is engaged in massive campaign violations that undermine the integrity of this election. Not only has your party…hidden and funneled several campaign contributions, but we believe you and your agents knew about it, participated in it, encouraged it and benefitted from it. While Arizonans for Public Safety purports to be an independent expenditure committee…It is hard to believe Mr. Pullen and Mr. McCaffrey have not discussed with you or your campaign’s agents your re-election campaign.

The Nelson campaign asked for a response to that request within 48 hours.

Thursday, Barnett Lotstein, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, told PolitickerAZ.com that the response would be an unequivocal disavowal of any communications between SCA or Arizonans for Public Safety, which produced the ad.

Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer has told the Arizona Republican Party that she wants to know who belongs to the Mesa group SCA by Oct. 31, according to her office.

SCA is at the center of a controversy that was sparked when the group, which is not registered with the Secretary of State's office as a political committee and whose membership has yet to be divulged, contributed $105,000 to the Arizona Republican Party's state fund.

Democrats contend the funds were "earmarked" by the GOP to be used to attack two Democratic candidates in Maricopa County races, which would be a violation of the state law that prohibits "soft money" contributions - such as those to a political party - from being solicited or given for use in a specific race.

The Arizona Democratic Party has filed a multi-part complaint against the Arizona Republican Party over $105,000 in donations the state GOP received from a Mesa group called SCA.

According to the latest campaign filing from the Arizona Republican Party, SCA, which is listed as an "unincorporated association of individuals," gave $80,000 to the party on Aug. 21 and another $25,000 on Sep. 10. SCA is the sole entity listed under "individual contributions" in the party's post-primary filing for its state account.

The Democrats allege in a complaint filed Tuesday with Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer that Republicans have violated campaign finance laws by taking money from SCA without obtaining a list of its donors. The Democrats claim this constitutes taking funds from an individual in the name of another individual, which they say is a class 6 felony.