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(a) A committee shall file a statement of organization with the city clerk within ten (10) days after qualifying as a committee.
(b) A statement of organization shall include the following committee information:
(1) The committee name, mailing address, e-mail address, website, if any, telephone number, if any, and type of committee. The committee name shall include:
a. For a candidate committee, the candidate's first or last name and office sought.
b. For a political action committee that is sponsored, the sponsor's name or commonly known nickname.
(2) The name, mailing address, e-mail address, website, if any, and telephone number of any sponsor.
(3) The name, physical location or street address, e-mail address, telephone number, occupation and employer of the committee's chairperson and treasurer. For a candidate committee, the candidate may serve as both chairperson and treasurer.
(4) For a candidate committee, the candidate's party affiliation.
(5) A listing of all banks or other financial institutions used by the committee.
(6) A statement that the committee chairperson and committee treasurer have read the city clerk's campaign finance and reporting guide, agree to comply with this article and all relevant provisions of A.R.S. Title 16, Chapter 6, and all successor provisions, and agree to accept all notifications and service of process via the e-mail address provided by the committee.
(c) A committee shall file an amended statement of organization within ten (10) days after any change in committee information.
(d) On the filing of a statement of organization a political action committee shall be issued a city identification number.
(e) A standing committee shall file a statement of organization with the secretary of state and a copy of the statement with the city clerk. Only the secretary of state shall issue an identification number.
(f) A candidate may have only one (1) committee in existence for the same office during the same election cycle.
(g) On filing a statement of organization, a political action committee or political party may perform any lawful activity, including making contributions, making expenditures or conducting issue advocacy, without establishing a separate committee for each activity or specifying each activity in its statement of organization.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A committee treasurer is the custodian of the committee's books and accounts. A committee may not make a contribution, expenditure or disbursement without the authorization of the treasurer or the treasurer's designated agent.
(b) All committee monies shall be deposited in one or more bank accounts held by the financial institutions listed in the committee's statement of organization. Committee bank accounts shall be segregated as follows:
(1) Committee monies shall be segregated in different bank accounts from personal monies.
(2) Contributions from individuals, partnerships, candidate committees, political action committees or political parties shall be segregated in different bank accounts from contributions from other donors.
(3) Contributions to a political party to defray operating expenses or support party-building activities shall be segregated in different bank accounts from contributions used to support candidates.
(4) For a committee that is a political party, the committee may commingle monies from any source in a single bank account if the account is maintained as prescribed in 11 code of federal regulations section 106.7.
(5) For contributions intended to influence a recall election, the committee shall segregate those contributions into bank accounts that are different from those intended to influence any other election and those recall contributions may not be used to influence any other election.
(c) A committee shall exercise its best effort to obtain the required information for any incomplete contribution received that is required to be itemized and reported. The committee shall clearly ask for identification and inform the contributor that the committee is required by law to seek identification. The committee shall report in an amended report any contributor identification obtained after the contribution has been disclosed on a campaign finance report.
(d) A committee shall keep records of the following:
(1) All contributions made or received by the committee.
(2) The identification of any contributor that contributes in the aggregate at least fifty dollars ($50) to the committee during the election cycle, the date and amount of each contribution and the date of deposit into the committee's account.
(3) Cumulative totals contributed by each contributor during the election cycle.
(4) The name and address of every person that receives a contribution, expenditure or disbursement from the committee, including the date and amount, and, for any expenditure or disbursement, the purpose of the expenditure or disbursement.
(e) A committee may accept a cash contribution. Cash contributions are subject to the identification requirements set forth in subsection (d)(2) of this section.
(f) A committee may accept a contribution by written or electronic instrument, including a check, credit card, payroll deduction, online payment or electronic transfer, if the contributor is an account holder of the instrument. Unless designated as a joint contribution, a contribution shall be attributed to the account holder that signs the instrument or authorizes the transaction.
(g) A committee shall preserve all records required to be kept by this section for two (2) years following the end of the election cycle.
(h) On request of the city clerk or city attorney, a committee that has filed a statement of organization shall produce any of the records required to be kept pursuant to this section to the city clerk or city attorney.
(i) A person that qualifies as a committee as prescribed by A.R.S. § 16-905 shall report all contributions, expenditures and disbursements that occurred before qualifying as a committee and shall maintain and produce records as prescribed by this section.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, public funding candidates must comply with the requirements of the Tucson Charter and the campaign finance administration rules and regulations.
(a) No individual shall make a contribution of more than five hundred dollars ($500) to any candidate for mayor or council member during any campaign period.
(b) A political action committee may contribute up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) to any candidate for mayor or council member. No individual member of such committee shall contribute more than five hundred dollars ($500) toward the contribution, nor an aggregate amount of more than five hundred dollars ($500) to any candidate whether through a committee contribution or a personal contribution.
(c) No candidate for mayor or council member shall accept or receive a campaign contribution of more than five hundred dollars ($500) from any individual or more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) from any political action committee during any campaign period.
(d) An individual may only make contributions using personal monies, except that a contribution from an unemancipated minor child shall be treated as a contribution by the child's custodial parent or parents.
(e) A candidate committee shall not make contributions to a candidate committee for another candidate.
(f) A candidate committee may transfer unlimited contributions to any one or more other candidate committees for that same candidate under the following conditions:
(1) A candidate committee for mayor or council member shall not transfer contributions to that same candidate's committee for a statewide or legislative office.
(2) If a candidate committee for mayor or council member transfers contributions to a candidate committee for a county office for that same candidate, the candidate committee for the county office shall not transfer contributions to a statewide or legislative candidate committee for that same candidate during the twenty-four (24) months immediately following that transfer of contributions to the county candidate committee.
(3) Contributions originally made to the transferring candidate committee are deemed to be contributions to the receiving candidate committee. On transfer, an individual's aggregate contributions to both candidate committees during the election cycle shall not exceed the individual's contribution limit for that candidate.
(g) A candidate committee shall not knowingly accept contributions in excess of the contribution limits prescribed by law. A candidate committee that unknowingly accepts an excess contribution shall refund or reattribute any excess contribution within sixty (60) days after receipt of the contribution. A candidate committee may reattribute an excess contribution only if both of the following apply:
(1) The excess contribution was received from an individual contributor.
(2) The individual contributor authorizes the candidate committee to reattribute the excess amount to another individual who was identified as a joint account holder in the original instrument used to make the excess contribution.
(h) A candidate committee may accept contributions only from an individual, a partnership, a candidate committee, a political action committee or a political party.
(i) A candidate committee may make unlimited contributions to a person other than a candidate's committee.
(j) A candidate may contribute unlimited personal monies to the candidate's own candidate committee.
(k) A political action committee may only contribute to a candidate committee using monies contributed by an individual, a partnership, a candidate committee, a political action committee or a political party.
(l) A political action committee may make unlimited contributions to persons other than candidate committees.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A person may make any contribution not otherwise prohibited by law.
(b) The following are not contributions:
(1) The value of an individual's volunteer services or expenses that are provided without compensation or reimbursement, including the individual's:
a. Travel expenses.
b. Use of real or personal property.
c. Cost of invitations, food or beverages.
d. Use of e-mail, internet activity or social media messages, only if the individual's use is not paid for by the individual or any other person and if the e-mails, social media messages or other internet activities do not contain or include transmittal of a paid advertisement or paid fund-raising solicitation.
(2) The costs incurred for covering or carrying a news story, commentary or editorial by a broadcasting station or cable television operator, an internet website, a newspaper or another periodical publication, including an internet-based or electronic publication, if the cost for the news story, commentary or editorial is not paid for by and the medium is not owned or under the control of a candidate or committee.
(3) Any payment to defray the expense of an elected official meeting with constituents or attending an informational tour, conference, seminar or presentation, if the payor or the elected official does not attempt to influence the result of an election and the payment is reported if required pursuant to A.R.S. Title 38.
(4) The payment by a political party to support its nominee, including:
a. The printing or distribution of, or postage expenses for, voter guides, sample ballots, pins, bumper stickers, handbills, brochures, posters, yard signs and other similar political party expenditures.
b. Coordinated political party expenditures.
(5) The payment by any person to defray a political party's operating expenses or party-building activities, including:
a. Party staff and personnel.
b. Studies and reports.
c. Voter registration, recruitment, polling and turnout efforts.
d. Party conventions and party meetings.
e. Construction, purchase or lease of party buildings or facilities.
(6) The value of any of the following to a committee:
a. Interest earned on the committee's deposits or investments.
b. Transfers between committees to reimburse expenses and distribute monies raised through a joint fund-raising effort, if the transfers comply with an agreement to reimburse and distribute monies that was executed before the joint fund-raising effort occurred.
c. Payment of a committee's legal or accounting expenses by any person.
d. An extension of credit for goods and services on a committee's behalf by a creditor if the terms are substantially similar to extensions of credit to nonpolitical debtors that are of similar risk and size of obligation. The creditor must make a commercially reasonable attempt to collect the debt, except that if an extension of credit remains unsatisfied by the committee after six (6) months the committee is deemed to have received a contribution but the creditor is not deemed to have made a contribution.
(7) The value of nonpartisan communications that are intended to encourage voter registration and turnout efforts.
(8) Any payment to the city clerk for arguments in a publicity pamphlet.
(9) The payment by any sponsor or its affiliate for the costs of establishing, administering and soliciting contributions from its employees, members, executives, stockholders, and retirees and their families to the sponsor's separate segregated fund.
(10) Any payment by any entity for the costs of communicating with its employees, members, executives, stockholders and retirees and their families about any subject, without regard to whether those communications are made in coordination with any candidate or candidate's agent.
(11) The value of allowing a candidate or a committee's representative to appear at any private residence or at the facilities of any entity to speak about the candidate's campaign or about a ballot measure, if the venue is furnished by the venue's owner, is not paid for by a third party and is not a sports stadium, coliseum, convention center, hotel ballroom, concert hall or other similar arena that is generally open to the public.
(12) The costs of hosting a debate or candidates' forum, if at least two (2) opposing candidates, with respect to any given office sought, or representatives of at least two (2) opposing ballot measure campaigns, with respect to any measure on the ballot, are invited with the same or similar advance notice and method of invitation.
(13) The preparation and distribution of voter guides, subject to the following:
a. A featured candidate or ballot measure shall not receive greater prominence or substantially more space in the voter guide than any other candidate or ballot measure.
b. The voter guide shall not include any message that constitutes express advocacy.
(14) Monies that are loaned by a financial institution in the ordinary course of business and not for the purpose of influencing the results of an election, except that the loan is deemed a pro rata contribution by any endorser or guarantor, other than the candidate's spouse.
(15) The costs of publishing a book or producing a documentary, if the publication and production are for distribution to the general public through traditional distribution mechanisms or a fee is obtained for the purchase of the publication or viewing of the documentary.
(c) This section does not imply that any transactions that are not specifically listed in subsection (b) of this section are contributions unless those transactions otherwise meet the definition of contribution defined in A.R.S. § 16-901.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A person that makes an expenditure for an advertisement or fund-raising solicitation, other than an individual or a natural person, shall include the following disclosures in the advertisement or solicitation:
(1) The words "paid for by", followed by the name of the person making the expenditure for the advertisement or fund-raising solicitation.
(2) Whether the expenditure was authorized by any candidate, followed by the identity of the authorizing candidate, if any.
(b) Any person purchasing literature or advertisements for the purpose of making an independent expenditure must also comply with Article XII of this code.
(c) In addition to the disclosure required by subsection (a) of this section, a political action committee that makes an expenditure for an advertisement shall include a disclosure stating the names of the three (3) political action committees making the largest aggregate contributions to the political action committees making the expenditure and that exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) during the election cycle, as calculated at the time the advertisement was distributed for publication, display, delivery or broadcast.
(d) If a disclosure contains any acronym or nickname that is not commonly known, the disclosure shall also spell out the acronym or provide the full name.
(e) If the advertisement is:
(1) Broadcast on radio, the disclosure shall be clearly spoken at the beginning or end of the advertisement.
(2) Delivered by hand or mail or electronically, the disclosure shall be clearly readable.
(3) Displayed on a sign or billboard, the disclosure shall be displayed in a height that is at least four percent (4%) of the vertical height of the sign or billboard.
(4) Broadcast on television or in a video or film, both of the following requirements apply:
a. The disclosure shall be both written and spoken at the beginning or end of the advertisement, except that if the written disclosure statement is displayed for the greater of at least one-sixth (1/6) of the broadcast duration or four (4) seconds, a spoken disclosure statement is not required.
b. The written disclosure statement shall be printed in letters that are displayed in a height that is at least four percent (4%) of the vertical picture height.
(f) This section does not apply to:
(1) Social media messages, text messages or messages sent by a short message service.
(2) Advertisements that are placed as a paid link on a website, if the message is not more than two hundred (200) characters in length and the link directs the user to another website that complies with this section.
(3) Advertisements that are placed as a graphic or picture link, if the statements required in this section cannot be conveniently printed due to the size of the graphic or picture and the link directs the user to another website that complies with this section.
(4) Bumper stickers, pins, buttons, pens and similar items on which the statements required in this section cannot be conveniently printed.
(5) A solicitation of contributions by a separate segregated fund.
(6) A communication by a tax-exempt organization solely to its members.
(7) A published book or a documentary film or video.
(g) A person who violates this section is subject to the penalties provided for in section 12-96 of this code.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A person may make any expenditure not otherwise prohibited by law.
(b) The following are not expenditures:
(1) The value of an individual's volunteer services or expenses that are provided without compensation or reimbursement, including the individual's:
a. Travel expenses.
b. Use of real or personal property.
c. Cost of invitations, food or beverages.
d. Use of e-mail, internet activity or social media messages, only if the individual's use is not paid for by the individual or any other person and if the e-mails, social media messages or other internet activities do not contain or include transmittal of a paid advertisement or paid fund-raising solicitation.
(2) The value of any news story, commentary or editorial by any broadcasting station, cable television operator, programmer or producer, newspaper, magazine, website or other periodical publication that is not owned or operated by a candidate, a candidate's spouse or any committee.
(3) The payment by any person to defray a political party's operating expenses or party-building activities, including:
a. Party staff and personnel.
b. Studies and reports.
c. Voter registration, recruitment, polling and turnout efforts.
d. Party conventions and party meetings.
e. Construction, purchase or lease of party building or facilities.
(4) The value of any of the following to a committee:
a. Interest earned on the committee's deposits or investments.
b. Transfers between committees to reimburse expenses and distribute monies raised through a joint fund-raising effort, except that contributions shall be allocated as described in the fund-raising solicitation and expenses shall be allocated in the same proportion as contributions.
c. Payment of a committee's legal or accounting expenses.
d. An extension of credit for goods and services on a committee's behalf by a creditor if the terms are substantially similar to extensions of credit to nonpolitical debtors that are of similar risk and size of obligation. The creditor must make a commercially reasonable attempt to collect the debt, except that if an extension of credit remains unsatisfied by the committee after six (6) months the committee is deemed to have received a contribution but the creditor is not deemed to have made a contribution.
(5) The value of nonpartisan communications that are intended to encourage voter registration and turnout efforts.
(6) Any payment by a person that is not a committee to the city clerk for arguments in a publicity pamphlet.
(7) Any payment for legal or accounting services that are provided to a committee.
(8) The payment of costs of publishing a book or producing a documentary, if the publication and production are for distribution to the general public through traditional distribution mechanisms or a fee is obtained for the purchase of the publication or viewing of the documentary.
(c) This section does not imply that any transactions that are not specifically listed in subsection (b) of this section are expenditures unless those transactions otherwise meet the definition of expenditure as defined in A.R.S. § 16-901.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A person is prohibited from attempting to influence the outcome of an election by delivering or mailing any document that:
(1) Purports to be authorized, approved, required, sent or reviewed by the state government, a county, city, or town, or any other political subdivision, or
(2) Falsely simulates a document from any of these governmental entities.
(b) The penalty for deceptive mailings (civil penalty) is equal to twice the total cost of the mailing, or five hundred dollars ($500), whichever amount is greater.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
(a) A corporation, limited liability company or labor organization shall not make contributions to a candidate committee.
(b) A corporation, limited liability company or labor organization may make unlimited contributions to persons other than candidate committees.
(c) A corporation, limited liability company or labor organization may sponsor a separate segregated fund. Employees, members, executives, stockholders and retirees and the families of a corporation, limited liability company or labor organization and any subsidiary or affiliate of a corporation, limited liability company or labor organization may make contributions to the separate segregated fund provided that the separate segregated fund has registered as a political action committee subject to the provisions of A.R.S. § 16-916 (c).
(d) A partnership may not contribute to a candidate for mayor or council member more than the contribution limits of section 12-86 of this code.
(e) A partnership may make unlimited contributions to persons other than candidate committees.
(f) Partnership contributions are subject to the following:
(1) Partnership contributions shall be attributed to each contributing partner as designated by the partnership. The partnership shall provide the recipient committee written notice identifying the contributing partners and the amount attributed to each.
(2) Partnership contributions shall count against both the partnership's and the individual partners' contribution limits to a recipient. The portion attributed to each partner shall be aggregated with the individual partner's non-partnership contributions to that recipient and shall not exceed the individual partner's contribution limit.
(3) The partnership shall not attribute any contribution to a partner that is a corporation, limited liability company or labor organization.
(4) Partnership contributions need not be accompanied by the signature of each contributing partner.
(g) A partnership may establish a separate segregated fund and register it as a political action committee.
(h) A contributor shall not give and a committee shall not accept a contribution that has been earmarked for a candidate.
(i) If an anonymous contribution is accepted because it is received in a non-returnable form, it must be segregated from other funds and must be disposed of pursuant to section 12-97 of this code.
(j) A contribution by an individual or a political committee to two (2) or more candidates in connection with a joint fund-raising effort shall be divided among the candidates in direct proportion to each candidate campaign committee's share of the expenses for the fund-raising effort.
(Ord. No. 11525, § 2, 2-21-18)
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