Republican operative Tyler Montague, president of the Public Integrity Alliance, this afternoon filed a conflict of interest complaint against Corporation Commission chair Susan Bitter Smith.
Montague's 4-page complaint, sent to the Arizona Secretary of State and the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, appears to only broadly address the same allegations and evidence cited in the September 1 quo warranto complaint delivered by Tom Ryan to Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
One theory is that this complaint was filed hoping to get Brnovich off the hook politically for the situation. If Clean Elections took action to oust Bitter Smith, Brno wouldn't have to deal with it, perhaps. However, even if either the SOS or Clean Elections were to consider taking action, they would go to and through the Arizona Attorney General's office which represents both agencies, to do so.
It's likely that Clean Elections executive director Tom Collins will review the complaint over the next few days to determine whether his agency could take any action. On the other hand, I'm quite confident the Secretary of State's office would do absolutely NOTHING with or about the situation, even if it actually had any authority to enforce A.R.S. § 40-101.
So, snowball effect notwithstanding, today's complaint has no new material or allegations and does not invoke any additional statutory authority than is in Ryan's complaint.
For a Republican 501 (c) 4 organization to be concerned about the corruption at the Corporation Commission can ultimately only be a good thing. So, if you want to read today's complaint, the hyperlink in the opening paragraph will get you to it.
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