Governor Jan Brewer had one word today when she cast her ballot for the amount of personal cash and dark money in this year’s Republican primary: Astounding. Arizona Public Radio’s Howard Fischer reports.
It wasn’t just what candidates spent on themselves, led by the $5.3 million from gubernatorial hopeful Christine Jones. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Better Leaders for Arizona each spent about $1.7 million, with another $1.3 million by Save Our Future Now. Brewer said in her 32 years in politics she’s never seen anything like it.
“It was just too many robocalls, too many nasty ads, too many missed truths. It gave the public a lot to sort through. They had to dig really deep to get to the bottom and to find out just exactly what their candidates stood for,” Brewer said.
But, Brewer herself contributed to some of that. Arizona’s Legacy, her political action committee, put nearly $450,000 into various campaigns. That made it the sixth largest source of outside cash trying to affect today’s Republican primary. But Brewer, who will not have an elected position in January, sidestepped the question of whether she will use her newfound freedom — and any influence she may still have — to seek changes in campaign finance laws before the 2016 election.
“Well, let me say this: I’m looking forward to having Jan Brewer's voice back, not Jan Brewer the elected official, so that I can say and do what it is that I really want to do at the appropriate times,” Brewer said.
