South Pima News

Arizona state Rep. Bob Thorpe (R-Flagstaff) is pushing legislation that would outlaw contributions to legislative and ballot initiative campaigns from anyone outside the state.

According to The Fulcrum, Thorpe’s bill stipulates “any person or corporation from another state shall not make a contribution to any committee located in this state or any person or candidate for office in this state."

A Tea Party conservative, Thorpe said his goal is to make certain well-to-do individuals from other parts of the country aren’t in a position to influence elections that will only impact the people of Arizona.

Even after a similar measure in South Dakota was struck down as unconstitutional and Tom Collins, executive director of the state's nonpartisan campaign finance regulatory agency, recently went on record with his belief that such a measure would be unconstitutional, Thorpe remains undeterred, telling an Arizona Daily Star reporter he hopes the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

Back in November, the Supreme Court sent back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a challenge to a battery of campaign finance restrictions Alaska imposed more than two decades ago, including a cap on how much candidates for governor or the legislature may receive from outside the state.

More recently, the state high court there ruled “this limitation did not violate the First Amendment.”

Thorpe’s bill does not mention independent expenditures, possibly paving the way for so-called super PACs to continue spending on advertising in hopes of steering state elections in the direction of their choosing.