More on tyrant Tom Horne!!!! New ethical complaint against Arizona AG Tom Horne Remember Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, along with Governor Jan Brewer attempted to flush Arizonas Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet by filing a frivolous lawsuit in court. The lawsuit was thrown out. Now we need to throw Tom Horne and Jan Brewer out. azcentral/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/05/12/horne-aide-drove-state-car-campaign-meeting/9003559/ New ethical complaint against Arizona AG Tom Horne Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Republic | azcentral 11:44 a.m. MST May 13, 2014 The Attorney Generals Office has doubled as a campaign office for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, a former employee alleges, with top staff working on state time to raise money for Hornes re-election, plan campaign events and discuss talking points to deploy against his challengers. Sarah Beattie, a former attorney general constituent services staffer and ex-Horne campaign fundraiser, made the allegations in a damning complaint filed with elections officials Monday. Beattie resigned last month saying her legal well-being was at risk because the office was violating the law. Elections officials will review the complaint to determine if there is enough evidence to pursue the allegations. Beatties affidavit and its accompanying exhibits, including e-mails, calendars and metadata such as time-stamps on cellphone photos, paint a portrait of an attorney general and executive staff openly and rampantly working on his re-election efforts from the Capitol, with no regard to state laws banning politicking on state time. Beattie, a Republican fundraiser who has worked for the campaigns of U.S. Sen. John McCain and former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, states in her affidavit she worked, on average, two hours a day on official state duties. The remainder of her time was dedicated to re-electing her boss, at the direction of Horne, his chief of staff and other high-level aides. Beatties attorney, Tom Ryan, called her a profile of courage for coming forward with the evidence, but acknowledged that his client was aware her campaign-related activities on state time were illegal. He accused Horne and his staff of attempting to smear Beattie by talking about her medical history, a DUI and her work history. Ryan, who said Beattie does not seek money or notoriety, said the story is about Horne, his top aides and their alleged flagrant abuse of campaign laws. The plain fact of the matter is Tom Horne and the executive office is doing a significant amount of campaigning on taxpayer money, Ryan told reporters after filing the complaint. Ryan declined to answer questions about whether hes had conversations with local or federal authorities about potential violations of the Hatch Act, a 1939 federal anti-corruption law designed to crack down on federal employees who engage in on-the-job political activities. The statute can apply to state and local workers, too, if their jobs are connected to federal funding. Horne, who is embarking on the toughest campaign of his political career and faces a primary challenger, vehemently denied Beatties allegations. In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Horne said all employees are expected to work eight-hour days and that some volunteer to do campaign work on their own time. He said all significant campaign work is done outside the office and said Beattie had an emotional crying fit over her work hours being watched. Asked how he defined significant campaign work, Horne said the office has a certain amount of water cooler-talk like any governmental office, but when significant discussion needed to be done, that was held off-site. Hornes office attacked Beatties credibility, saying she has a habit of turning on employers when she leaves. The office cited a past political consultant and a former McCain staffer, who both told The Republic they had problems with Beattie. In a political season, this entire sideshow reeks of desperation, opportunism and political games and the truth will come out, Hornes statement said. In the meantime, I will continue focusing on real issues such as drug cartels, consumer protection and keeping Arizona safe. Beattie, a Republican fundraiser in her mid-20s, was recruited to the office last year by her friend, Brett Mecum. She said the focus of her job interview with Mecum and Kathleen Winn, Hornes director of community outreach, was Hornes re-election. Beattie states she does not recall learning much about the actual position and what was expected of me. She was hired Aug. 1, 2013 as an administrative assistant working for Winn at a $32,000 salary. Early on I realized she (Winn) wanted me to do campaign work while working during official state hours, Beattie stated in the affidavit. For example, Beattie said Winn directed her to work on a campaign statement of Hornes 17 Major Achievements on state time, saying it was a top priority that was needed stat. Meanwhile, Beattie stated, she was keenly aware of the importance of not doing campaign work while on the taxpayer dime. Winn declined to comment on Beatties allegations. About a month later, Beattie told Horne she was unhappy working for Winn and warned him that Winn was a hazard to his campaign. Winn is connected to other campaign-finance allegations against Horne. The two were accused of illegally coordinating Winns independent expenditure committee and Hornes 2010 campaign for attorney general but a judge found there was not enough evidence to prove they coordinated. Beattie stated Winn told her on more than one occasion: Tom Horne will never get rid of me; I know where all the bodies are buried. Beattie asked to work in constituent services, requested higher pay and threatened to quit if Horne didnt move her. He responded, We need you through next November, and promised to take care of her pay, according to Beatties affidavit. On Sept. 23, she was moved to the executive office and given a $10,000 raise. There, Beattie stated that on the average I spent two hours a day on Constituency Services, and the rest of the time doing campaign work. Beattie stated she witnessed Horne and his staff frequently working on Hornes re-election while on state time. Hornes office said: If individual staffers took personal time outside of their eight hours to review e-mails or make personal phone calls, there is nothing illegal or unseemly about that. Margaret Dugan, Hornes chief of staff, doubles as his campaign manager. Vanessa Deatherage works in community outreach and is Hornes deputy campaign manager. Also volunteering on Hornes campaign: Mecum, Hornes legislative assistant; Garrett Archer, Hornes federal policy adviser; Winn, director of community outreach; and Debra Scortado, Hornes executive assistant. Stephanie Grisham, Hornes spokeswoman, volunteered for his campaign until January or February. Also among Beatties allegations: • Horne and his staff directed others to do campaign work on state time. During work hours, Horne, Mecum, Archer and Beattie discussed the best location for a Horne fundraiser with the former Virginia attorney general; Horne reviewed a list of donors and he, Mecum and Beattie called potential donors. Horne called Donald Tapia, a donor, and asked him to host the event. Staff then prepared an event flier and sent it to most executive office members for review and editing. Hornes office said two employees recalled that Beattie borrowed Mecums laptop to draft the flier. • Horne kept a white binder, deliberately mislabeled BORDER PATROL, that contained his fundraising activities, which occurred inside and outside of the office on state time. Beattie said Horne used the binder daily to solicit donations in his office, using his private cell phone. Hornes office said the notebook was stored at the office, but was not used there. Beattie has been quoted in the media saying she had the notebook when she quit and did not return it. Horne said Monday that he may file a police report, alleging theft of the binder. • Horne consistently gave Beatties Attorney Generals Office number to political supporters even though she repeatedly asked him not to. Frustrated, she e-mailed him and other staff asking the number not be used for campaign activities. About three months ago, someone from the executive staff sent a campaign e-mail and used her office address. She asked the address not be used and later, after Horne hit reply all without deleting her e-mail address, he went to her desk and apologized, saying I really messed up, didnt I? He then instructed her to delete the message and then stood over my shoulder to ensure that I had deleted it. Hornes office said according to policies and procedures, if an employee receives an inappropriate political e-mail, the worker is to delete it and instruct the sender to not send any more e-mails. If Beattie was told to delete an e-mail, it is because that is what our office instructs employees to do, the office said. In October, Horne asked her to meet him at a Phoenix fine jewelery store to scout its potential as a fundraising location. She went to the jeweler, where she met Horne and Carmen Chenal, his alleged mistress, according reports from an FBI investigation. Beattie took a photo of Chenal trying on an $8 million ring. The metadata from the photo shows the photos were taken shortly after noon, Beatties affidavit states and reflects she had to leave the Attorney Generals Office during normal work hours for political activities. • Horne routinely called staff into meetings regarding the campaigns of his opponents, Republican Mark Brnovich and Democrat Felecia Rotellini. The meetings, during regular office hours, included discussions about Hornes campaign events. Beattie included e-mail exchanges during normal work hours between Horne and staff about a proposed campaign robocall, Negatives of Rotellini, and a memo dubbed Tom Hornes Achievements. • On April 8, she saw Winn drive a state vehicle to a Horne campaign meeting. Attorney General records provided to the newspaper in response to a public-records request show Winn reimbursed the office $10 for use of the state car during personal time. She drove the vehicle less than two miles, the records show. Hornes spokeswoman said Winn was reprimanded by a supervisor. State workers are not supposed to drive state vehicles for personal business. That same day, in an e-mail to Horne and Dugan, Beattie wrote, As of today I no longer want to be on anything campaign related. ... Nothing has changed since our meeting withLarry. Thank you for respecting this decision. If the Arizona Secretary of State Office determines there is enough evidence to pursue the allegations, it will forward the complaint to the Solicitor General, which resides in Hornes office. Hornes spokeswoman said the office would likely refer it to an outside prosecutor. The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission can pursue a separate case.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 21:13:04 +0000
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