Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Shining Light on Arizonans for a Brighter Future

Posted By on Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:04 PM

We can tell you a little more about Arizonans for a Brighter Future, a new mysterious non-profit that is getting involved in county politics.

We reported on Arizonans for a Brighter Future in "Whose Bright Idea," which appeared in last week’s print edition. The story explained that the non-profit’s backers were unwilling to reveal their identities.

The story also noted that the group’s Fact Sheet did not appear to be all that factual.

As we reported, Arizonans for a Brighter Future was incorporated in Delaware. We now have those incorporation documents and they reveal that the local guy who is signing papers on the group’s behalf is named Michael R. Farley, who is the owner of Kolb Road Development.

We don’t know too much about Farley, but he returned our call yesterday afternoon and said he’d meet with us to tell us more about what he’s up to on Friday afternoon.

Another tidbit from the documents: The group’s sole incorporator is Melissa Laurenza, an attorney with the high-powered Washington, D.C., law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

Because the group is registered as a 501(c)(6) non-profit, it does not have to disclose any of its donors until March, 2013. So unless Arizonans for a Brighter Future decides to share the information with the community, the group has found a way to circumvent Arizona’s campaign-finance disclosure laws.

We have more on Arizonans for a Brighter Future in this week's Skinny column, including details about how Republican Board of Supervisors candidate Ally Miller has vowed that she's done her last interview with us in the wake of the story.