By Brad McQueen
When Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal’s chickens come home to roost they sure do throw a party and they invite friends from both sides of the political spectrum.
A second formal complaint was filed last week to the AZ Clean Elections Commission by lawyers representing the AZ Democratic Party against Superintendent Huppenthal alleging that he used Department of Education resources to expressly campaign for reelection.
They specifically allege that Huppenthal violated ARS 16-901.01 when he,
“…sent an email message to all public school teachers clearly identifying himself as a candidate and, in the given context, could have no reasonable meaning other than to advocate for his reelection… Here, the communication was an email directed to every public school teacher, an important subset of the electorate for a candidate running for Superintendent of Public Instruction.”
Last week Linda Brickman, a self-identified Constitutional Conservative, was the first to file a complaint against Superintendent Huppenthal to the AZ Clean Elections Commission. She alleged that Huppenthal violated Clean Elections rule R2-20-312 when he used Department of Education resources to campaign for reelection.
Brickman, when asked why she filed her complaint, responded:
“The Rule of Law should be followed by all incumbents as well as candidates running for a public office. Being a Constitutional Conservative, may mean that whether it be Diane Douglas or John Huppenthal (violating the law), or any other candidate running for an elected office, I would have filed a Complaint against them…”
In an article on 8/12 , I detailed how Huppenthal used state employee email lists to send a campaign letter, with the AZ Dept of Education logo and containing campaign talking points regarding the Common Core, to possibly 60,000 teachers across Arizona.
The emailed letter also contained a link to a video posted on Youtube, also containing the AZ Dept of Education logo, where Huppenthal reiterated his campaign talking points he has used at numerous candidate debates and interviews. I was one of the teachers who received his email letter/video on my school email.
Huppenthal, like many candidates, is using money from the Clean Elections Commission to fund his campaign. The Clean Elections Commission was established in 1998 to provide campaign money to candidates who agreed to forgo special interest money and abide by the Clean Elections rules and regulations.
Huppenthal has five days from the filing of the complaints to respond.
Brad McQueen is a former Common Core insider and current public school teacher in Tucson, Arizona and is the author of the anti-Common Core book “The Cult of Common Core”. Connect with Brad at cultofcommoncore@gmail.com
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