What is Seed Money?

People have asked more than once, so I thought I would create a page to explain. What exactly is “Seed Money” for Clean Elections Candidates?

Since Clean Elections candidates don’t receive funding to run their campaigns until very late in the process, combined with the restriction on only being able to put on a relatively small amount of their own capital, there needed to be a mechanism to allow these candidates a way to get the word out about their campaign, collect signatures and ultimately collect $5 donations. A mechanism called “early contributions” was created to allow the candidate a way to “seed” their campaign legally (hence the colloquial term “seed money”). Effectively, this is how Clean Candidates are able to do things like print their nomination papers, purchase booth space at events, print signs/banners for dressing up their event tables, gas money to get to LD meetings (or anywhere else in the state as my case may be), etc. Many people often ask, “Why can’t you just use your own money for that stuff?” The answer is we do! Unfortunately, we are only allowed to use a maximum of $1500 of our own money by law. So while it gets us a ways into the process, it’s definitely not enough. There are limits on seed money donations. They can only come from individuals (so don’t use your company credit card when donating online), they cannot come from political PACs or anything other than an individual, and not even a $1 donation from you own LD or Republican Club can be accepted. There is an individual contribution limit of $170 from any individual, in total, for a given campaign cycle (you can donate more than once, as long as the combined amount is <=$170) and the candidate my only collect up to about $29,000 in seed money in total. Any seed money left at the end (if any) can be used towards signs and the like, just like the funded money. So it is also a mechanism to get a minor “leg up” on opponents if the candidate is able to max out the number of contributions. Finally, it is important to note that seed money is different and separate from the $5 “qualifying contributions”. Those $5’s cannot be collected until 1 year before the elections (August of this year) and the campaign does not get to use that money at all. Those donations are simply a “counting mechanism” for the powers-that-be too verify that the candidate should get the funding. All of those dollars must be turning in and cannot be used by the campaign, not even as a “loan”. Now, if you are still reading this, THANK YOU! Please visit www.nickmyers.com/support to see how you can help out my campaign, and of course, don’t forget to sign the petition while you are there please! As you can see, every small donation can make a huge impact on a Clean Candidate’s campaign, and the success of that campaign really does depend on the direct generosity of people like you! Thanks again everyone!

ENDORSED BY COMMISSIONER O’CONNOR!

In this weeks campaign update, I am proud to announce an endorsement by current Commissioner Jim O’Connor! His letter is below:

Blessings to my fellow Arizona Patriots,

Your AZ Corporation Commission needs your continuing attention and support. We are off to a strong start in 2021 with Republicans controlling the Commission. In 2022 we will have two Commission seats up for election and I am leading the effort early to focus on getting two strong Constitutional “We the People” Conservatives to join us on the Commission.

One of the most outstanding Republican Candidates running in the 2020 Republican Primary for Corporation Commission was Nick Myers. A homeowner in San Tan Valley, Nick represented his neighbors in their five-year battle for safe drinking water with Johnson Utilities. Nick has been standing up for his fellow homeowners as a volunteer for years.

Nick was a big part in my successful write-in campaign last summer and ultimate victory in November’s general election. He spoke at many meetings when I was unable to be at two places at the same time.  Since then, he has been serving as Commissioner Justin Olson’s policy advisor at the Commission. His on-the-job training for this position has already begun. You will be meeting him again as the campaign begins formally later this year. But for now, I ask you to visit his website: http://www.nickmyers.us.

Once there please take immediate action by clicking on Sign Nominating Petition link to the Secretary of State’s website to sign Nick’s petition online. Then click on Donate Seed Money link to contribute any amount online.

You will want this fine man to join Justin, Lea and me voting your values here on the Commission. Nick will be running under Clean Election rules and will be coming to us again in August to collect his $5.00 contributions from one and all.

Commission Update 3/15/21

It’s a busy week this week at the Commission. Today (March 15, 2021) is the Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) workshop. This is essentially a meeting to have major electric utilities and stakeholders present how they are handling the integration of their resources going into the future. What they are planning and how they plan to get there (to a small degree) will be discussed.

Then on Thursday (March 18, 2021) we have an Energy Reliability Summit. This spawned from the recent energy issues in Texas. It is designed to have our local state utilities give an update and a chance for the Commissioners and Staff to ask questions. We want to make sure AZ isn’t susceptible to the same type of issues, and won’t be massively impacted by other states issues going forward.

Friday (March 19, 2021) is a meeting discussing appointments to the line sighting committee. This is essentially interviewing the candidates to fill the open position and voting on who should fill the seat. This will likely be entirely an executive meeting and won’t have much interesting content.

Then next Tuesday and Wednesday is the monthly Open Meeting. This agenda has a lot of items on it and promises to be a lot of stuff going on. If you only watch one meeting, this monthly meeting is the one to pay attention to. The consent agenda consists of the first 19 items, but you can expect the commissioners to pull a few of those items for further discussion. On that list are things like granting CC&N’s for new telecommunications services, approvals of surcharges, and some net metering tariff adjustments. Items 20 through 29 are regular agenda items and contain some updates (EPCOR/Johnson Utilities), Rate modifications for various aspects of service (Arizona Water Company, APS, TEP) and some Commission related discussion topics such as electric disconnect rules, the PFAS water contamination issue in the west valley, rate case modifications for small utilities, and potential changes to the code of ethics.

It’s worth noting that most, of these items on the agenda have an opportunity for public comment. If you desire, please feel free to call in and express your opinions. The call information can be found on the agendas at the link below.

All of these agendas, times, and links to watch online can be found at www.azcc.gov/live.

Enjoy!

Campaign and Corporation Commission Updates 3/8/2021

Campaign Update: Things are going well so far! The campaign has been picking up speed. We have signatures starting to roll in, we have received a few donations in seed money, and the speaking/event calendars are filling up! If your club or event could benefit from a Corporation Commission update, want to hear from the candidate, or simply have room for me to come meet people and gather signatures, now is a good time to reach out and get it scheduled. Let’s keep this momentum going!

http://www.nickmyers.us

Corporation Commission Update: This week is lining up to be pretty slow at the commission. No livestream events, so let your internet bandwidth rest because next week it’s going to be busy!

www.azcc.gov/live