Fred DuVal issues dark money challenge

Democrat Fred DuVal today issued a challenge to his Republican opponents in the race to see who will be Arizona's next governor.

In a nutshell, it's this: Just say no to dark money.

"People deserve openness and transparency, they have a right to know who's paying to influence their vote," he said, in a statement. "The growth of anonymous, 'Dark Money' groups is bad for Arizona. We don't know who is paying for these ads. There's no transparency. We need sunlight, and until we get it, the women and men who want to lead Arizona should stand up and say No More Secretly Funded Attack Ads.

"Here's my offer: if Doug Ducey, Scott Smith, Christine Jones, Ken Bennett, and Barry Hess will join me, I'll reject any and all support from 'Dark Money' groups. If they run ads to support me, I will call on them to stop. If they run them anyway, I will give to charity the same amount of money used to support me or attack my opponent. "

Of course, that's an easy pledge to make because the chance of that happening is about the same as the chance that you'll need to wear a sweater today in Phoenix.

Unless DuVal is willing to make good on his pledge anyway, that is. (And wouldn't that send a strong signal about who is committed to transparancy and who is not?)

In all, more than a million dollars has been spent to date on dark money in the governor's race – most of it revolving around Doug Ducey and Christine Jones.

Who, you might ask, so badly wants one of the two of them to be governor that they would kick in copious amounts of campaign cash to make it so?

See, that's the problem. We don't know.

Still, credit goes to DuVal for making the attempt. Now, if only Justin Pierce would do the same. ((He, after all, is running for the office that supposedly regulates campaign spending.))