Street signs paid for by Turning Point USA's political arm that declare "Democrats for Biggs" have generated a stir, complaints of campaign finance violations, and a question.
The signs are real. But are Democrats really for Biggs?
Turning Point officials did not respond to multiple questions about the signs or whether any coalition of Democrats backing Republican Andy Biggs for governor exists. Biggs, a five-term congressman representing the southeast Valley, is hoping to defeat incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs this November.
Biggs couldn't name a Democrat who supports his campaign — but he said they are out there.
"I don't ask anybody when I go around, 'What's your party affiliation?'" Biggs said. "But I've spoken in groups that have Democrats,
independents, and Republicans, and I assume that they're there because they support me. I don't go up to anybody and say, 'Hey, oh, by the way, are you a Democrat? Are you an independent? What are you?' I don't do that, so I don't know."
Biggs referred comment to "whoever's putting up those signs."
That is Turning Point PAC, which along with Turning Point Action, makes up the political arm of the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA. The political action committee's name appears at the bottom of the signs, alongside a required disclosure that the advertisements are not authorized by any candidate.
The signs have resulted in at least four complaints to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office alleging violations of a state law that requires text of a certain size revealing who paid for the advertisement.
Multiple readers of The Arizona Republic raised questions about the signs and concerns they are disingenuous, and calls to complain have come in to the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, according to its executive director, Tom Collins.
Complaints challenge the signs' fine print
State law requires campaign signs to include language at the bottom that reveals who is paying for them. The Turning Point PAC signs have that disclosure, but the complaints allege it is not "displayed in a height that is at least ten percent of the vertical height of the sign or billboard," as required by law.
The Secretary of State's Office on Sept. 21 requested a response from Turning Point PAC and said it would conduct an initial review of issues with the signs that could lead to enforcement by the Arizona Attorney General's Office.
The Republic could find no evidence that an organized coalition of Democrats supporting Biggs exists, as the signs suggest.
Turning Point PAC did not respond to requests from The Republic to interview those Democrats.
Turning Point Action has recently promoted two social media videos that feature a total of six people talking about why they left the Democratic Party, though not all talk about why they support Biggs.
Of the six, four could be identified by The Republic and none responded to interview requests. One of the four appears to be Matt Whitmire, who now works for Turning Point Action's ballot-chasing operation, according to social media posts. He said in the video he became a Republican in 2018.
The signs also surfaced weeks ago, when Turning Point employees including Whitmire came under fire for claiming that one of Arizona's most progressive lawmakers, Democratic Rep. Lorena Austin of Mesa, supported Biggs. Social media images purporting to show Austin with the"Democrats for Biggs" or "Demócratas por Biggs" signs were deepfakes, Austin said.
The signs claim bipartisan support of Biggs that is surprising to some given Biggs is one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives and a staunch ally of GOP President Donald Trump.
In a prior appeal to independent and swing voters, Biggs touted his record working across the aisle in Washington, D.C., though some of the Democrats he named said his claims didn't match his "hyperpartisan" record.
Hobbs' spokesperson Michael Beyer said Hobbs had established a bipartisan record over the last four years, and Biggs' supporters were "manufacturing fake support they do not have."
"We know that our Arizona Over Party coalition is real," Beyer said.
Hobbs' campaign announced her bipartisan coalition in August, naming over 50 current or former Republicans and independents who support Hobbs for a second term. It includes prominent Republican real estate executives John Graham and Sharon Harper, who also supported Hobbs' 2022 campaign. Hobbs later picked former Mesa Republican Mayor John Giles as her running mate.
“That's what Arizona Over Party is all about: putting the people of Arizona ahead of partisan politics," Hobbs said in a statement at the time. "It's what brings us together, and it's how we keep moving our state forward."
First Amendment protects broad political messaging
Campaign signs, and the messages intended to sway voters that are emblazoned on them, are protected speech under the First Amendment. Regulation of them, for example where they go or disclosures about who paid, must be content-neutral.
"The government shouldn't be in the business of telling you what you can and cannot put on a sign unless it's absolutely false and harmful speech," said Gregg Leslie, executive director of the First Amendment Clinic at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. "We purposefully have a system where we grant broad leeway to all kinds of statements being made because we don't want the government deciding what can and can't be said."
There are few situations in which a sign can lawfully be taken down without becoming unconstitutional interference by the government to restrict speech, he said. But that also means that healthy skepticism of political messaging is important, Leslie said.
"Going hand in hand with the idea that we allow anything to be spoken, it kind of makes the case that you should always be skeptical about any public speech you see," Leslie said. "What you see on a sign or what you hear from a campaign event should never be the last word in what you think about a candidate or an issue."
"We know it can be part of an ugly, rough and tumble election process, but we tolerate a lot of that because the alternative is empowering the government to say what can and can't be said during an election," he added.
Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who is behind those 'Democrats for Biggs' signs?
