As election campaigns become more and more expensive, one might think candidates would like all the help they can get.
But two men running for the state senate find that SuperPAC money is more distracting than helpful.
Senate candidates Chester Crandell and Tom Chabin recently engaged in a heated one hour debate on 105.1’s Mitch and Joe Show in Flagstaff.
But they began the debate complaining about the outside money being spent on their behalf.
By law, independent expenditures are required to have no connections or coordination with the campaigns.
And Republican Chester Crandell said the outside ads are a distraction.
“Instead of talking about our issues, the important things we need to do, we have to start trying to defend what the outside money is saying about us," he said.
Some voters may wonder if the candidates protest too much, but Crandell said the outside groups are trying to decide who should win the election.
Democrat Tom Chabin agreed.
And he added that an indication of the importance of this Senate race is that outside groups have spent more than $300,000 to influence it.
“That $300,000 just drowns out what Chester’s running on, what I’m running on, and we are more than proud of our records, and we’re more than willing to debate each other on the issues," Chabin said.
Most of that money comes from two groups, Revitalize Arizona and the Arizona Accountability Project, both supporting Democrat Tom Chabin.
