(This article is an excerpt from the National File and is not affiliated with Wendy Rogers for AZ Senate)
Republican State Senator Kelly Townsend ran her campaigns with taxpayer funds and took money from a laundry list of lobbyists and even big pharma corporation Pfizer as she climbed the ladder of Arizona politics. She masqueraded as an America First conservative before turning her back on MAGA Republicans when she failed to win President Trump’s endorsement. Now, she’s seeking re-election to the Arizona State Senate in a newly drawn 7th District, taking up the mantle of the GOP establishment and their Democrat allies in her primary contest vs. Trump-endorsed State Senator Wendy Rogers.
Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend has taken over $73,000 from the taxpayers to run her campaigns and launch the political career that has seen her shift her ideological loyalties from libertarian light, to America First, to the GOP establishment depending on the election cycle. In 2012, as she sought a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, Townsend bankrolled her campaign with taxpayer money, to the tune of $35,835 in public campaign subsidies. In 2014, she did it again as she ran for re-election, raking in an additional $38,133 in taxpayer funds to pay for her own campaign.
The taxpayer-funded campaign cash infusions came courtesy of Arizona’s “clean election commission,” a brainchild of the left that offers taxpayer funds to candidates in an effort to bring “equity” to politics. Though portions of the act that gave birth to the Arizona commission were ruled unconstitutional by a conservative Supreme Court majority, similar programs have been supported by former President Obama, and Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs has been a longtime supporter of the state’s commission. According to publicly available information on Arizona’s taxpayer-funded campaign subsidy program, the so-called clean election commission has given nearly twice as much money to Democrats as it has to Republicans in its over 20-year history.
After launching her political career – which has now spanned a decade – with taxpayer funds, Kelly Townsend began taking in donations from a laundry list of lobbyists and PACs, including from some big and controversial names linked to national issues.
According to her financial disclosures, Townsend has taken money from lobbyists to fund her campaigns well over a dozen times, with some individual lobbyists donating to her on multiple occasions. She’s received even more donations from shadowy PACs, including those operated by big pharma COVID jab producer Pfizer, and even controversial defense contractor Raytheon, which has spent years at the center of foreign policy debacles in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Kelly Townsend will take on fellow Republican and incumbent State Senator Wendy Rogers for the GOP nomination to the State Senate in a newly drawn 7th Legislative District on August 2nd. Currently, both serve in the State Senate, with Townsend representing the 16th District, and Rogers the 6th.
Continue reading: https://nationalfile.com/arizona-kelly-townsend-took-taxpayer-money-cash-from-pfizer-to-fund-campaigns/