Suit against civil rights measure valid

It seems to me the Tribune's editorial board is being a little naive and more than uniformed in its criticism of the By Any Means Necessary lawsuit claiming petition fraud against the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative ("Group's lawsuit, attitude insulting to Arizonans," Our View, July 7). The board criticizes the out-of-state group for challenging the motivations and integrity of petition-gathering firms hired to sell ACRI to Arizona voters and the intelligence of the voters themselves.

I wonder if the board will acknowledge that the sponsors and bankrollers of the initiative don't live in Arizona either? They live in California. I wonder if it watched any of the YouTube video shot by BAMN and others showing petition fraud in action?

I wonder if board members read the documents BAMN handed out at their press conferences, outlining the complaint and the evidence supporting their claim?

I wonder if they watched the coverage from other news outlets and their interviews of people who were misled by petition gatherers and then watched as these voters signed affidavits removing their names from the petition at the Secretary of State's office?

I wonder if they watched the video where petition gatherers offered food only to those people who signed the ACRI petitions?

I wonder if they bother to read each and every initiative statement handed to them as they exit the library or grocery store or movie theater with kids in tow or after having been hounded by petition gatherers who are paid upwards of a reported $5 per signature?

I wonder if they've done any of these things because if they had, they would know there appears to be a very solid basis in fact for BAMN's accusations of petition fraud and their lawsuit.

The threat to our democracy comes from people within the system who are actively gaming the system. You would think Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, as the chairman of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, would want to investigate whether voter and petition fraud took place under his watch and under his name. After all, he prosecuted the same charges against former state lawmaker Russ Jones quite vigorously. You would think Thomas would have learned something from that experience and applied it to an initiative he chaired. You would think he would want to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy in his words and actions. But you would be wrong.

You would think that the people from out of state who coughed up nearly $1 million to get this initiative on the Arizona ballot would want their signatures to be gathered on the up-and-up. Again, you would be wrong. Watch the video. Read the documents. BAMN makes a very plausible case.

If there is fraud in the constitutional amendment and petition process, it deserves and demands to be investigated and not dismissed out of hand because of the Tribune editorial board's apparent indifference to the facts and blind support for the notions that people actually read initiative language or that somehow Arizona is colorblind. Anyone who believes the latter point should ask an Arizonan of Latino or African-American descent if that's the case. You can guess their answer.

Other initiatives failed to get on the ballot because they couldn't get enough signatures. Why? Because, according to just about every news report I've read, they couldn't raise the money to hire petition-gathering firms. What does that say about the fairness of the petition signature process and who has access to it?

Voters want the initiative process to be fair and open not only to those with the most money or those who choose to deceive voters. I hope that lawsuit and others that may be filed go forward and from what I, and others, have seen and read and witnessed, they should win.

For if it doesn't, we may as well put a sign on the border that says

"Arizona: Constitution For Sale."

Unfortunately, that sign may already be posted.

Todd Landfried is executive director of the Maricopa County Democratic Party. But the opinions stated here reflect his personal views, not that of his party.