Complaint puts Myers and Thompson's 2026 signs under the Clean Elections microscope

A sworn complaint filed with the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission alleges Corporation Commissioner Kevin Thompson and former Commissioner Nick Myers reused publicly funded campaign signs from 2022 in their 2026 campaigns without making the required purchase and payment to the Commission.

The filing, notarized August 13 by Merissa Caldwell, leans on the candidates' own social media posts and state finance records. It does not prove a violation, that is for Clean Elections to decide, but it squarely asks regulators whether taxpayer funded assets were redeployed without the transaction Clean Elections rules require.

At issue is Arizona Administrative Code R2-20-702.01, cited in the complaint. Participating candidates may use assets from a prior election only if the current campaign purchases them from the prior committee at fair market value, with a minimum of one fifth of the original cost. When the prior campaign was Clean Elections funded, payment goes to the Commission.

The complaint attaches Exhibit A, a November 12, 2022 Facebook post from Myers stating he and Thompson were pulling up signs and would be happy to grab signs and rebar so they could reuse them next cycle. Posts this spring from Thompson show Thompson Myers signs reappearing and requests for volunteers to install them. When asked in August where the signs came from, Myers publicly responded that volunteers had kept them from four years ago and that the campaign did not buy signs this cycle because funding came so late.

Applying the one fifth floor to reported 2022 purchases, the complainant calculates roughly 2,856.60 due for Myers signs and rebar and about 428.95 for Thompson's signage, with any shared rebar allocation to be sorted out. The complaint says there is no corresponding 2026 payment to the Commission in either committee's reports and notes only a 20.70 payment from Thompson's 2022 committee in November 2022, far short of the alleged minimum if the assets were reused.

Both men participated in Clean Elections in 2022 and again in 2026. Thompson advanced to November, Myers did not. The filing also asks the Commission to examine the accuracy of certifications the campaigns submitted to receive July 2026 public funds, arguing the Commission should determine whether any 2022 assets were already in use without purchase when those certifications were made. Myers received 147,836 on July 11, and Thompson 147,836 on July 8, according to exhibits.

This flare up arrives after sign spending already turned into trench warfare in the Corporation Commission race. Earlier this month Myers publicly urged Clean Elections commissioners to take action against Republican nominee Ralph Heap over separate sign allegations. The Commission's independent legal adviser made clear at that hearing that misconduct allegations were not before commissioners that day, and commissioners voted 4 to 0 to deny Heap's request to withdraw from Clean Elections. Now Myers and Thompson face a complaint of their own.

Let us be adults. The rulebook exists, and if you call fouls on your opponent you invite slow motion review of your own tape. If 2022 Clean Elections signs were assets, the new campaigns had to buy them at fair value and pay the Commission. If they were truly volunteer leftovers outside the committees' control, that will come out too. Either way, taxpayer funded yard signs are a lousy hill to fight on.

Filing a complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing. Clean Elections will decide if the signs were prior campaign assets, whether the required purchase happened, and whether certifications tied to public funding were accurate. The paper trail is not conclusive, but it is not nothing.

If the Commission finds a violation, expect a bill for fair value and whatever additional action the Act allows. If not, Myers and Thompson can say they played it straight. The broader lesson is the same, when campaigns run on public money, you get more accountants than voters and the signs start arguing back.

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