As we start to plan for 2022, Arizona is in store for another big political year. We’ll have the Governor’s race, a US Senate race (Mark Kelly’s seat), all of our U.S. Congressional seats, and whatever issues/local races come up.

The primary election lowest unit rate period opens on June 18, 2022 for an August 2, 2022 primary election.

The general election lowest unit rate period opens on September 9, 2022 for a November 8, 2022 general election.

In addition the normal rules of the road, Arizona has passed a new law that affects political campaign contribution transparency. As we shared with you last month, this law has implications for political ads on TV and radio stations. While the main responsibility falls upon the ad placer, now is the time to make sure you are working this into your SOP for ad review. It will become law sometime in August. In summary, the law requires:

• The words “paid for by” must be included in all political ads followed by the name of the person making the expenditure. This includes naming a political action committee if they are funding the advertising (or the list of the top three PACs if multiple groups are funding it).
• The ad must note if the expenditure was authorized by any candidate, followed by the identity of the authorizing candidate.
• All political action committee advertising must include an additional disclosure that identifies the aggregate percentage of out-of-state contributions (as calculated at the time the advertisement was produced). 

As example, the disclosure verbiage in an ad might read, “Paid for and authorized by XX with XX% from out-of-state contributors.”

On radio stations, these disclosures must be spoken as part of the ad. On TV stations, these disclosures must be spoken unless the disclosures are displayed on screen for no less than four seconds during a 30-second ad.

The law applies to any candidate, nominee, committee, corporation, limited liability company, labor organization, partnership, trust, association, organization, joint venture, cooperative or unincorporated organization or association. Basically, it applies to everyone in the political spectrum. Read the full bill and more detailed implications here, including the effect on digital.