PHOENIX — When he filed a campaign finance complaint with the Arizona Secretary of State, a legislative candidate unwittingly provoked a question that pops up during election years: Can election officials carry out their duties while also exercising their free speech rights?
To Secretary Adrian Fontes, who has endorsed the candidate making the complaint, the answer is simple.
“I can chew gum and walk at the same time,” said Fontes, a Democrat who is backing fellow veteran Dan Toporek in a contested legislative district in north Phoenix. “I’m a voter, too, and I have a First Amendment right to express myself.”
