Sinema files FEC complaint vs. Parker

The Arizona Republican Party and GOP congressional candidate Vernon Parker are accusing Democratic opponent Kyrsten Sinema of being soft on crime, citing her work as a criminal defender and votes she took as a state legislator on crime-related bills.

Sinema's campaign calls the accusations an effort to "tar" her and has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Parker spread the attack illegally by including it in a phone poll without indicating he paid for the calls.

The FEC confirmed Thursday that it had received the complaint. The agency is unlikely to complete an inquiry, if it chooses to investigate, before Nov. 6.

The attacks come as Parker and Sinema are locked in a battle for the state's most competitive U.S. House seat, District 9. Arizona gained the seat this year because of population growth.

It covers parts of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Chandler and Mesa.

With less than two weeks before Election Day, the campaigns are working at full throttle to turn out supporters and to build doubt among swing voters about the opposing candidate.

The Arizona Republican Party has taken the lead in leveling crime-related attacks against Sinema.

The party says in e-mails and mailers that Sinema puts "felons over families," would have "spared" the "Baseline Killer" from the death penalty and is "running from her past" of representing "murderers."

The basis for the attacks: Sinema, a former state lawmaker, sponsored bills to release criminals on medical parole without a victim-impact statement and to abolish the death penalty. She voted against classifying drive-by shootings as felony murders and stiffening penalties for repeat felons.

Sinema also spent part of her career as a criminal-defense attorney. The Republican Party has called on her to release names of her clients. She has not.

Sinema spokesman Rodd McLeod said the attacks aren't relevant to issues facing residents in District 9.

For instance, he said, the death penalty hasn't been a hot topic in Congress in quite some time.

"This is just a desperate attempt by the Parker campaign to distract from serious issues, where Parker is woefully out of step," McLeod said, citing abortion, education and other topics. "He's deadly afraid to talk about real issues that matter to voters."

McLeod said Sinema has not practiced criminal law since 2006.

State Bar of Arizona records show Sinema was admitted to practice law on Jan. 1, 2006.

Her law license was active until March of this year.

Sinema has described herself as a future criminal-defense attorney, a criminal-defense attorney and an attorney in her political biography since 2005, including a book she authored in 2009.

In a 2007 story in The Arizona Republic, Sinema said she was an attorney with Martin Lieberman PC.

Lieberman is a well-known Phoenix criminal-defense attorney who currently serves as the Maricopa County defender. He founded the anti-capital-punishment group Arizona Death Penalty Forum.

Sinema was an advisory-board member for the group and has represented the anti-death-penalty position at debates around the Valley, TheRepublic found.

Lieberman has donated $2,500 to Sinema's campaign. He would not answer questions from TheRepublic on Thursday about Sinema working for him.

Sinema's campaign says Parker is the one with legal questions to explain.

According to the campaign's FEC complaint, Parker paid for a poll of likely voters that told Sinema supporters she was a criminal-defense lawyer who represented murderers and asked participants whether Sinema should release a list of her clients.

Sinema's campaign argues that the poll constituted "electioneering" and that Parker failed to provide a "paid for by" statement during the call, which is legally required for campaign ads and communications.

Campaigns often use polls to test positive and negative messages against opponents and themselves.

McLeod says the difference is that the purpose of the poll was "clearly to spread negative information."

Parker's campaign said Sinema's complaint is a distraction.

"The people of Arizona deserve to know who Sinema stands with, including her murderous clients. Unfortunately, she is dodging the issue, and this letter is her latest attempt," Parker spokeswoman Alyssa Pivirotto said.

"Our campaign has not received notice of any complaint from the FEC, but when and if we do, we will respond completely and promptly."

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