BY LINDA BENTLEY | AUGUST 8, 2012
Dishonesty and vandalism mark Desert Ridge JP race
While having a legal background is not a requirement, Ponath has been practicing law for over 30 years and has served as a judge pro tem
PHOENIX – Last week, a hand-addressed, pre-printed postcard in the mail from Clancy Jayne (l) arrived in the mail that read, “I just wanted to drop a line to say that I greatly appreciate the support you showed by signing my nomination petition. I am humbled by the opportunity to serve you as Justice of the Peace, and I intend to dedicate myself to bringing the highest level of justice to the People’s Court.”
He continues that he looks forward to seeing me again while respectfully urging me to tell friends and neighbors about his candidacy and invites people to visit www.electclancyjayne.com
There are so many problems with this postcard, as well as with Jayne, it’s hard to decide where to begin.
First, I never signed Jayne’s nomination petition. Second, I’ve never met Jayne.
The only time I’ve ever seen Jayne in person was in 2005. I saw him sitting in the courtroom when I covered the hearing where he was booted from the ballot for not having the required number of valid signatures to run for reelection to the state legislature.
Since I didn’t sign his petition, I contacted Maricopa County Campaign Finance Director Kristi Passarelli to find out if my signature was forged on his petitions.
Passarelli said some candidates send mailings to people who signed their opponents' petitions as a campaign strategy.
When Passarelli’s office checked Jayne’s petitions, they did not find my name on any of the pages.
However, Jayne did purchase copies of both his opponents' petitions.
So, what Jayne is obviously counting on for his campaign strategy is those who didn’t sign his petition won't recall whose petition they actually signed.
Clancy’s opponent William “Bill” Ponath (l) received the same postcard, as did several others who said they didn’t sign Jayne’s petition.
When you visit www.electclancyjayne.com, this message appears: “Welcome to: electclancyjayne.com. This web page is parked for free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com.”
So, Jayne has no website, despite the registrant, Axxess Unlimited LLC having registered the domain name through June 2014.
Michael Roth of Axxess Unlimited, the administrative contact for electclancyjayne.com and a 25 percent partner of Jayne’s in Western Justice Production, LLC, didn’t return Sonoran News’ phone call asking why Jayne’s website is not operational with the primary election already underway and a mailing directing people to his website.
Jayne’s latest campaign finance report reflects a payment of $450 to Axxess on April 21 for “web development and maintenance.”
A look at the back side of the postcard, however, indicates these postcards are leftover from Jayne’s 2008 campaign.
Meanwhile, Ponath, whose signs were just installed last week, saw his signs along Tatum Boulevard as he drove to his law office shortly after 8 a.m. on Aug. 2.
Driving home that evening at around 8 p.m. Ponath noticed all but a couple of his signs had been removed with the remaining few signs vandalized with spray paint.
As of the last campaign finance reporting period, which is for the period Jan. 1, 2012 through May 31, 2012 Ponath signed a statement of no activity, meaning he received no contributions and made no expenditures.
Jayne’s campaign finance report for the same period has some curious entries.
On Schedule F-3, Debts and Obligations, Jayne showed an outstanding balance of $7,900 at the beginning of the reporting period, a payment of $568.46 and an outstanding balance of $7,331.54 at the end of the period.
It shows the obligation is owed to Kraus Investments, L.C., which is owned by Horst and Gisela Kraus, who own Shangri-La Ranch, the nudist colony in New River.
A note under “Description of Debt,” states the debt was formerly owed to Primary Consultants but was taken over by Kraus Investments.
Horst Kraus told Sonoran News his friend Jayne contacted him sometime in December 2011 asking to borrow some money.
According to Kraus, because Jayne was running for public office, he wanted to have his debt with Primary Consultants from a previous campaign cleared up.
Jayne had Kraus make the check out to Primary Consultants and signed a note to pay Kraus back with interest.
If Jayne wanted to go into this election with his debts paid off, he didn’t achieve that goal, since that debt must be reflected in his campaign finance report, as he’s using campaign funds to pay the debt.
Jayne and his wife Kathleen also have an unsatisfied $7,594.85 judgment against them awarded in 2009 to Arrow Financial Services, LLC, a receivables management company that engages in purchasing and servicing performing and non-performing consumer debts.
Readers may recall, as Sonoran News has previously reported, while Jayne was serving in the state legislature, he and his wife had seven unpaid federal income tax liens, all of which have since been paid.
Kathleen had a prior history of writing bad checks and was convicted of theft for forging and cashing over $8,000 in checks when she worked for APS. That judgment has since been set aside.
The year she stole from APS was the only year the Jaynes didn’t have a federal income tax lien.
The Jaynes have also had numerous notices of trustee sale on their home. All were eventually canceled.
Voters may note many of Jayne’s campaign signs simply say, “Elect Clancy Jayne” but don’t say what he’s running for, which enables Jayne to recycle signs to run for any office.
His current campaign finance report reflects a payment of $178.52 to Deer Valley Self Storage for storing his signs for two months.
He also paid his wife $247 for labor for an April fundraiser.
Jayne touts himself as a conservative, but he accepted donations totaling $1,090 from three fire fighter’s unions, none of which are representative in the Desert Ridge Justice Court district.
He also boasted about having co-written Proposition 400 that extended a half-cent sales tax for another 20 years.
Jayne, who has no legal background, wrote poorly constructed responses to the judicial commission, which issued a public reprimand against Jayne in 2011 following private comments and a strongly worded warning letter in response to two other complaints.
Jeff Schapira, the third candidate in the Desert Ridge Justice of the Peace race, is the uncle of Rep. Dave Schapira, D-Dist. 17.
Jeff Schapira was also a registered Democrat until 2010, when he decided to re-register as a Republican. In fact, it appears the only political contribution he’s ever made was $1,000 to liberal Sen. Jack Jackson, Jr. D-Dist. 2, whose campaign chair was no other than Schapira’s nephew David.
Schapira does not appear to have a website for his JP candidacy.
While Schapira graduated from ASU law school and worked for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, “prosecuting gang members,” he is not licensed to practice law in Arizona.
Having a legal background is not a requirement to run for justice of the peace in Arizona, although it’s been the subject of much debate over the years.
Schapira is the freshman girls’ head basketball coach at Horizon High School and runs the manufacturing plant at Action Equipment, a family-owned scaffolding business.
Ponath, who authored the book “Verdict for America,” has been practicing law for over 30 years and has served as a judge pro tem. Learn more about Ponath at www.ponath4jp.com.
