Homeless in Arizona

But I also suspect that Yuri Downing got railroaded by the government because he was claiming to be a Libertarian and using those tax dollars to run for office in an unorthodox way.

I suspect Yuri Downing ran as a Democrat or Republican the government wouldn't have charged him with any crimes.

The Downing family is also involved in the Arizona medical marijuana business. I think they own several medical marijuana dispensaries. I heard the number is 6, but I am not sure if they is the correct number.

Source

ARIZONA CLEAN ELECTIONS LAW SERIES

by David Pittman on Jul 31, 2003, under News

Citizen Staff

Trio is in hot water over meaning of political ‘party’

Commission orders the Dist. 17 candidates to repay $104,237 they spent on booze, food.

By DAVID PITTMAN

dpittman@tucsoncitizen.com

A trio of defeated Phoenix-area legislative candidates spent thousands of dollars on alcohol, food, rental cars and entertainment expenses at trendy Scottsdale nightspots – and used Clean Elections money to do it.

The three District 17 Libertarian candidates – Yuri Downing, 32; Trevor Clevenger, 32; and Paul DeDonati, 30, who ran as a team – were ordered by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to repay $104,237 in state campaign cash.

The Libertarian candidates are appealing the commission ruling and an administrative hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 22 in Phoenix. Regardless of the result of that hearing, Downing said the trio will likely file a lawsuit against the commission, which he charges is trying to limit political speech.

In recommending that Downing, Clevenger and DeDonati be found in violation of Clean Election laws, Colleen Connor, the commission’s executive director, said “there does not appear to be any evidence” the three candidates “used the clean election funding for a political campaign.”

The five-member commission voted unanimously April 29 to order the Libertarian triumvirate to repay all the Clean Elections money they received.

Each of the candidates spent between $31,417 and $41,156 in public campaign funds in their failed races.

Yuri Downing, the son of state Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, said the trio is guilty of only one thing: attempting to run an unorthodox campaign to attract youthful voters.

District 17 includes south Scottsdale and most of Tempe. It takes in all of the Arizona State University campus and most of the students attending the university.

“We are Libertarian candidates, we knew going into the campaign that the odds of us winning were very small,” said Yuri Downing. “The only hope we had was to go after the younger demographic, get them registered and to the polls. Those people aren’t in church on Sunday morning. So we targeted the places where they do go.”

What the three Libertarian candidates did was campaign at sporting events and at campus-area parties and popular watering holes. Yuri Downing said there is nothing wrong with that, accusing the commission of trying to “micro-manage” the trio’s campaign.

“Are they saying I didn’t run the campaign the way they would have run it?” he asked. “They have no right, either legally or morally, to make that decision.”

Yuri Downing charges the commission with employing “Gestapo tactics” against him.

“The commission is taking a huge chunk of my reputation and throwing it down the drain without one shred of evidence,” he said. “Show me the rule I am violating.”

Connor counters that the three Libertarian candidates violated several Clean Elections Laws, including failing to keep adequate records of expenditures, using campaign accounts for both personal and campaign-related expenditures and having more than $1,000 in the petty cash account.

Yuri Downing says he documented every cent given to him and that Connor’s claims the trio of candidates did not provide a full accounting of their spending is “patently inaccurate.”

A review of campaign finance documents filed with the Secretary of State’s Office showed that Yuri Downing’s campaign alone spent $1,819 at restaurants and for catering, including $300 of Clean Elections money at a Scottsdale Sushi restaurant.

“That was a dinner for campaign workers,” Downing said of the Sushi restaurant tab.

Clevenger ran up a $1,188 bill at COSTCO for such items as cooked shrimp, ham, smoked turkey breast, as well as several bottles of Cuervo Gold, Bombay Gin, Absolute Vodka, Captain Morgan Rum and wine.

Yuri Downing, who was listed as treasurer of all three campaigns, described the COSTCO purchase as items needed for “a party on primary night.”

“Perhaps I should have paid for some things, like the liquor, out of my own pocket,” he said. “If I had maybe I wouldn’t have gotten in such hot water. But the rules are pretty straight forward. They say not to spend any money on the election that is not clean elections money – and I followed the rules to the ‘T.’ ”

The three candidates funneled more than $6,000 to Yuri Downing’s brother, Demetri, for consulting and a strategic campaign plan.

Demetri Downing defended the right of his brother and the other Libertarian candidates to spend Clean Elections money at restaurants and nightclubs.

“If a candidate believes the best way to spend campaign money is to hire 10 psychics at $1,000 a pop to communicate his message to voters, he is free to do so, regardless of what the Clean Elections Commission thinks of the behavior,” he said.

According to documents filed by the campaigns with the Clean Elections Commission, the campaigns hired a firm to promote the candidates every week at 18 nightclubs during October.

Connor said the idea that legitimate campaigning was going on in these bars is not credible because “the nightclubs and restaurants where the expenditures were made are not even in District 17.”

Downing said the clubs may be outside District 17, but many of the students who live in the district frequent those nightspots. He said the Libertarian trio ran a vigorous campaign.

“We inundated the district up here with 250 or 260 political signs,” he said.

The Libertarian candidates took the campaign to football games, campus parties, nightclubs and busy street corners by hiring college kids, dressed in costume, to hand out fliers. Those handing out the fliers were dressed as Abe Lincoln, the Statue of Liberty, a firefighter, an astronaut, an American Indian, Evel Knievel and as hippies.

Steve May, a former state lawmaker and an outspoken critic of the Clean Elections system, said the campaign practices of the District 17 Libertarians creates a public relations nightmare for the commission.

“The Libertarians simply took taxpayer money and went out to the clubs and bought booze and champagne for their girlfriends and everyone else in the club,” May said.

“The commission knows such flagrant abuse of taxpayer funds looks terrible,” he continued, “but they aren’t going to get the money back because what the boys did is clearly within the scope of the Clean Elections Act.”

Connor disputes that view. She said the commission’s ruling against the trio was made because they committed multiple violations of Clean Elections Law.

Scrutiny of the District 17 Libertarian candidates began Oct. 7 when Robert Kamman, a Phoenix tax attorney and self-appointed campaign finance watchdog, filed a complaint with the commission.

Kamman wrote that the trio’s spending immediately before the primary election reflected “a considerable amount of shopping, and no degree of campaigning.”

CLEAN ELECTIONS ENFORCEMENT

Enforcement of election law by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission in 2002:

- The commission received 75 complaints. Forty-seven were against participating candidates and 28 were against nonparticipating candidates.

- The commission investigated 24 complaints and fined 18 candidates.

- Of those fined, seven took Clean Elections money and 11 were privately funded.

- Enforcement imposed $45,120 in fines, $32,075 of which has been paid.

Source: Citizens Clean Elections Commission

It’s all in the family – kinfolk often on candidates’ payrolls

By DAVID PITTMAN

dpittman@tucsoncitizen.com

Arizona political candidates have used thousands of dollars of public campaign money to hire family members.

One hired her mother as a Spanish-language translator and also put her sister on the payroll.

A Tucson lawmaker employed one of his sons as a political consultant. The same man was on the payroll of his brother, who ran for the state Senate from a Phoenix-area district.

It was all legal.

“The Clean Elections system is ripe for abuse by those who want to take taxpayer funds and give it to friends and family,” said former state Rep. Steve May, a Phoenix Republican and an outspoken critic of public campaign funding.

“It really is a fabulous deal if you are willing to scam the taxpayers.”

Colleen Connor, executive director of the Citizens Clean Election Commission, said state law allows candidates to pay family members with public campaign funds and that it is not an uncommon practice.

“As long as they are actually rendering a service, are qualified to do so and are paid fair market value for their services there is nothing wrong with paying a family member,” she said.

State Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, who is serving his first term in the Arizona House, paid his son, Demetri, $1,600 for “political consulting.”

According to campaign finance documents filed by Downing, he provided his son with $500 on Sept. 5 and another $1,100 on Nov. 2.

Rep. Downing said his son, Demetri, worked hard for the money and did a great job. He said there was nothing wrong with hiring his son to work on his campaign.

“If you look at the people elected to the state House and Senate very few are elected without family support,” said Rep. Downing. “Essentially American politics is a commitment of family to public service. Heaven help the candidate that doesn’t have family supporting them.”

Demetri Downing designed campaign signs in the shape of the state of Arizona for his father. Rep. Downing also said Demetri successfully worked to ensure that his signs and their placement were in compliance with Tucson’s sign code.

“If I counted it by the hour I probably way underpaid him, but campaigns are like that,” said Rep. Downing. “Many people put in many more hours than what they are paid for. The people who work for you want you to win and they want to show they know their business.”

Yuri Downing, another son of the District 28 legislator and a Libertarian candidate for the state Senate from District 17, was even more generous in providing taxpayer funds to his brother, Demetri. Yuri Downing gave $3,500 in public campaign money to Demetri Downing.

According to campaign finance documents, Yuri Downing gave $800 to brother Demetri on Sept. 8, another $1,200 on Sept. 21 and $1,500 on Oct. 30 for “consulting” and a “strategic campaign plan.”

Demetri Downing, who narrowly lost a bid for a Tucson state House seat as a Democrat in 2000, said the work he did for his father and brother was legitimate.

“I am capable in every single element of political consulting,” he said. “Yuri and Ted Downing just happen to have a family member who is a very capable political consultant.”

Indeed, Demetri Downing was credited with performing political consulting services on the recent successful campaigns of Vivian Juan-Saunders and Ned Norris Jr., who unseated the incumbents to win positions as chairwoman and vice chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Demetri Downing said he designed a 21-page strategic campaign plan and signs and messages for his brother and two other Libertarian Party candidates, who ran as a team, from District 17. Among the slogans he said he developed for the campaign: “No new taxes, less old taxes” and “Arizona is for Lovers – Lovers of Liberty.”

“I honestly think I was paid under fair market value,” he said of both his father’s campaign and that of the District 17 Libertarians. “I was doing it to continue to develop my skills so I could be a better political consultant.”

It is hardly unusual for candidates to provide Clean Elections money to family and friends. In fact, Edward Poelstra — a Republican House candidate defeated by Rep. Downing and David Bradley, D-Tucson, in District 28 — gave $1,500 to a close, personal friend, Manny Ellsworth, for “consulting.”

During the 2000 election campaign, a long-shot legislative candidate from central Phoenix, Victoria Wold, spent $1,000 for a Texas political consultant, who turned out to be her sister, and another $1,100 in public money to her mother for providing Spanish-language translation.

Connor said many candidates seek out friends and family to work on their campaigns.

“It is understandable,” she said. “They are loyal to the candidate and understand them.”

May said it is inappropriate for candidates to give public campaign money to family members.

“It’s a conflict of interest and it’s unseemly,” he said. “It’s not their money, it’s the taxpayers’ money that they have taken. People have a right to question if they’re using the money for legitimate expenses or just trying to give money to their family.”

Rep. Downing said he is offended by any inference that he did anything wrong in paying his son with public campaign funds.

“No one gave money to anybody,” he said. “I take that as an insult if someone suggested that. Everyone who worked for me worked for his money.”

Public money paid for Screen Actors Guild dues

By DAVID PITTMAN

dpittman@tucsoncitizen.com

One statewide candidate forked out union dues to the Screen Actors Guild and paid for a newspaper subscription with Clean Elections money.

Douglas Martin, who was elected to a fourth term in November as state mine inspector, used $100 in campaign funds provided by the Citizens Clean Election Commission to pay for his membership in the union.

He used another $185 in public money to buy a one-year subscription to the Arizona Republic.

Martin said he put himself through college “doing stunts in Western movies” and said he remained in the Screen Actors Guild to get the votes of other members.

He said he subscribed to the newspaper to stay abreast of campaign news.

Colleen Connor, the commission’s director, said both expenditures were justified because they were campaign related.

“Commission staff considers the Screen Actors Guild dues to be directly related to his campaign, as a club membership as a way to reach out to constituents,” she said.

Robert Kamman, a Phoenix tax attorney and self-appointed clean elections watchdog, disputed the commission’s view.

“Maybe you can justify a three-month newspaper subscription during the campaign, but certainly not for the whole year,” he said.

If you can use taxpayer money to pay union dues then practically any expense, including auto club memberships, can be justified, he said.

“It’s like deducting your AAA dues,” said Kamman. “The guy who fixes your tire is eligible to vote, so obviously it’s a campaign-related expense.”

Source

Libertarian candidates accused of improper spending

Posted: Friday, April 25, 2003 12:16 am

Le Templar

Three Libertarian candidates who ran last fall to represent Tempe and south Scottsdale in the Legislature improperly spent $104,237 in taxpayer money that should have funded their campaigns, the executive director of the Arizona Clean Elections Commission said Thursday.

Commission executive director Colleen Connor said the three used combined public funds to host parties at Scottsdale nightclubs, and also spent thousands of dollars on vehicle rentals and equipment that had little or nothing to do with running for office.

The commission is scheduled to decide Tuesday if Yuri Downing, Trevor Clevenger and Paul DeDonati should be ordered to repay the money to the state.

"I looked and I looked and I looked. I just couldn't find any evidence that there really was a political campaign," Connor said. "There have been cases of questionable expenditures that were explained. But the three candidates in this case didn't even provide a response to attempt to explain."

Downing, who managed all three campaigns, said Connor is ignoring clear proof that the Libertarians made a serious but unorthodox bid for the Legislature.

"Her reaction apparently is ‘This hasn't been done before, so we had better stop it,’ " Downing said. "I'm absolutely petrified. This is crazy."

Connor said the possible violations are the most serious of their kind that she has encountered in the five-year history of Arizona's system for volunteer candidate financing. Connor also has referred the issue to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for a possible criminal investigation.

Clevenger and DeDonati could not be reached for comment.

As the Tribune reported last year, Downing, Clevenger and DeDonati are recent college graduates who decided to join the Libertarian Party and campaign together for the Legislature in one of most competitive districts in the state. Downing picked up only a few votes in his bid to unseat a two-term incumbent, Sen. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, while Clevenger and DeDonati ran unsuccessfully for the House.

The three filed enough $5 donations to qualify for public campaign funding just before the state deadline in late August. That made them eligible for funds in both the primary and general election, and the three reported spending nearly all of their money. Blue campaign signs with simple lettering appeared around Tempe and Scottsdale, and the three attended a candidate debate as required by commission rules. After the November election, the commission ordered a full audit because of questioned spending trends. In an April 18 letter, Connor said the three candidates should return all of the money because they kept such poor records that commission auditors were unable to verify how most of the funds were used.

Even when it was clear where the money went, Connor said the uses had little connection to campaign activity. Examples include:

• - Provided almost $20,000 to a Las Vegas-based voter registration company without any evidence the business performed the work.
• - Rented passenger vehicles from a Tucson location, as well as trucks and a van in Phoenix, with no proof that those vehicles were used in the candidates' campaigns.
• - Spent thousands of dollars for postage without proof that it was for campaign mailings.
• - Spent thousands more for computers and other office equipment without a required inventory list detailing their campaign use.
• - Rented an office for two months in north Scottsdale, several miles outside of the district.
• - Sponsored "voter registration" parties at Scottsdale nightclubs, also outside of the district.

Downing said he was preparing to deliver a joint report on that day, but he was served with the formal accusations before he could finish it. Commission records show Downing was served at 4:59 p.m. that day.

Downing said he will tell the commission Tuesday that the three wanted to appeal to voters of their own age, and that meant going where they hang out. That explanation was supported by his father, Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, who also campaigned with public money and won his first term last year. The elder Downing isn't accused of any wrongdoing. "He worked hard on a campaign," Ted Downing said of his son. "We had disagreements whether it would work. He ran a youth-style campaign trying to bring out that hidden vote that we all feel if we could tap, (it) would mean something."

Yuri Downing admitted to bookkeeping errors, but said he met for two days in January with the auditors and provided all requested documents.

Yuri Downing said Connor wants to punish the three for nontraditional campaigns when other candidates hire political consultants who arrange for expensive dinners and parties at fancy Phoenix hotels.

"We're talking about political speech," he said. "If it is my choice to hire strippers to dance on rooftops . . . I would never do that. But just to take it to the absurd, you have to say that's how someone chose to run a campaign." Phoenix tax attorney Robert Kamman, who originally challenged the spending reports, said he hopes the commission orders a lenient penalty for the three Libertarians. Kamman filed several complaints against other candidates and has accused the commission of applying its rules unevenly. "I think voters can accept a certain amount of gaming the system, in return for the benefits provided by public financing of political campaigns," Kamman said in an e-mail message. "Considering all of the violations committed by major party candidates, which the commission either overlooked or slapped on the wrist, it would be unfair to deal harshly with the Libertarians."

Source

A man’s bizarre odyssey to infamy

Posted: Sunday, July 3, 2005 4:05 pm

Yuri Downing was looking for some fast money on a cool March evening this year as he drove the dark, narrow road through Indian farmlands just east of Scottsdale.

A buddy had told Downing he scored $5,000 after cashing a pair of forged checks at Casino Arizona. In on the scheme from the beginning, Downing agreed to meet at a lonely spot about a mile south of the casino to get his share of the loot.

But the other guy never showed. Then Downing saw patrol lights flashing in the rearview mirror of his white Mercedes. He knew he was in trouble.

A loaded pistol was wrapped in a towel on the passenger-side floorboard. In the trunk, mixed in with piles of clothes, were hundreds of contraband documents, including stolen utility bills and fake Mexican identification cards. The IDs featured Downing’s photo and a variety of different names. The man who once spent more than $40,000 on a state Senate race in the East Valley suddenly looked more like a garden-variety criminal.

In 2002, Downing, the son of a prominent Tucson politician, was more likely to be found at a political debate, his car full of campaign brochures that touted the law school graduate as the perfect Libertarian. Or maybe at a posh Scottsdale nightclub, picking up tidbits for a slick and successful entertainment magazine he’d helped start.

But Downing’s failed legislative bid was a dubious adventure that turned into a disaster.

He had temporarily dropped out of sight in January this year after pleading guilty to a felony charge of misusing tax dollars in his 2002 campaign. He didn’t report to probation officers and missed his required drug testing.

State prosecutor Edward Noyes, frustrated that Downing wasn’t living up to a plea deal, asked a judge to keep Downing behind bars until he was formally sentenced.

But Downing’s family and close friends rallied — as always — to his defense, promising to post a new bond and find him a job.

"Yuri certainly isn’t a harm to society," Jeffrey Dunn, owner of two Scottsdale restaurants, testified in court. "He would give his shirt off his back to anyone who needs help."

So in April, the judge agreed to let Downing go. He warned him to follow the rules this time. Instead, Downing walked out of a Maricopa County jail and disappeared.

His friends and family say they have no idea where he is. And, if he doesn’t come forward before Aug. 10, his dad, state Rep. Ted Downing, DTucson, stands to lose $18,000 in bail money.

For the 2002 election, Yuri Downing had wanted to make a splash as a Senate candidate seeking to represent Tempe and southern Scottsdale. He figured he could easily get on the ballot as a Libertarian because only a handful of voter signatures were required.

He also realized he could get access to more state campaign funds if he combined his efforts with other candidates. So he recruited friends Trevor "Trey" Clevenger and Paul DeDonati to run with him as a team.

Downing served as the master strategist and key decisionmaker for all three campaigns. And he determined how to spend the $101,000 in taxpayer funds collected by the three.

Downing insisted every dime he spent was within the bounds of the law, but state elections officials said it looked more like a three-month-long party. By July 2004, he had been indicted on six felony counts and ordered to repay his share of the money.

Six months later, Downing pleaded guilty to one of the charges against him. Then he faded from public view.

It turns out the Clean Elections debacle was just the start of a downward spiral for the 34-year-old Downing. Intrigued by the blatant — and seemingly easy — misuse of public money in the state’s fledgling campaign finance system, the Tribune looked into Downing’s past and present and his flaunting of the law.

Most of Downing’s friends either won’t talk about him or ignored requests for interviews. To tell this story, the Tribune reviewed election records and other state documents, police reports and depositions, and attended several court hearings while Downing was in custody.

Police investigators say Downing likely has a methamphetamine habit. Since his felony conviction, they have linked him to a stash of illegal automatic weapons and an identity theft ring that is under federal investigation. But other than a series of traffic tickets, Downing only has been charged for his role in the wild spending spree of the three Libertarians.

Downing continues to generate fierce loyalty among family and friends who describe him as bright and generous, eager to debate and willing to fight government bureaucracy on its own terms. Clevenger said his friend has been badly misjudged. "He’s a good man," Clevenger said at an April 6 court hearing. "If there’s anyone out there who needs help, he will do it."

‘A GREAT MANY PARTIES’

Downing earned a political science degree from the University of Arizona in 1993, and then enrolled in law school at Arizona State University. He dropped out just before graduation, but later received his law degree in May 2002.

In the meantime, Downing wandered between Phoenix and Tucson, searching for a career and drifting deeper and deeper into the Scottsdale party scene. Downing told state officials during a 2003 deposition he tried several ways to break into the business of bringing people together to drink and dance. Over the years, he took jobs passing out fliers to promote upcoming events, advising friends who wanted to start a bar or restaurant, and even was a partner for a couple of years in a former Scottsdale nightclub called Mecca. "I’ve been involved in a great number of parties," Downing said two years ago.

Downing might have found real success with a 2001 venture, if his ill-fated legislative bid hadn’t sidetracked him. He had joined with several young investors to create a new magazine called 944, which focuses on celebrities and the glitzy nightlife of Scottsdale, Tempe and other parts of the Valley. Downing and the magazine’s current managers disagreed on the extent of his contribution, but he clearly was involved from the beginning.

"We were a bunch of young people trying to start a magazine and we brought in this stranger who claimed he was brilliant and really knew the industry," said Andrew Bailis, 944's production director.

Bailis said Downing offered his help on the magazine for free, and his involvement ended once the 2002 campaign for the state Senate began. But the magazine listed Downing as a contributing editor as late as March 2003.

In his July 2003 deposition, Downing said it was mere coincidence he rented an office for his legislative campaign just across the street from the magazine’s headquarters in downtown Scottsdale, and a couple of miles outside of the district he wanted to represent.

944 has taken off since Downing left, expanding to San Diego and launching a third edition last week in Las Vegas.

While getting on the 2002 ballot was easy, collecting enough $5 donations to qualify for campaign public funds turned out to be more difficult. But Yuri Downing and his partners managed to get their funding a week before the September 2002 primary. They set out to spend all of the money.

Downing described the constant bar-hopping, campaign payments to friends and picking up the tab for dinners from central Phoenix to Tucson as part of an "unorthodox" approach to attracting the youth vote.

"I was essentially out seven nights a week, seven days a week doing this strategy, going to night clubs," Downing told state officials in 2003. This campaign was supposed to be a warm-up for 2006, when Downing wanted to run for governor as a Libertarian or independent candidate. His younger brother, Demitri, hinted in an interview last week at what might have happened if Downing had access to the minimum of $1 million that gubernatorial candidates receive as Clean Elections candidates. "Why not have the most creative, innovative campaign you can imagine?" Demitri Downing said. "Why not? The taxpayers are paying for it."

But the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission was deeply troubled. In April 2003, the commission ordered Yuri Downing to repay all of his campaign funding of $41,155, while Clevenger and DeDonati were required to repay about $15,000 each.

Downing tried to fight the commission on his own, without hiring an attorney. In December 2003, he finally dropped his appeal and accepted the commission’s order. But he hasn’t repaid the state any money.

‘SOMETHING JUST SNAPPED’

In July 2004, a state grand jury indicted Downing on six felony charges that described the entire 2002 campaign as a fraud. Downing faced up to 46 years in prison.

Demitri Downing said his brother was devastated. "Something just snapped in him. I think he just said, ‘Forget this. Forget doing the right thing.’ " Prosecutor Edward Noyes agreed to let Downing plead guilty to one felony count of perjury. That means he can never run for office again. Noyes also agreed to probation instead of a prison sentence, but asked the court to send Downing to county jail for four months.

As a first-time offender charged with a white-collar crime, Downing had been free for months without posting a bond. His attorney convinced Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hotham to delay his sentencing hearing, scheduled for Jan. 26 of this year, because Downing "was having a mental crisis." But Hotham required Downing to check in weekly with the county probation office and to start drug testing. Downing didn’t follow the judge’s order, and missed a March court hearing. Noyes told the judge that Downing had said he didn’t take the required drug tests "because there was no point, he had drugs in his system."

That prompted Hotham to issue a bench warrant on March 16.

Meanwhile, a month earlier, Phoenix police had pulled a number of illegal automatic weapons from a self-storage unit. A report accompanying the search warrant identified Yuri Downing as one of four people who had access to the storage space. Phoenix officers also said in the report that Downing appeared to have a daily meth habit. On March 28, the night he was arrested in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, police had set up a sting. Two men at Casino Arizona were caught with forged checks in their possession. The men told police the checks had been supplied by Downing, so the cops asked one of them to arrange a meeting with Downing.

The pistol hidden in the car brought a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. But Downing has not been charged in connection with the Mexican IDs or the stolen utility bills.

Once in custody, Downing was kept in isolation by Maricopa County jailers, allowed to see only the lawyer hired by his family. Six weeks later, Hotham revealed during a court hearing that Downing was cooperating with an FBI task force looking into possible connections to an identity theft ring.

Local law enforcement agencies referred questions about Downing to the FBI; a Phoenix spokeswoman for the federal agency said she wasn’t aware of any investigation involving Downing.

At the hearing in April, Ted Downing urged the judge to use an electronic monitoring bracelet to track his son. In the Legislature, the elder Downing had been a supporter of the use of electronic monitoring as a way to reduce jail overcrowding.

Hotham reluctantly agreed to the bracelet, and also ordered an $18,000 cash bond that was paid by Downing’s parents. Everyone in the courtroom expected the bracelet would be installed while Downing was still in custody, making it hard to slip away. But court officials misunderstood the process, and Downing was set free without it.

He just walked away, and his friends and family say they haven’t heard from him since.

Downing’s parents will lose their $18,000 if he doesn’t turn himself in by Aug. 10. But his father said the money’s not that important; he’s worried he will never see his son again.

"This is the largest tragedy of my life," Ted Downing said. "Who wants to lose his firstborn?"

Source

The Skinny

SNIP

GOOD CLEAN FUN: Like parents who catch their kids spending their lunch money on cigarettes and pornography, the Clean Elections Commission has ordered three Libertarian legislative candidates from Tempe to pay back more than $104,000 in funds they spent on their bacchanalian campaign during the 2002 election.

In a 5-0 vote, the commission voted that the team campaigns of the District 17 candidates Yuri Downing (Senate), Trevor Clevenger and Paul DeDonati (House) wasn't in good clean fun.

During an audit of their campaigns, the Commission learned that the three District 17 candidates' idea of the Libertarian Party was only a step down from Kid N' Play's Pajammy Jammy-Jam.

The trio spent thousands of dollars of state money at dance clubs such as Cat Eye Lounge, which advertises itself with a photograph of a drenched kitten (i.e., a wet pussy--get it?), and Axis-Radius, where the door prizes are gift certificates for breast enlargements.

Downing, who managed the money for the campaigns, claims that these were "voter outreach" events and that the commission is just a bunch of old farts who don't like the idea of a campaign targeting young folk. That would be a fair enough argument if the dance clubs weren't outside their legislative district and if they'd kept a proper record of their spending.

It also didn't help their case that the receipts they did turn in showed they spent $300 on sushi one night, and on another day dropped $1,200 at Costco for cooked shrimp, raver flashlights and enough booze to support a frat house for two years.

The kids also shoveled off $6,700 in consulting fees to Yuri's brother, Demitri Downing, who has run for the City Council and state House of Representatives himself. Their father, Ted Downing, is a yap-a-lot liberal Democrat who finally won a House seat in District 28, which covers midtown Tucson. One of the very first candidates to qualify for Clean Elections funding in 2000, Ted is a staunch supporter of the program--and now his kids are giving opponents of Clean Elections a damn good reason to argue for its repeal.

In her report, the commission's executive director Colleen Connor wrote "there does not appear to be any evidence that (the party animals) used the clean elections funding for a political campaign." In the general election against veterans Harry Mitchell and Laura Knapereck, Downing took 3.7 percent of the vote. In the House race, Clevenger won 2.3 percent and DeDonati 2.4 percent.

In their defense, Downing did offer 41 pages of photographs of their Libertarian crew standing on street corners wearing Village People costumes in front of some of the cleverest campaign posters in years: "Don't vote and the weirdo in the next car votes for you," and "Arizona is for Lovers (of Liberty)."

And if you want to talk about wasting taxpayer dollars, how about the commission photocopying all 41 pages for every one in attendance at the commission meeting?

At the same meeting they let another candidate, Ray Barnes (House District 7), who overspent by $614 and kept no records except for slips in his checkbook, slide with a slap on the wrist of no more than $6,140. So it's not inconceivable that by laying down the harshest punishment they could, the commission was out to make an example of them.

Nevertheless, if ruling is upheld in appeals, its sets an unsettling precedent about what kind political speech is kosher--and kills our plans to run an all-strip-club campaign in 2004.

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Insider: Long arm of law finally catches up with Clean Elections fugitive

May. 31, 2008 10:02 PM

Talkin' 'bout the car wash, yeah! . . . It was work, and work, but the long arm of the law finally caught up with Clean Elections scamp Yuri Downing Thursday. At a midtown Tucson car wash. No word whether air freshener was involved.

Downing, as Insider acolytes might recall, was one of three Libertarian candidates in 2002 who took their publicly provided Clean Elections money and ran. As in ran to the sushi bar, ran to Scottsdale night clubs and, oh, yeah, ran for the state Legislature.

But their expenses drew the scrutiny of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission. Ultimately, Downing and his running mates (none of whom won a seat) were ordered to repay about $104,000 in Clean Elections money because it was determined their expenses weren't an appropriate use of campaign dollars.

Trevor Clevenger and Paul DeDonati settled their debts with the commission, but Downing was another story. He was indicted on five counts, cut a deal with the state attorney general in December 2004 in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count of perjury, and then . . . he disappeared. Downing missed his court date, which triggered a bench warrant.

It finally caught up with him Thursday in Tucson, when special agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office tracked him down at a car wash.

Downing, son of former state Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, was being held in Pima County, awaiting likely transfer to Maricopa County. The Attorney General's Office didn't have any immediate information about where Downing Jr. has been in the last 3 years.

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from: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/1115ruelas15.html

Finding a sanctuary in Clean Elections

Nov. 15, 2002

No doubt about it. The three guys had fun spending more than $83,000 of taxpayer money running for the state Legislature.

"If it hadn't been fun, I wouldn't have done it at all," says Yuri Downing, who persuaded two friends to run as Libertarian candidates out of District 17, which covers parts of Tempe and Scottsdale.

Under the Clean Elections law, their coffers were filled with government money. Downing, a Senate candidate, got $29,696. His roommates Trevor Clevenger and Paul DeDonati, both House candidates, each received $26,970.

But now the three face the not-so-fun possibility of an investigation into their spending.

Next week, the Clean Elections Commission will vote on whether to audit the trio's campaign reports.

That means Downing, Clevenger and DeDonati will have to defend expenditures such as these:

$216.45 for a meal at Ra Sushi Bar in Scottsdale.

$4,304 in supplies for all three campaigns from Office Max.

$850 in campaign photography.

$5,500 for consulting work on all three campaigns by Demitri Downing, brother of Yuri.

$366 for meals at downtown Scottsdale hot spots, such as Sanctuary, Opium, Pearl and Axis/Radius.

Not to mention the thousands given to friends for doing unspecified "office work" on the campaigns.

Downing says all the expenses are legitimate.

"I followed the letter of the law," he says.

And that's the problem.

The Clean Elections law allows political newcomers to jump into the political proc ess by handing them thousands in free money and letting them spendit in a way they see fit so long as they can justify it as a campaign expense.

These three will surely be held up as poster boys by those who want to junk the Clean Elections law.

Not because opponents of Clean Elections are necessarily stewards of public money.

They just don't want any political newcomers running for office.

Downing says his expense report looks unusual because he ran an unusual campaign. "I had to," he says.

Downing runs a magazine called 944, which chronicles the high-end club scene populated by attractive 20-somethings and 30-somethings. He figured it was an untapped market for votes and thought he would go after it.

"We were at Opium registering people to vote," he says. "We went all out on this because that's where we thought our core was. . . . The hope was that it could get their attention."

Part of that attention-getting was through the witty campaign slogans, dreamed up mainly by his brother, a political consultant in Tucson. The signs read, "No new taxes - less old taxes" and "Don't vote and the weirdo in the next car votes for you."

The trio didn't expect to win. But they hoped to bring some new people into the political process.

Their Election Day totals show they didn't have much success, but Downing is glad they tried. It's what Clean Elections is all about.

"I met probably 5,000 people who never met a candidate for state Senate or state Legislature," Downing says.

Get rid of Clean Elections and it's back to the old way, where candidates are bought and paid for by corporate interests, leading to a tax code full of loopholes for big business and a state deficit of $500 million.

Compared to that price, $83,000 spent on opening up the political races looks like a bargain.

Reach Ruelas at richard.ruelas@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-8473.

Source

from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0429Elections-ON.html

3 Clean Elections candidates must pay back funds, panel rules

Adam Klawonn

The Arizona Republic

Apr. 29, 2003 05:50 PM

Three Clean Election candidates from the state's 2002 race will have to pay back a total of $103,000 after an elections audit was inconclusive.

Investigators couldn't turn up enough receipts to track the publicly financed cash.

It took three hours Tuesday for the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to vote 5-0 against the three District 17 candidates.

"We've never had anything like this before," said Rebecca Hecksel, a commission campaign finance analyst.

The case involved Senate candidate Yuri C. Downing, 32, and House candidates Trevor O. Clevenger, 30, and Paul DeDonati, 33. The district they ran in covers north Tempe and south Scottsdale.

Their campaign finance reports at the time showed expenses of $73,570, for everything from signs to campaign events.

But those events included $1,080 in meals at posh Scottsdale hangouts like Ra Sushi Bar, Axis-Radius, Sanctuary and AZ 88. There was also a $6,700 payout to Downing's brother, Demitri, for consultant fees.

Downing must pay back about $41,000, the panel ruled, whle Clevenger and DeDonati each must pay back about $31,000.

None of them won more than 3.7 percent of the vote. Their run was funded by a taxpayer check-off on state tax returns.

They will have 30 days to file an appeal with the state. The commission is not required to accept the ruling.