Arizona campaign took in-person signatures after virus alert

PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona congressional campaign received hundreds of in-person voter signatures after the candidate said close, personal activities would end because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.

Hiral Tipirneni’s congressional campaign confirmed it received signatures collected in March by petition gatherers working for companies paid by the campaign, The Arizona Republic reported Saturday.

Alaina Pemberton, Tipirneni’s campaign manager, said the physician’s campaign made clear by March 14 that in-person activities had to stop in the Scottsdale-based 6th Congressional District.

“Hiral’s first concern is, and always has been, the health and safety of our communities,” Pemberton said. “That is why we stopped all in-person campaign activity days before the city of Phoenix and weeks before the State of Arizona issued their COVID-19 guidelines.”

Tipirneni said in a March 15 email that her campaign was “canceling all in-person events. That includes all of our fundraisers and canvasses. Hiral values the safety of volunteers, supporters, and members of the AZ-06 community above all else.”

Jon Ryder, executive director of Run to Win Campaigns, a company that collected the signatures on behalf of Tipirneni and other candidates, said the Tipirneni campaign did not ask them to stop gathering signatures before they were out in person on primary day, March 17.

“The campaign was fully aware how we were gathering her signatures and, in trying to gather signatures, we were minimizing the risk of contact and transmission,” Ryder said. “But they didn’t even need to tell us to do that. We were already doing that, and we let them know that.”

Other campaigns also gathered signatures in the latter part of March, although they had not made claims they would not do so.

The Democrat’s political opponents believe the move suggests hypocrisy from a candidate who has touted her medical background while attempting to oust Republican U.S. Rep. David Schweikert.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.