The Arizona Democratic Party and Scott Palumbo, an attorney who headed Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement, have one more day to respond to a complaint filed by the re-election campaign of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, according to the independent counsel handling the complaint.

The week before Election Day, the Thomas campaign complained to the Maricopa County Recorder's Office that the Arizona Democratic Party and Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement circumvented campaign finance disclosure laws. Barnett Lotstein, the county attorney's office spokesman who also volunteered for Thomas during his campaign, alleged that a commercial from Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement against Thomas did not include in its disclaimer that major funding had been provided by the Arizona Democratic Party.

"It has come to our attention that the Arizona Democratic Party transferred campaign funds to an organization called 'Arizona Wins,'" stated the complaint, "which in turn transferred campaign funds to 'Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement,' which produced a campaign commercial containing false and scurrilous accusations against County Attorney Thomas. This commercial... does not reveal that the original source of the funding is the Arizona Democratic Party. This intentional failure to reveal the source of the funds is in violation of the spirit and letter of" Arizona law.

Jeffrey Messing, the independent counsel hired to look into the matter, told PolitickerAZ.com that he sent an information request to both Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director Maria Weeg and Scott Palumbo. The responses are due Friday.

Emily DeRose, communications director for the Arizona Democratic Party, told PolitickerAZ.com when the complaint was first filed in October that "at no time did the ADP earmark or otherwise direct how its contribution would be spent."

"The Arizona Democratic Party absolutely complied with campaign finance rules," DeRose said then. "Once we contributed money to Arizona Wins, we could not legally have anything to do with how that organization spent its money."