Tim Bee

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Sixteen school districts, including those in Vail and Sahuarita, are using tax money to pay for a TV ad for state Senate President Tim Bee, a Republican candidate for Congress.

The 30-second spot, shown on cable stations in Tucson and Cochise County, doesn't identify who's paying for it or where the money is coming from, as required by federal election law.

The lobbying group formed by the districts, which spent $16,000 on the spot, says that's because it's not a campaign ad. Rather, the purpose is to thank Bee for sponsoring an expansion of the Career Ladder program, allowing teachers to further their own education without leaving the classroom.

But that bill has already cleared the Senate, and the ad comes as Bee enters a high-profile bid for Congress against Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Critics say it's a blatant campaign ad. After being shown the spot, even Bee said the money would be better spent in the classroom.

Vail and Sahuarita school district officials defend the ad as an appropriate use of public dollars. State law bars school districts from advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate, but the districts say this ad wasn't meant to do that.

"This is a critical issue for us," said Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail School District, which has contributed $8,000 to the lobbying group this year.

In the commercial, teachers and parents thank Bee "for his continued support of education," and it ends with the phrase: "Tim Bee. Fighting for fairness for Southern Arizona," with a picture of Bee.

"A thank-you letter would have sufficed," Bee said after being shown the video. "Money should be spent on education." He said he would talk to Baker about the ad.

The two-year-old Education Finance Reform Group got about $2,500 from the Sahuarita Unified School District. The school district in Benson was another that contributed.

Tom Murphy, a member of the Sahuarita Unified School District Governing Board who appears in the ad, defended it and the district funding it.

Murphy said he was thanking Bee for the bill, which would eliminate inequities. He stressed the effort will end up helping teachers. He said there will always be critics of how the district spends its money.

The spokesman for the Chandler Unified School District, which oversees the finances and founded the group, did not return phone calls.

The group also spent money on a mailer, though it could not say how much, in support of Democratic state Sen. Paula Aboud, who also has been an advocate of the bill, SB 1488.

But it was the Bee ad that sparked attention in political circles over the weekend.

Cox spokesman Michael DiMaria said the cable company has pulled the ad, in part so a tag identifying who paid for it can be added. It will resume running next week, he said.

The schools, however, maintain that the ad doesn't need a tag because it is not meant to support a candidate.

Giffords' campaign chairman, Michael McNulty, said the ad "feels like it is a federal congressional advertisement."

And Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bittner called it "a transparent attempt to campaign for Tim Bee."

"The fact that taxpayer money was used on it defies logical," she said.

The ad was taped on March 20, when parents, students, teachers and administrators from the schools visited the Capitol to lobby for the bill. Bee said he was aware something was being put together but remained uninvolved.

Two others who appear in the ad say they didn't know who was producing it, but they understood it to be both an ad thanking Bee and also to serve as a boost to his campaign.

"I don't know who arranged it, but I know someone must have, because it was kind of on the agenda," said Richard Connet, president of the Vail Education Association teachers union and a Republican who supports Bee for Congress.

"We all knew it was going to be used also for his run against Giffords," Connet said.

Sahuarita parent Kris Ham, who has known Bee since childhood, said, "My intent is to support the bill and to support Senator Bee."

"We spend a lot of time beating up on legislators because we're funded at 48th in the country, and we complain a lot," Baker said, "and sometimes we need to publicly say 'thank you' when things are looking the right way."