The Nation - News from May 22, 1988

“I never used anything for personal gain,” Arizona Gov. Rose Mofford said in defending her expenditure of thousands of dollars in state funds on gifts and other items, including diet food, a $530 watch and a joke-writing service. The Maricopa County Attorney’s office said it will broaden a continuing investigation into Mofford’s finances while she served as secretary of state. Mofford, 65, became governor April 4 when elected Gov. Evan Mecham was convicted in a Senate impeachment trial. The state constitution bars the state from giving anything of value to an individual without public benefit, and state law makes unauthorized expenditures of public funds a felony.