By Staff Reporter |

The Arizona Republican Party’s former treasurer and GOP candidate for the 2026 state treasurer’s race warned lawmakers against Governor Hobbs’ nominee for the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI). 

In a letter to Arizona state senators, state treasurer candidate Elijah Norton said that Hobbs’ DIFI nominee, Barbara Richardson, not only displayed troubling behavior during her two Director Nominations (DINO) committee hearings but had a poor performance record as director of DIFI. Norton owns multiple insurance and insurance-related businesses regulated by DIFI — some of which he says have been targeted by Richardson in the past. 

Norton alleged that Richardson retaliated against him for testifying before DINO against her by asking the agency she formerly led — the Nevada Department of Insurance (NDI) — to investigate him. Norton said that one week after his DINO testimony, his company received an email from NDI demanding an National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) biographical affidavit. 

“I believe that Ms. Richardson contacted a mid-level sympathetic bureaucrat in her old office and asked them to do this in retaliation for the well-documented part I played in bringing several issues to light that resulted in her failing the DINO confirmation vote,” said Norton. 

Norton further attested that one day after he went public to Arizona lawmakers and political leaders about the NDI request he believed was prompted by Richardson, NDI called him to retract their request and ask instead for his Social Security number — information which NDI has had on file for over a decade, per Norton.

“The person on the phone sounded very nervous, and it appeared to me they were trying to ‘cover their tracks,’” said Norton.

According to Norton, this retaliation wasn’t new to him — or others. Norton also alleged Richardson targeted not only him but Barry Goldwater Jr. (son of late Senator Barry Goldwater) in the past with “regulatory retaliation.” According to Norton, Richardson banned him from calling the NDI while she was the Nevada Insurance Commissioner because he challenged a certain regulation. Goldwater Jr. allegedly faced similar problems after he voiced his opposition to Richardson to Arizona Senate leadership. 

“[I] pushed back on a ridiculous minor change on a form that was going to cost my company over $10,000 and over 100 hours of time due to one of her unreasonable bureaucrats wanting me to underline one immaterial sentence — that would require me resubmitting the form to all of the various states. The requested change wasn’t even contained in the statute, rather the bureaucrat relied on the ‘promulgation clause’ (resembling the way she abused SERFF in Arizona),” stated Norton. “She retaliated by sending me a letter saying I was ‘banned’ from calling the Nevada DOI (despite paying them over $1,000 per year in regulatory fees), simply because I pushed back against an unreasonable regulation – violating my constitutional rights. This is the only time in my entire career this has occurred before and since.”

Norton also alleged Nevada lost its NAIC accreditation under Richardson, but available records reflect the state maintained its accreditation. 

Norton also revisited key points of concern raised by Republican lawmakers over Richardson’s time as DIFI director during the first DINO hearing last month. Hobbs appointed Richardson to the DIFI position in March 2023. 

In the first DINO hearing, Richardson was questioned about her service as chairwoman to a NAIC committee which considered variable insurance pricing based on race. The committee dissolved a day before her first DINO hearing last month.

That first hearing also revealed that, under Richardson’s directorship, System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF) abuse occurred, significant increases to licensing times piled on, and services rendered decreased continually — of note, DIFI was found to have restricted its licensing hotline to voicemail only at certain times under Richardson’s tenure.

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