by Staff Reporter | Jul 17, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Gov. Katie Hobbs stands accused of illegally commingling millions in funds to subsidize her campaign.
A letter sent by attorney Tim La Sota to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes earlier this month accuses the governor of commingling funds between her reelection campaign committee, Elect Katie Hobbs, and two other entities which submit funds to her campaign committee.
Elect Katie Hobbs and all other candidate campaign committees are restricted in the types of funds they may accept. Campaign committees must rely on what’s known in campaign finance parlance as “hard money,” or donations given by individuals directly to a political candidate, and cannot accept “soft money,” or donations or contributions collected into political action committees (PACs) from corporations or unions. Individual donations are limited to $5,500 per person.
The letter claims that Hobbs has used a PAC, which it claims to be hers, Copper State Values, as an unlawful repository for soft money to be used for Elect Katie Hobbs expenses. Allegedly, Copper State Values receives soft money funds from Hobbs’ joint fundraising committee PAC, the Katie Hobbs Victory Fund, and then sends the funds on to Elect Katie Hobbs and other political entities working to reelect Hobbs such as the Navajo County Democrat Party and the Arizona Democratic Party.
“Candidate contribution limits mean little if candidates can simply funnel money that the candidate herself cannot legally receive to a political action committee and turn around and have that political action committee pay for that candidate’s campaign expenses,” said the letter.
Since 2023, Elect Katie Hobbs has accrued more than $7.8 million and spent more than $4 million, Copper State Values has accrued more than $3.8 million and spent more than $2 million, and Katie Hobbs Victory Fund has respectively accrued and spent more than $1.8 million.
The letter further described Copper State Values as unusual since it lacked the typical hallmarks of a PAC, such as a political activity or a website. The PAC’s main activity appears to be the alleged shared expenses with Elect Katie Hobbs for which it pays, such as payroll, rent, and travel.
“The PAC seems to only function as a repository of monies that are then distributed to various left-wing entities, who will presumably help the Governor get elected — that and paying for expenses that legally must be paid by [Elect Katie Hobbs],” stated the letter. “[I]n terms of the PAC, it seems to do nothing but receive money and distribute money. It does not have any discernible political activity in terms of expenditures for express advocacy. It does not even have a website. And yet, it racks up hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, money that it reimburses to Elect Katie Hobbs.”
Hobbs’ reelection campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, serves as the chair of Copper State Values, and both Copper State Values and Elect Katie Hobbs share the same address, email address, and treasurer, Dacey Montoya.
The letter noted that Demont’s consulting firm, Monteverde Strategies, has received about $55,000 from Copper State Values. It also noted that Capital Strategies, a consultant for Hobbs, has received more than $198,000 from Copper State Values, though the consultant doesn’t disclose its relationship to the PAC on its website page for current and former clients.
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by Staff Reporter | Apr 22, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) is heading into the second quarter of this pivotal election year with a negative cash balance exceeding $720,000.
Their latest campaign finance report, filed last week, reflected total-to-date expenditures that nearly tripled their income: over $2.8 million compared to $1 million.
For this first period, ADP’s expenditures did fall below their income: about $67,500 compared to $151,500.
ADP experienced much stronger fundraising in the first quarter of 2022, the last midterm election year. The party’s reported income was over $370,000 and expenditures were $146,000 in that first quarter.
A stark difference was evident between ADP’s campaign finances for the last two off-years as well.
The party’s campaign finance report data for all of 2025 reflected income just below $857,000, but expenditures totaling over $2.7 million. In the first quarter of 2025, the party raised only about $210,000 and spent nearly $360,000.
Comparatively, by the end of 2023, ADP had $1.5 million more in income than expenditures. In the first quarter of 2023, ADP raised nearly $1 million and expended about $227,000.
Some among ADP leadership did warn last summer that the party would go broke by the end of the year. The party has dealt with publicized infighting for about a year.
Unlike other transfers listed, shared expenses with the Navajo County Democratic Committee (NCDC) were categorized as an “unlimited transfer” routing arrangement for ADP funds.
NCDC has a surplus of nearly $1.6 million. Since the beginning of last year, NCDC has sent over $61,000 to ADP.
In that same time period ADP sent back over $107,000 to NCDC, or $46,000 more than NCDC has sent. Their cycle to date reported a cash flow between the two totaling nearly $150,000.
Navajo County accounted for ADP’s second-largest expenditure last year.
AZ Free News contacted ADP about the state of their finances and their fiscal arrangement with NCDC. ADP didn’t respond to our inquiry.
Apart from NCDC, ADP’s number-one expenditure last year by far was $1.7 million last August to the Copper State Values PAC, established and run by Gov. Katie Hobbs’ campaign manager Nicole DeMont and treasurer Dacey Montoya. Since DeMont set up the PAC in December 2024, its primary function has appeared to be a funding arm for the Hobbs reelection campaign.
The PAC sent back $94,500 a few months later, last December.
Discounting the $49,000 received from NCDC last year, ADP’s biggest sources of income were:
- United Food and Comm Workers (UFCW) Union Local 99, the largest private-sector union in the state: $100,000
- Estate of the late Janet Delesanti: $49,000
- Arizona Public Service: $30,000
- Elevance Health Inc (formerly Anthem), an Ohio-based insurance company: $25,000
- Donalyn Mikles, former attorney for the defunct Arizona Summit Law School and director of the California-based Kling Family Foundation: $20,000
- Moms Fed Up, a D.C.-based political activist organization: $20,000
- William (Bill) Roe, former chair of the Arizona Democratic Party: $15,000
- Pam H. Grissom, founder and longtime (not current) board member for Arizona List: $15,000
- AFSCME People, AFSCME’s D.C.-based political action arm: $15,000
The following donated about $10,000 each: University of Phoenix, PMI US Corporate Services, Nextera Energy Resources, Arizona Education Association Fund for Public Education, Arizona State Association of Electrical Workers, and Daniel T. Ling.
None of the Democrats’ other legislative districts or county parties in the state have reported a negative cash balance, with the exceptions of Santa Cruz County Central Democratic Committee and La Paz County Democratic Central Committee.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Apr 16, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) announced he has raised nearly $3 million to date, and has over $1 million cash on hand.
Following the aggregate donations of multiple contributors, the biggest donations to Biggs’ campaign came from Biggs’ federal campaign, Biggs2016, amounting to $50,000, and the Freedom Club PAC which gave over $16,000.
Arizona campaign funding data reports fellow Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate David Schweikert as having raised nearly $900,000, and having nearly $300,000 cash on hand.
Schweikert’s top donors came from Schweikert’s own coffers. $572,00 came from Schweikert’s federal campaign committee, Friends of David Schweikert. $115,000 came from Schweikert himself.
Even combined, the pair doesn’t come close to the amount in the Democratic governor’s campaign coffers.
Incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs has raised over $5.7 million since last year, and has over $6 million in cash on hand.
Unlike Biggs and Schweikert, Hobbs had multiple large donors outside of multiple contributor aggregates, mainly unions: Unite Here Tip Campaign Committee ($11,000), United Food and Commercial Workers Union of Arizona Local 99 ($11,000), AFSCME People ($11,000), Arizona Education Association ($11,000), and Hollywood star Jennifer Garner ($10,000).
Hobbs also received nearly $250,000 in non-contribution income from Copper State Values, a political action committee established and chaired by Hobbs’ campaign manager, Nicole Demont.
Demont established the PAC in December 2024, and teamed up with leading dark money handler Dacey Montoya (“The Money Wheel”), who serves as the PAC’s treasurer. Funds from the PAC began benefitting Hobbs’ campaign last June.
Other than a few contributions to outside organizations, it appears Copper State Values functions as a funding arm for the Hobbs campaign.
Copper State Values has made payments to a number of companies which Hobbs has paid for services, including $150,000 to the California-based Capital Strategies, which has Hobbs listed under its clientele; nearly $7,000 to Pingdex for calls; and $40,000 to Monteverde Strategies.
The non-contribution income covered shared expenses between the Hobbs campaign and the PAC: acquisition, office supplies, insurance, professional services, rent, finance consulting, payroll, postage, mailers, utilities, fuel, food and beverage, fundraising event, travel, and health insurance.
Multiple donations came from the health sector: Centene Management Company, the Missouri-based largest Medicaid managed care organization in the nation; PhRMA, the D.C.-based biopharmaceutical trade association; 7WireVentures, an Illinois-based backer of digital health companies; Paradise Valley healthcare executive Reginald Ballantyne; Scottsdale-based Priority Ambulance; Ohio-based Elevance Health; UnitedHealth Group; CVS Health.
Others donations coming from special interests included Google, NextEra Energy Resources, a Florida-based wholesale electricity supplier; DraftKings, the Massachusetts-based online sports gambling giant; Sports Betting Alliance; DoorDash, the food delivery service giant; Casey Wasserman, with the major California talent agency Wasserman; Green Valley-based cell tower and telecommunications attorney John Pestle; California-based solar developer Mark Boyadjian for Arevia Power; Tempe-based Carvana; and California-based clean energy developer Clearway Renew Consolidated Devco.
Multiple donations to the PAC came from the real estate sector: California-based Klein Financial Corporation; Verde Investments, a Tempe-based real estate firm; James Edward Pederson, a Phoenix-based founder of the Pederson Group; Mark Breen, and Scottsdale-based president of Atlantic Development & Investments.
Other sizable donations came from the Arizona Beverage Association; Marcia Grand, Tucson retiree and wife to late trial attorney Richard Grand; the Salt River Pinta-Maricopa Indian Community; Arizona Democratic Party; Democratic Governors Association; D.C.-based Laborers International Union of North America; and Illinois-based racial justice group Communities United.
Karrin Taylor Robson, who suspended her campaign earlier this year, accumulated over $4.7 million for her gubernatorial run. Over $2.2 million of that came from her own pockets. Her cash balance sat at $1.1 million.
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