Arizona Clean Elections Panel Weighs $4.7 Million Clawback From Green Nominees, Ex-GOP Candidate

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission will consider Thursday whether to begin proceedings that could require three candidates to repay approximately $4.73 million in public campaign funds amid allegations that thousands of $5 qualifying contributions were not made by the voters whose names appeared on the forms.

In letters sent Tuesday to Green Party gubernatorial nominee Risa Lombardo, Green Party secretary of state nominee Duwayne Collier and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Neely, Commission Executive Director Tom Collins said he would recommend that commissioners “initiate proceedings to impose a repayment order” against each candidate.

Collins said a monthslong staff investigation uncovered suspicious patterns in the campaigns’ financial records and qualifying contributions. He also said reporting published Tuesday by the Arizona Mirror corroborated the investigation.

“All of these facts together, which as you can see are largely substantiated, represent a level of suspicious activity well beyond what I have witnessed in 16 years as the Commission’s executive director,” Collins wrote.

The Mirror attempted to contact more than 50 voters listed as having contributed $5 to all three campaigns. Six told the publication that they had made none of the contributions attributed to them, and the Mirror reported that none of the voters it contacted confirmed that the listed contributions were legitimate. One Peoria resident said he was “1,000% certain” he had not donated to any of the candidates.

The three campaigns reported receiving qualifying contributions from nearly 4,000 of the same voters, including more than 2,600 listed as contributing to all three. The duplicated donors accounted for nearly 75 percent of the voters reported as contributing to the candidates.

Under the Commission’s 2026 candidate guide, gubernatorial candidates must collect at least 4,000 qualifying contributions of exactly $5 from registered Arizona voters. Candidates for secretary of state must collect 2,500. Applicants submit the contribution forms and remit a campaign check equal to the contributions’ combined value to the Clean Elections Fund.

Bank records reviewed by Commission staff showed that each campaign recorded a single in-person deposit equal to the total value of its reported qualifying contributions rather than depositing the money gradually as the reported donations were collected.

Lombardo and Neely recorded the deposits May 4, while Collier recorded his May 29. Lombardo and Collier applied for public funding on the same days as their deposits, while Neely applied approximately one week later.

“Presumably, if you had been collecting $5 from individuals over the course of the qualifying period, there is no reason for those donations to arrive in the form of a single in person bank counter deposit,” Collins wrote to Lombardo.

“All of this activity is highly unusual and constitutes strong evidence that you, in fact, did not collect $5 from each person who apparently signed a qualifying contribution form for your candidacy,” he continued. Collins said the records supported an inference that the lump-sum deposit, rather than the voters listed on the forms, was the money’s actual source.

Collins separately told Lombardo that commission staff concluded she submitted too few qualifying contributions to receive public funding, independent of questions concerning their authenticity.The Secretary of State’s Office and county recorders are responsible for verifying the contributions and approving applicants. The office did not answer the Mirror’s questions about the calculations used to certify Lombardo.

Lombardo received $1,141,328 for the primary and $1,711,992 for the general election, for a total of $2,853,320. Collier received $295,743 for the primary and $443,615 for the general, totaling $739,358. Neely, who lost the Republican primary to Congressman Andy Biggs, received $1,141,328 for the primary.

The three candidates received a combined $4,734,006.

A vote Thursday to initiate repayment proceedings would begin the process rather than constitute a final determination that the candidates violated the law. Commission Rule R2-20-704 allows repayment to be made from a candidate’s personal funds, money remaining in the current campaign account or additional money raised within the Clean Elections program’s contribution limits. Candidates may seek administrative review of a repayment determination.

The development follows the July 21 primary, in which Lombardo and Collier secured the Green Party nominations despite the Arizona Green Party’s opposition and its write-in campaigns for alternative candidates. 

California Globe reported the results July 23, noting that Lombardo had served as a Republican precinct committeewoman until days before filing to run as a Green and that the party had described her as a “fraud” candidate while mounting a similar campaign against Collier.

Neither Lombardo nor Collier responded to the Mirror’s requests for comment. Neely told the publication that he knew nothing about any false contributions and that volunteers had collected the $5 donations on his behalf. He declined to identify the volunteers.

Collins also raised possible reporting violations involving Lombardo and Collier’s failure to identify subcontractors paid through Bootstrap Campaigns, a newly formed Nevada company that received substantial payments from both campaigns. Collins cited records showing that O’Neil Printing in Phoenix performed mail work that the campaigns attributed to Bootstrap.

The Commission’s public meeting calendar shows Thursday’s meeting as scheduled for 10 a.m.