Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has opened a criminal investigation into three statewide candidates accused of falsifying records to unlock millions of dollars in public campaign financing, one of the most significant public-funding fraud cases to hit the state’s Clean Elections system in years.
Who Is Under Investigation
The candidates named in the probe are Green Party candidates Risa Lombardo and Duwayne Collier, along with Republican candidate Scott Neely. All three had qualified for public funding through the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, a voter-approved program that provides taxpayer dollars to candidates who agree to forgo large PAC and corporate contributions in exchange for collecting a required threshold of small-dollar qualifying contributions from registered voters.
What Investigators Found
A preliminary review by the Clean Elections Commission found that the three candidates did not actually collect enough legitimate qualifying contributions to meet the threshold required to receive public funds, suggesting campaign records may have been falsified to make it appear the threshold was met. The Attorney General’s office says the candidates, along with others involved in operating their campaigns, could face class six felony charges as well as misdemeanor counts for violating reporting requirements under Arizona’s Clean Elections Act.
How the Clean Elections System Works
Arizona’s public campaign financing system, approved by voters in 1998, was designed to reduce the influence of large donors by giving qualifying candidates a set amount of public money once they demonstrate grassroots support through a minimum number of $5 qualifying contributions from within their district or state. The system relies heavily on the honor system at the collection stage, with the Commission auditing contributions after the fact — a design that critics say creates exactly the kind of after-the-fact fraud risk now at the center of this case.
Defenders and Critics of Public Financing
Supporters of Clean Elections funding argue this case is proof the system’s audit function works as intended, catching irregularities before they can further compound, and that isolated fraud by a handful of candidates does not undermine the broader goal of reducing big-money influence in Arizona politics. Critics of public campaign financing, however, point to the case as evidence that taxpayer-funded campaign systems remain vulnerable to manipulation and argue the incident will fuel renewed legislative efforts to scale back or eliminate the program entirely.
Broader Campaign Finance Context
The Arizona case lands amid a broader national wave of campaign finance scrutiny this cycle, as a nonfunctional Federal Election Commission has left most enforcement to state attorneys general and local prosecutors. With the FEC lacking a quorum since May 2025, state-level cases like Arizona’s Clean Elections probe have taken on outsized importance as one of the few active enforcement mechanisms holding candidates accountable for campaign-finance violations this election cycle.
What’s Next
The Attorney General’s office says its investigation is ongoing, and any formal charges would need to go before a grand jury or be filed directly by prosecutors. If convicted, the candidates and any campaign staff involved could face felony penalties that would likely include repayment of the public funds obtained, along with potential bans on future participation in the Clean Elections program. The case is expected to fuel debate in the Arizona legislature over whether to tighten verification requirements for public campaign financing before the next election cycle.
Photo: Gage Skidmore / BY-SA via flickr
