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Arizona voters are poised to overwhelmingly shine a light on campaign contributions, backing a ballot measure that would require disclosure of so-called "dark money" campaign spending by more than a three-to-one margin. Read more»

Sen. Mark Kelly, left, has raised more than $75 million for his re-election bid, the second-highest Senate war chest in the country. While the Democrat’s fundraising swamped the $9.9 million raised by GOP challenger Blake Masters, outside groups have spent almost $50 million to oppose Kelly.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly continued to widen his fundraising lead over GOP challenger Blake Masters, who still trailed the incumbent despite heavy spending on Masters’ behalf by outside conservative groups. Read more»

President Donald Trump, in an October 2020 file photo. A month later, Trump would be asking donors for money to challenge the election – and thousands of Arizonans responded, donating $1.5 million. The Jan. 6 committee said that money was diverted to other Trump funds, but no Arizona donors have complained.

Scottsdale led all Arizona cities for donations to Trump-affiliated fundraising committees - with donors from Phoenix and Tucson close behind - as retirees were by far the biggest group of Arizona donors, accounting for 56% of contributions from the state to the Save America PAC. Read more»

A PAC supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters is facing questions from the Federal Election Commission about whether it properly disclosed spending against Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly.

A political action committee funded almost entirely by tech-billionaire Peter Thiel is facing questions from the Federal Elections Commission about whether it properly reported independent expenditures in support of U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters. Read more»

Analysts say part of the fundraising success of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., is due to the fact that he was elected just two years ago in a costly, hard-fought special election. That’s put Kelly in a position where he has 'essentially been campaigning nonstop for years now,' one said.

Sen. Mark Kelly reported raising almost $52.5 million as of June 30, putting him well ahead of the pack of would-be Republican challengers in Arizona — but outside political action committees have targeted more than $42 million to oppose him this fall. Read more»

President Donald Trump, at a January 2021 event in Texas, will be headlining a political rally Saturday in Prescott Valley. Officials there do not plan to bill the campaign for public safety costs – a move that other cities have tried in the past without success.

Prescott Valley officials expect crowds next week when former President Donald Trump brings his political rally there - but they don’t expect payment: Prescott Valley says police protection is just part of what cities do, and they do not bill for it. Read more»

Documents obtained by OpenSecrets shed new light on the mysterious “dark money” group Defending America Together, which has poured millions of dollars from undisclosed donors into recent midterm elections in Pennsylvania and Alabama. Read more»

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema answers questions from Danny Seiden, the president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at the business group’s 2022 Update from Capitol Hill event on April 12, 2022.

At the same time that Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was standing in opposition to raising taxes on corporations, corporate PACs have given Sinema more than $2.5 million since 2021, more than one out of every three dollars she’s raised. Read more»

More than 40 candidates are running for Arizona’s nine seats in the U.S. House, as redistricting, retirement and a president with sinking approval ratings have made the races more attractive than usual to challengers, particularly GOP hopefuls, analysts say.

Arizona congressional challengers have been emboldened by an open seat, an unpopular president and a newly drawn district map – and they have the money to show for it, setting up what "could potentially be a very anti-incumbent election year." Read more»

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who raised more than $101 million for his 2020 election to finish the term of the late Sen. John McCain, is raising funds at an equally vigorous clip for reelection this fall. With more than seven months to Election Day, Kelly had raised almost $39 million. But analysts say he still faces a tough challenge in Arizona.

Arizona Senate hopefuls had raised more than $61.5 million by March 31, led by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., whose almost $39 million in campaign contributions was the second-highest in the nation among Senate candidates this cycle. Read more»

Ron Watkins.

Conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins, the man purported to be Q has run afoul of the Federal Elections Commission for failing to correctly report how much he raised and spent during his first quarter as a congressional candidate in a rural Arizona district. Read more»

Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, touring Veterans Memorial Coliseum during the Senate’s audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

On paper, the Democratic advocacy group MoveOn has spent more than $1.4 million against Republican Mark Finchem in his campaign to become Arizona’s next secretary of state. In reality, that number only reflects a technicality of campaign finance reporting, not actual campaigning. Read more»

An Arizona House committee voted Wednesday to advance an election reform bill that would request a change to the federal elections voting form with an ID verification requirement - despite a previous court ruling that such a change violates federal law. Read more»

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, walks through the Capitol in this 2020 file photo. Since then, he has been fined $50,000 by the House Ethics Committee and, in January, $125,000 by the Federal Election Commission for campaign finance violations.

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, has agreed to pay $125,000 to the Federal Election Commission for misuse of campaign funds, including charges that funds went to personal use of campaign staffers. Read more»

If you've got email, chances are you've been asked to "chip in" to support candidates from school board to senator. And while consumers have some protections from fraud, a decade of legislative and judicial decisions have turned the campaign cash grab into the wild West. Read more»

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