By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Business owner and lobbyist Karrin Taylor Robson says she has raised more than $4 million since launching her bid in February to become the Republican nominee for governor.
But a new report paints only part of the picture.
It also includes $2.2 million of Robson's own money that she put into the campaign. And Arizona law requires any loans to a campaign committee to be listed the same as any other contribution.
That up-front money enabled Robson to get a jump start. But she burned all of that off with a series of TV commercials touting her endorsement by Trump.
Less clear is how much Robson is willing to spend this time to be at the top of the statewide Republican ticket.
In 2022 she put $16.9 million of her own cash into the gubernatorial primary fight, only to lose to Kari Lake -- who, in turn, lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
She reports having about $978,000 on hand at the end of last month.
That puts her ahead of Congressman Andy Biggs who also hopes to carry the GOP banner into the 2026 gubernatorial race with incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs.
He took in more than $560,000 in the last three months, bringing his campaign total to date to more than $1.2 million.
With expenses of less than $600,000, that leaves him with more than $630,000 in the bank in what is expected to be a lengthy -- and, now, three-way -- race to see who can take on Hobbs.
But the GOP campaign got more complicated earlier this month when David Schweikert, another Republican member of the state's congressional delegation, decided that he, too, wants to be the one to take on Hobbs in her reelection bid.
That late entry means he did has yet to file a statement of donations. His first report will be in January.
But that doesn't mean he is starting out with nothing.
He has $1.1 million in the bank already collected for what would have been a 2026 congressional reelection campaign. More to the point, state law generally allows those donations to be moved to a statewide race.
There is, however, a restriction.
Under federal law, individuals can give up to $7,000 each election cycle to congressional candidates. But state law limits donations to $5,500. That means only the amounts up to that lower figure for each donor can be used on Schweikert's gubernatorial bid.
Whoever wins after spending money on the three-way primary will have to deal with Hobbs. And with no other Democrat running against her, she has no need to spend to fight off a primary challenger.
In her own report, says she took in nearly $1.5 million in the last three months. That brings her total income since her reelection campaign began to about $9.3 million.
Still, even without a primary, she still has been finding ways to spend money on things like advertising and direct mailings. What that leaves her is $5.4 million cash on hand.
In a prepared statement, her campaign said it is dependent on "grassroots support,'' with nearly 95% of the money raised in contributions under $100.
But that just paints part of the picture.
Hobbs also has set up Copper State Values, a separate political action committee that is run by Nicole DeMont who also manages the governor's reelection. And it has raised more than $2.7 million.
More to the point, as PAC is can accept large individual contributions -- it is not subject to the $5,500 limit from donors -- as well as corporate dollars which cannot legally be given directly to candidates to influence elections.
So, for example, the reports for Cooper State include $50,000 from Verde Investments in Tempe owned by billionaire Ernest Garcia II which is involved in commercial real estate development.
With limited expenses so far, the PAC reports it still has more than $2.4 million on hand.
Less clear is exactly how Hobbs could use those business dollars to help keep her in office.
What appears legal is the ability of the Copper State Values to do things to elect more Democrats to the Legislature and wrest one or both chambers from Republican control. And that could include get-out-the-vote efforts targeting Democrats that, by extension, would aid Hobbs.
Conversely, it would be legally problematic to use those PAC dollars from corporate sources to directly buy commercials urging voters to support Hobbs.
But there also are some gray areas.
For example, the reports from Copper State Values show it is sharing expenses with the Hobbs reelection campaign, including everything from rent and utilities at their joint office on East McDowell Road in Phoenix to the cost of a fundraising event.
While Hobbs has Copper State Values, both Biggs and Robson are getting the benefit of others spending on their behalf.
Turning Point PAC has reported almost $460,000 spent this year on advertising and signs to support Biggs in his bid to become the GOP gubernatorial nominee. Of note, however, is that there have been no new expenses for Biggs reported since June 2.
Robson also has some outside help, albeit not as much as Biggs. She got more than $130,000 in spending on her behalf by Building a Better Arizona, a political action committee that was formed specifically to help Robson get the nomination chaired by former state Senate President Karen Fann.
By law, these "independent expenditure committees'' have to operate separate from the candidates they support and cannot coordinate any of their operations.
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