Arizona Republican under investigation for excessive donations

After numerous counties turned down the case over the past few weeks, Coconino County has finally agreed to investigate allegations that Republican candidate for Attorney General Rodney Glassman violated campaign finance law.

Glassman, a perennial candidate for elected office in Arizona, is accused of accepting at least 30 contributions above the contribution limits spelled out by state law.

After a Republican activist reported the illegal contributions in April, Glassman campaign attorney Lance Broberg acknowledged in response to questions from the Secretary of State’s Office that some 2024 contributions were in violation of campaign finance limits. He wrote that the over-payments were caused by credit card processing fees and that the campaign was in the process of refunding them.

But the numbers don’t quite add up.

Many of those excess contributions were for exactly $100, the difference between the 2024 and 2025 limits. (Contribution limits are updated for each election cycle, and Glassman began raising money during the 2024 cycle even though his campaign was for 2026.)

Credit card transaction fees for WinRed, the donation platform that Glassman uses, are for around 4% of each donation — that amounts to $221.29 for a $5,400 donation, the maximum allowed in 2024.

The Glassman campaign returned around $12,000 in over-payments during the second quarter of 2025, according to campaign finance reports. If campaigns “unknowingly” collect donations beyond the limit, they have 60 days to return the overpayments.

But the 22 donations beyond the legal limit that the Glassman campaign accepted in 2024 that were initially reported to the Secretary of State’s Office and the eight more that a lawyer for the office found to his campaign in 2025 were returned well after that 60-day grace period.

Neither the Glassman campaign nor Broberg has responded to questions about the allegations.

After investigating the complaint against Glassman, the Secretary of State’s Office said there was probable cause that he violated campaign finance law and forwarded the complaint to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

But Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who is running for reelection in 2026 had a conflict of interest because she could face Glassman in the general election next year. Her office forwarded the complaint to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which also declined to take it because Glassman is a personal friend of County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.

Maricopa County attempted to find another county attorney willing to take the case but was unsuccessful. Most of the offices declined to take the case because they already had large caseloads with too few staff, Jeanine L’Ecuyer, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, told the Arizona Mirror.

Maricopa County returned the complaint to the Arizona Attorney General earlier this week. On Friday, Coconino County agreed to take the case, Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Mayes, told the Mirror.

Glassman is a former Democratic Tucson City Councilman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. John McCain as a Democrat in 2010. Since registering as a Republican in 2015 he’s made several unsuccessful bids for office, including for corporation commissioner in 2018, Maricopa County Assessor in 2020 and for attorney general in 2022, when he lost the Republican primary to Abe Hamadeh.

Glassman has aligned himself with President Donald Trump over the last decade, and has bragged about out-fundraising his top opponents in the race for attorney general — Mayes and Republican President of the Arizona Senate Warren Petersen.

“Last quarter was another huge win for our campaign!” Glassman posted on the social media site X on Sept. 4. “Raised: $578,000 Cash-on-hand: $2.4 MILLION.”

Glassman has raised more than $1 million, but he bolstered that with $1 million from his own pocket. As of June, Petersen had only collected $190,000, but had $350,000 in the bank, thanks to leftover donations from prior campaigns.

Mayes raised around $515,000 in the second quarter of 2025, and when added to funds from prior campaigns, she had more than $1 million on hand.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.