Coconino prosecutors will investigate Rodney Glassman over alleged campaign finance violations

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 have 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.