Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego isn’t the only one benefiting from the party’s mega donors, who have also poured tens of thousands of dollars into the Arizona Green Party’s Senate primary.
The Green Party’s primary in Arizona has been marred by allegations of spoiler candidates for months – and last week, one of those candidates admitted he was backed by outside interests.
Mike Norton, one of two candidates who will appear on the ballot, admitted Democrats and Republicans are backing his campaign to block fellow candidate Arturo Hernandez, who Norton accused of being a closet Republican, from winning the nomination.
The Norton campaign has already benefited from tens of thousands of dollars in donations from donors and political action committees tied to Democratic politics, and a new campaign finance report filed this week shows Democrats have continued to fund the Norton campaign.
That campaign finance report shows Norton nearly $27,000 from individuals tied to California billionaire Ron Conway, a Democratic mega donor. That includes maximum $3,300 donations from Conway, his wife and his adult children.
Norton also received $3,300 from Donalyn Mikles, who was one of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs top donors in 2022 and has given $90,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party since 2022.
Hernandez, meanwhile, has reported any campaign contributions or expenses since launching his campaign in March despite likely accruing at least nominal expenses during that time.
Hernandez, who missed a July 15 deadline to file a campaign finance report covering April 1 to June 30, did not respond to a request to comment on how his campaign paid for signature collection to qualify for the ballot and to hire a high-profile attorney to defend his campaign from a lawsuit challenging his candidacy.
That attorney, prominent Arizona Republican lawyer Kory Langhofer, did not respond to a request to comment on who paid him to represent Hernandez’s campaign.
Green Party write-in candidate Eduardo Quintana said both Norton and Hernandez are spoiler candidates.
“Most people in the Green Party in Arizona now know that these two people that are running as Green Party candidates are not Green Party candidates, and they’re frauds,” Quintana said last month in an online conversation with Green Party members.
Quintana said his campaign has mailed postcards to all Arizona Green Party voters to encourage them to write in his name on the ballot.
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Find everything you need to know about elections in Arizona and Maricopa County from KJZZ's politics team. -
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