AZ Dem Abeytia Facing Heavy Campaign Fund Violation Fines

The Arizona Clean Elections Commission, the non-partisan board that administers and enforces the Citizens Clean Elections Act, is moving to enhance the $5000 ($5K) fine levied against State Rep. Anna Abeytia (D-24). According to the Commission’s reporting, Abeytia has failed to submit the mandatory reporting on campaign fund usage. The board initially fined her $5K, but has since vowed to increase that fine due to her failure to respond to repeated requests for accounting. Specifically, she has failed to specify campaign fund usage for the time between September 2024 and April 2025.

Clean Elections provided $53K to Abeytia during the 2024 election cycle, $48K of which she paid to Gumption Consulting, which her fiancé owns. The Commission has repeatedly accused Abeytia of ignoring auditors and other staff who attempted to get her to comply with finance reporting requirements mandated by statute. The Commission stated that had they levied the full fines available, Abeytia would have owed $ 101K.

The Commission alleges she ignored multiple attempts from auditors and staff members who tried to inform her about her statutory obligation to file campaign finance reports. Commissioner Galen Paton stated that he would not pursue such an excessive fine, but did desire a higher penalty than $5k.

“She is a sitting representative and she’s passing laws, but she can’t follow them,” Paton said.

Clean Elections’ Executive Director, Tom Collins, explained that the $ 5,000 penalty was levied based on Abeytia’s ability to pay, implying that she may not be able to afford a higher fine.

“We’re comfortable saying this is an amount of money that is going to bite these people,” Collins said. “This is probably a significant fine to actually pay.”

Despite having paid the majority of the funds to her fiancé, the Commission claims it found no proof of misusing funds or receiving contributions above Clean Elections’ limits.

“The novel issue here to us is this issue of a candidate not only filing reports timely, but then not responding,” Collins added.

“We could always charge the maximum amount, but is it realistic to think they’re actually going to get it?” said Commissioner Christina Estes-Werther. “Most of the time, the answer is no.”