Competition Impracticable–Petersen Highlights Stacey Champion’s Role in Mayes’ Tenure

Stacey Champion did everything for Kris Mayes’ campaign.

Public relations. Communications. Design. Zoom calls. Early-morning MSNBC appearances. Even Mayes’ makeup.

“I was always her cheerleader & optimist,” Champion tweeted shortly after Mayes took office in January 2023. “I got shit done.” She added, “I broke my self-imposed no candidate campaign rule to do all of the PR/comms/design/etc. for her campaign because she’s a 🦄.”

About five weeks later, Champion and her unicorn emoji had a new client: Arizona taxpayers.

The Attorney General’s Office signed Mayes’ longtime political consultant to a noncompetitive $10,000-a-month consulting contract in February 2023, according to records obtained and released by Republican attorney general candidate Warren Petersen’s campaign. The arrangement eventually grew to $15,000 a month and generated at least $247,750 in payments through early 2025.

The state classified the Feb. 9, 2023 agreement as “Competition Impracticable,” because, apparently, “Mission: Impracticable” was already taken. It paid Champion $10,000 per month for at least 80 hours. The state then extended the contract twice, changed the minimum to 120 hours and pay to $15,000/month. In 2025, it  ssued a separate, project-based agreement.

Now it’s prime campaign season, and the Petersen campaign is doing opposition research. So no one has to question why they’re making this information available to the press in September. The records released by Petersen identify the first contract as “Competition Impracticable,” but don’t establish the procurement classification of the second agreement.

“Mayes gave her own campaign consultant and close friend two separate no-bid contracts. What’s worse is that the documents show her friend driving official investigations, all kept secret on private emails,” Petersen campaign manager Chad LeBeau said in an email to Arizona Globe. There’s no specific evidence that the second contract was “Impracticable.” The Attorney General’s Office didn’t reply to an emailed request for comment.

Campaign-finance records show Champion’s company received $66,792.22 from Mayes’s campaign from 2023 through 2025, including an $18,000 payment on March 10, 2023, after the AGO contract had begun. She certainly remained in the  campaign communications loop. Champion forwarded messages from [email protected] to Mayes/attorney general staffers while working for AGO. In August 2024 she alerted AGO staff to a campaign-related Kamala Harris media inquiry. Other official AGO business appears in communications sent through Champion’s private email.

Internal records show Champion advised the AGO on issues involving fake electors. Also of concern: Republican Corporation Commissioner Kevin Thompson, who became chair in 2025. Champion was involved internally at the AG’s office in discussions about Thompson and circulated research about him while also publicly criticizing him.

Champion also participated in internal discussions concerning then-Rep. Austin Smith, whose alleged petition-signature forgeries had been referred to the AGO. A state grand jury later indicted Smith on 14 counts; he ultimately pleaded guilty to attempted fraudulent schemes and illegal signing of election petitions.

Mayes’s office has separately faced criticism over public records. In April, a unanimous Arizona Court of Appeals panel found that AGO had conducted an inadequate search for records involving States United Democracy Fund and hadn’t sufficiently explained why other records were privileged. The court sent the case back for further proceedings.

LeBeau is trying to make the Champion records part of a broader transparency argument against Mayes. He accused her office of having “made a habit of keeping information outside of official channels to hide it from public view.”

Was Champion “driving official investigations,” as Petersen’s campaign claims? The records show Champion participating in sensitive internal discussions and circulating material about Thompson, but they don’t show that she had authority to direct prosecutors or investigators. This could absolutely be campaign-season wrangling that won’t move the needle a micrometer. But at the very least, it does appear that Champion got shit done.