Thomas Collins Archives - Arizona Globe

Lombardo, Collier, Neely Face $4.7M in Clean Elections Repayments Over Questionable $5 Donations

August 26, 2026 4:02 pmAugust 26, 2026 4:02 pm

Where were all the $5 bills? Clean Elections Commission executive director Thomas Collins is calling on Green Party gubernatorial candidate Risa Lombardo and two other candidates to repay $4.7 million in public Clean Election Funds because of allegedly improper qualifying...

Breaking: Clean Elections Commission To Release Heap Primary Funds

August 14, 2026 4:03 pmAugust 26, 2026 4:04 pm

The Clean Elections Commission released Republican Corporation Commission candidate Ralph Heap’s $147,836 primary-election grant on Friday while also finding reasonable cause to believe Heap violated Arizona campaign-finance rules, allowing the investigation to continue. Heap will receive another $221,754 for the general, for $369,590...

Arizona Morning Politics Briefing: Mendoza’s Property-Tax Credits, a Gubernatorial Spat Over Sales Tax, Ralph Heap In Another Heap of Trouble…And More

August 14, 2026 7:20 amAugust 18, 2026 12:26 pm

“Politics ain’t beanbag,” the late Chicago mayor Harold Washington once said, but sometimes it does feel a bit like beanbag, or like weasels in a sack fighting over a scrap of meat. Here are some of the dramas playing out...

Hobbs Rules Out Debates as Arizona Organizers Finalize Invitations

August 5, 2026 8:02 am

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission and Arizona Media Association are still finalizing whom to invite to this fall’s gubernatorial debates, even as Gov. Katie Hobbs has declared that she will not debate her opponents. Thomas Collins, executive director of...