The AZGP is demanding Lombardo’s removal from the November ballot—and calling on Arizona Greens who witnessed, experienced, or documented her campaign’s conduct to come forward.
August 31, 2026
The Arizona Green Party has formally asked Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to remove Risa Lombardo from the November general-election ballot as the Green Party candidate for Governor and replace her with Carlos Melendez, the candidate endorsed by the Arizona Green Party.
The request comes as the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission continues an investigation into allegations that Lombardo, Green Party Secretary of State candidate Duwayne Collier, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Neely improperly obtained millions of dollars in public campaign financing.
The AZGP's August 31 letter to Secretary Fontes argues that the circumstances surrounding Lombardo's candidacy raise serious questions about election integrity, campaign financing and the integrity of the Green Party's primary election.
The party is also asking Arizona Green voters to come forward with firsthand accounts and documentation concerning their interactions with the Lombardo campaign.
The controversy began before the primary
The Arizona Green Party's concerns about Lombardo did not begin after she won the July primary.
In December 2025, the AZGP publicly raised concerns about Lombardo and other candidates seeking Green Party nominations, stating that the candidates were unknown to the party and had not previously been involved with the organization. Phoenix New Times later reported that party officials also said petition circulators were describing the candidates as independents.
By April, independent news organizations were examining Lombardo's political background and the circumstances surrounding her candidacy.
Phoenix New Times reported that Lombardo had significant Republican political connections, including service as a Republican precinct committeewoman and involvement with conservative organizations. The newspaper also reported that a conservative petition firm, Uncle Sam Petitions, collected signatures on Lombardo's behalf and that its owner had donated to Republican campaigns.
The newspaper reported that Lombardo's campaign finance reports showed no expenses or donations at the time, despite the use of paid petition circulators to collect the signatures necessary to qualify for the Green Party primary ballot.
An April 24 investigation by Arizona Agenda similarly examined Lombardo's Republican connections, her use of paid petition circulators and the involvement of conservative attorneys when her ballot qualification was challenged. The article placed Lombardo's candidacy within the broader history of disputes over candidates running under the Green Party banner without representing the party's platform.
Those reports were published months before the July primary and before the current Clean Elections investigation became public.
Lombardo's ballot qualification was challenged
Lombardo submitted 3,250 signatures to qualify for the Green Party gubernatorial primary.
Her ballot qualification was challenged in court.
A judge ultimately ruled that Lombardo had enough valid signatures to remain on the primary ballot. However, 1,296 of the 3,250 signatures were invalidated, leaving 1,954 valid signatures—enough to meet the required threshold.
The court's ruling did not find that Lombardo's candidacy was fraudulent. She remained legally qualified for the primary.
The invalidated signatures nevertheless remain part of the documented history of the process through which Lombardo obtained access to the Green Party primary ballot.
The AZGP gave Lombardo an opportunity to seek its endorsement
The Arizona Green Party's opposition to Lombardo should also be considered alongside the party's documented effort to give her an opportunity to participate in its endorsement process.
On May 29, the AZGP sent candidates an email explaining that the upcoming endorsement meeting would provide candidates with an opportunity to introduce themselves, discuss their campaigns and answer questions from Green Party members.
Lombardo attended the May 30 meeting but subsequently complained that she had not been called upon to speak before she needed to leave for another event.
On May 31, AZGP Treasurer Liana West responded to Lombardo in writing.
The response acknowledged Lombardo's frustration and explained that the party wanted Green voters to have an opportunity to hear directly from candidates seeking endorsement.
The AZGP then postponed the gubernatorial endorsement vote until June 6 and scheduled a governor-focused endorsement meeting specifically to give candidates another opportunity to speak and answer questions.
Lombardo was invited to participate.
According to the contemporaneous correspondence, Lombardo did not attend the June 6 meeting.
She also did not complete the AZGP candidate questionnaire that had been provided to candidates as part of the endorsement process.
The party subsequently endorsed Carlos Melendez for Governor.
That distinction is central to the current dispute:
Carlos Melendez was the Arizona Green Party's endorsed candidate. Risa Lombardo was not.
Lombardo won the primary despite the party's opposition
Lombardo nevertheless won the July 21 Green Party gubernatorial primary.
The certified statewide canvass shows:
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Risa Lombardo: 430 votes
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Carlos Melendez: 202 votes
Lombardo received 68% of the statewide vote and Melendez received 32%.
Lombardo's name appeared on the printed primary ballot, while Melendez ran as a write-in candidate.
The geographic results also show an important contrast.
Lombardo won Maricopa County, where she received 244 votes to Melendez's 100. Melendez narrowly won Pima County, 82 to Lombardo's 79.
Pima County has an active Green Party organization that has continued grassroots organizing and direct voter outreach. While county-level election results cannot establish why individual voters chose one candidate over another, Melendez's narrow victory in Pima County occurred in a county where the Green Party has maintained an active local presence, over many decades.
The statewide result, however, gave Lombardo the Green Party gubernatorial nomination.
Then came the Clean Elections investigation
The controversy surrounding Lombardo's candidacy took a much more serious turn in August when reporting by Arizona Mirror raised questions about the qualifying contributions used by Lombardo, Collier and Neely to obtain public campaign financing.
Candidates participating in Arizona's Clean Elections program must collect qualifying $5 contributions from registered Arizona voters before receiving public campaign funds. For 2026, gubernatorial candidates were required to collect 4,000 qualifying contributions.
The Arizona Mirror reported that Lombardo, Collier and Neely collectively reported qualifying contributions from nearly 4,000 of the same voters, including more than 2,600 people whose names appeared as contributors to all three campaigns.
The newspaper contacted more than 50 people whose names appeared among those contributors and reported that none of the people who responded said the contributions attributed to them were legitimate.
Six people specifically told the Mirror they had not made the $5 contributions attributed to them, even though forms submitted to the Secretary of State's Office appeared to contain their signatures.
Several of the voters told the Mirror that they remembered signing unrelated petitions at places such as grocery-store parking lots, marijuana dispensaries or concerts.
The reporting raised the possibility that information collected during petition drives may have subsequently been used to create qualifying contribution records.
The precise source of the money and the circumstances surrounding the contribution forms remain subjects of investigation.
The Clean Elections Commission is investigating
The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission was already investigating the suspicious qualifying contributions when the Arizona Mirror published its August 25 investigation.
On August 27, the Commission unanimously voted to continue the investigations into Lombardo, Collier and Neely.
The Commission authorized Executive Director Tom Collins to subpoena campaign records and bank statements, subpoena witnesses and compel testimony. The Commission also directed Collins to complete the investigation and make a recommendation regarding whether the candidates should repay public campaign funds.
The three campaigns collectively received approximately $4.7 million in public campaign funding. The Clean Elections investigation involves three candidates from two different parties, not three Green candidates. The Arizona Mirror specifically describes Lombardo and Collier as Green candidates and Neely as a Republican candidate.
Although keep in mind that The Arizona Mirror reported that Lombardo, Collier and Neely collectively reported qualifying contributions from nearly 4,000 of the same voters, including more than 2,600 people whose names appeared as contributors to all three campaigns.
According to the Arizona Mirror, Lombardo's campaign received up to approximately $2.8 million in Clean Elections funding, Collier's received more than $739,000, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Neely received more than $1.1 million for his Republican primary campaign. Lombardo and Collier advanced from their respective primaries and therefore received additional general-election funding. Neely lost the Republican primary to Andy Biggs and did not receive general-election funding.
In a letter sent to Lombardo, Collier and Neely, Clean Elections Executive Director Tom Collins reportedly said the circumstances represented a level of suspicious activity well beyond what he had witnessed during his 16 years with the Commission.
The Commission has not yet issued a final finding that Lombardo committed fraud.
That distinction is important.
The investigation is ongoing, and any final determination of violations or penalties remains with the appropriate authorities.
Honestly ask yourself why would voters donate $5 to a Green party candidate and then also donate $5 to a Republican candidate?
The timing of the cash deposits are also under investigation. Instead of using Stripe to collect the $5 donations, it appears that each of the 3 campaigns being investigated deposited a large cash amount into their bank accounts shortly before or on the day that they submitted their applications for the Clean Elections funding.
Questions also surround campaign spending
The Clean Elections controversy is not the only issue involving Lombardo's campaign finances.
Earlier reporting by the Arizona Mirror examined more than $887,000 in payments from Lombardo's campaign to a newly created Nevada company called Bootstrap Campaigns.
The payments represented a substantial portion of the public funding Lombardo's campaign had received.
The company was incorporated shortly before receiving payments from the campaign and had little identifiable public presence. Reporting also raised questions about the company's corporate officers and about whether all vendors and subcontractors were properly disclosed in campaign finance reports.
The Arizona Mirror later reported that Lombardo and Collier together paid more than $1.2 million in public funds to Bootstrap Campaigns over a five-week period. The company reportedly provided a wide range of campaign services, including consulting, mailers, text messaging, photography, video and radio production, canvassing, social-media management, petition gathering and campaign signs.
The Clean Elections Commission's rules require participating campaigns to identify vendors and subcontractors paid with Clean Elections funds. The Mirror reported that Lombardo and Collier's campaigns also used other businesses for campaign work without listing those businesses in their campaign finance reports.
Those reporting findings are separate from the Commission's investigation into the qualifying contributions, although both involve the use of public campaign funds.
Why the AZGP is asking the Secretary of State to intervene
On August 31, the Arizona Green Party formally asked Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to remove Lombardo and Collier from the November general-election ballot.
The party's letter asks that Carlos Melendez replace Lombardo as the Green Party's gubernatorial candidate and that Jon Ralston replace Collier as the party's Secretary of State candidate.
The AZGP's request comes while the Clean Elections investigation is still underway.
The party argues that the Secretary of State should address the ballot question before general-election ballots are finalized rather than waiting until after the election.
That request raises a difficult legal and administrative question:
What happens to a party's ballot line when the person occupying it is subsequently found to have obtained the nomination or public financing through prohibited conduct?
The AZGP is asking the Secretary of State to resolve that question before November rather than after voters have already cast their ballots.
The ballot-access stakes
The dispute also has consequences beyond the individual gubernatorial race.
Arizona law provides a pathway for a political organization to maintain ballot status based on its statewide electoral performance. The gubernatorial vote can therefore have consequences for the party's future ballot status.
That creates an unusual situation for the Arizona Green Party.
The party did not endorse Lombardo and has publicly opposed her candidacy. Yet Lombardo currently occupies the Green Party's gubernatorial ballot line.
If Lombardo remains the nominee, the AZGP could face the political dilemma of either supporting a candidate it did not endorse or opposing the candidate whose name appears beside the Green Party designation on the November ballot.
The party's August 31 request to the Secretary of State seeks to have Melendez, the party-endorsed candidate, placed on the general-election ballot instead.
The AZGP is asking Arizona Greens to come forward
The Arizona Green Party has received reports from registered Green voters who say they were deceived or misled by the Lombardo campaign or people working on its behalf.
The party is now asking voters to provide firsthand accounts and documentation that could help establish what occurred during the campaign.
The request is not limited to people who already believe a law was broken.
The AZGP is seeking information from voters who interacted with Lombardo's campaign, petition circulators or campaign workers and believe something about that interaction was inaccurate, misleading or otherwise concerning.
Questions the party is asking include:
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Were you contacted by someone campaigning for Lombardo?
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Were you asked to sign a petition on her behalf?
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Were you told that the Lombardo campaign was Independent?
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Were you asked to make a qualifying contribution?
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Were you told that Lombardo was the Arizona Green Party's endorsed candidate?
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Were you given information about Carlos Melendez or the Green Party that you later discovered was inaccurate?
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Did you sign a document that you did not understand?
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Does your name appear on a Clean Elections qualifying contribution that you do not remember making?
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Did you encounter a paid petition circulator or campaign worker?
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Do you have documentation of an interaction with the campaign that may be relevant?
Preserve the evidence
The AZGP is asking voters with relevant information to preserve original documentation whenever possible.
Potentially useful evidence includes:
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emails;
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text messages;
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screenshots;
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photographs;
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campaign literature;
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petition materials;
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contribution records;
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receipts;
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videos;
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recordings obtained lawfully;
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names or descriptions of campaign workers or petition circulators;
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dates and locations of interactions; and
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contemporaneous notes describing what occurred.
Voters do not need to determine whether their experience constitutes a legal violation before contacting the party.
The most useful information will be firsthand accounts describing what happened, when it happened, where it happened, who was involved and what documentation exists.
The AZGP can be contacted at [email protected]
The party is expected to distinguish firsthand accounts from secondhand information, speculation and opinion.
The AZGP is not asking voters to determine guilt
The Arizona Green Party's request for voter information does not substitute for an official investigation.
The Clean Elections Commission is responsible for investigating potential violations of the Clean Elections Act and its rules.
Other state authorities may become involved if evidence of criminal conduct or other statutory violations is established.
The Commission has not yet made a final determination that Lombardo committed fraud.
The allegations should therefore remain identified as allegations unless and until an appropriate authority makes a formal finding.
What the AZGP is asking for now is documentation.
If voters have evidence that helps establish what happened, the party wants that evidence preserved and submitted.
A dispute that began before the primary is now headed toward the general election
The timeline surrounding Lombardo's candidacy is now documented across months of public records and independent reporting.
December 2025: The AZGP publicly raises concerns about Lombardo and other candidates seeking Green Party nominations.
April 2026: Phoenix New Times reports on Lombardo's Republican connections, the petition operation supporting her ballot qualification and the AZGP's concerns about her candidacy.
April 24, 2026: Arizona Agenda publishes an investigation examining Lombardo's candidacy, paid petition circulators and the broader history of disputed Green Party candidates in Arizona.
May 29–31, 2026: The AZGP's contemporaneous correspondence documents Lombardo's invitation to participate in the party endorsement process and the party's decision to provide an additional governor-focused endorsement meeting after Lombardo complained about the first meeting.
June 2026: The Arizona Green Party endorses Carlos Melendez for Governor.
July 21, 2026: Lombardo wins the Green Party gubernatorial primary, receiving 430 votes to Melendez's 202.
August 25, 2026: Arizona Mirror reports that voters say their names and signatures were used for Clean Elections qualifying contributions they did not make.
August 27, 2026: The Citizens Clean Elections Commission unanimously votes to continue its investigation and authorizes subpoenas and compelled testimony.
August 31, 2026: The Arizona Green Party formally asks Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to remove Lombardo and Collier from the general-election ballot and replace them with the party-endorsed candidates.
The question now moves to Arizona election officials and investigators.
And for Arizona Green voters who encountered the Lombardo campaign directly, there is another opportunity to contribute to the public record.
If you witnessed something, experienced something, signed something, contributed something, or have documentation that may help establish what happened, the Arizona Green Party is asking you to come forward.
As this is a developing story the Arizona Green Party will continue to keep voters informed via the official website: AZGP.org
Registering with a political party that is aligned with your personal values will ensure that Green voices are heard in electoral spaces. Join the electoral arm of the social justice movement in Arizona. Join the Arizona Green Party today!
References:
‘With 1,000% certainty’: Voters say candidates faked their donations to get public campaign cash
Clean Elections set to demand $4.7M repayment from candidates amid fraud allegations
'Sham' Arizona Green Party candidate helped a Republican get on the ballot
https://www.kjzz.org/elections/2026-08-12/sham-arizona-green-party-candidate-helped-a-republican-get-on-the-ballot
3 Arizona candidates face allegations they defrauded Clean Elections Commission
AZ Clean Elections to continue probe into 3 candidates who received millions in public funding
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-green-party-governor-candidate-gop-ties-40659735/