Mysterious outside money in Cochise County primaries

What interest do a Seattle billionaire and an opaque PAC have in our local supervisory races?

It's not every elections cycle that local elections in Cochise County see the involvement of a billionaire philanthropist from the other side of the country, but that is the case in 2024. The money has been coming in through what seems to be a deliberately opaque political action committee that is weighing in on local-level races across the country.

According to Cochise County Elections Division records, a political action committee (PAC) calling itself Resolute Republic Action was quietly registered on July 5, a little more than three weeks ahead of the July 30 primary election.

Records show that on July 10, the committee received a contribution of $6,650 from James C. Pigott of Seattle, Washington. Then, again, on July 11, the committee received another $6,650 from Pigott.

Under Arizona law, $6,650 is the maximum amount that either an individual or a regular PAC (a non-“mega” PAC) may give to a local candidate.

Records indicate that on the same day as Resolute Republic received the first Pigott contribution, it gave the exact amount of that contribution, $6,650, to Clint Briseno's candidate committee. Briseno was running as a Republican primary challenger against incumbent District 1 Supervisor Tom Crosby.

Then, again, when the PAC received Pigott's second contribution, of $6,650 on July 11, Resolute Republic immediately gave the full amount to the candidate committee of Sonia Gasho. Gasho was running as a Republican candidate in a crowded field seeking the District 3 supervisory seat to be vacated by outgoing Supervisor Peggy Judd.

Neither Briseno or Gasho won in the primary elections of July 30.

To date, according to the most recent campaign finance reports, these two Republican supervisory candidates have been the sole reported recipients of Resolute Republic Action campaign finance in Cochise County. According to records, Resolute Republic's support constitutes the largest single donations to either of these campaigns.

Gasho, who is a director and immediate past president of the Cochise County Farm Bureau, did not respond to inquiries from CRN regarding Resolute Republic.

It is also worth noting that, during the 2022 election cycle, Gasho served as treasurer of the Rural Water Assurance PAC (RWA), which worked to oppose voter initiatives to create groundwater active management areas (AMAs) in the Douglas and Willcox groundwater basins. According to campaign finance records, RWA was no stranger to taking outside and special interest money.

Briseno did pick up the phone when CRN called, but seemed to immediately regret it.

Briseno's pre-primary campaign finance report does state that he had received $6,650 from an unspecified PAC, but does not state the identity of the committee providing him with the money.

When asked if he had heard of Resolute Republic Action, Briseno asked CRN: “Um, are you seeing that on my PAC form or on my campaign finance form?”

CRN advised Briseno Resolute Republic is not named in his campaign filings.

“Okay, it's 'Resolute'-- who is it again? […] Whose report are you seeing that on?” asked Briseno.

CRN then told Briseno that, according to Resolute Republic Action filings, the PAC gave him $6,650 on July 10.

“Ahhhh, that should be in my pre-primary report,” said Briseno. “If it's not, it should be.”

According to Cochise County Interim Elections Director Marisol Renteria, Briseno's pre-primary elections report, covering the period from July 1 to July 20, was submitted to the county in the form that the county has scanned and published the report-- with no mention of Resolute Republic Action.

CRN asked Briseno who Resolute Republic Action is and why they chose to give him more than six thousand dollars just weeks before the primary election.

“They're just a group that stands up for elected officials, and there's information on their website. I don't want to speak for them,” said Briseno.

When pressed as to why an outside group would approach him with several thousand dollars in campaign support just before the election, Briseno stated that he'd be happy to meet and discuss in person, but that he was on his way to Alpine, in the White Mountains, and would not be able to discuss until some time the following week. Briseno declined to comment further on the phone, and eventually hung up on CRN.

The website likely referenced by Briseno, resoluterepublicpac.org, contains the following statement, and no other information describing its purpose or funders:

“Resolute Republic PAC was founded to support pro-Constitution candidates in races at all levels of government across the country. At Resolute Republic PAC we believe now is the time to stand with candidates who work to strengthen the Constitutional foundation our nation was built on. We support leaders, both incumbents and challengers, who take a stand for the rule of law that has made our Constitutional Republic the shining beacon of freedom for over 200 years.”

The United States is, arguably, at one of the most divided points in our history. Each side of the political chasm claims fidelity to the true constitutional underpinnings of our nation-- though interpretations of the Constitution, and even the basic facts of our shared reality, vary widely. As such, it seems this statement from the Resolute Republic website is something of a Rorschach test, capable of meaning anything any particular audience may chose to read into it, while simultaneously saying nothing at all.

Resolute Republic Action appears to be the kind of political action committee that is set up to be deliberately opaque.

According to its statement of organization, the PAC's address is a UPS Store mailbox in the D.C. Beltway suburb of Falls Church, Virginia. The phone number given for the PAC has a Birmingham, Alabama area code and is a Google Voice number.

Resolute Republic lists its chairman as Zach Hunter, president of Rampart Strategies. Hunter gives a Georgia address for himself, along with an Atlanta telephone number.

According to Georgia Secretary of State records, Hunter incorporated public relations firm, Rampart Strategies, LLC, in 2023.

Hunter did not respond to a request for comment from Cochise Regional News.

The PAC lists its treasurer as Greg Ridenour, president of The Lawrence Group. Ridenour's address appears to be a residential address in Minooka, Illinois, and his given phone number (with an Illinois area code) is a Google Voice number.

According to Illinois Secretary of State Records, Ridenour incorporated Lawrence Group, LLC in 2021, giving the same Minooka address.

Ridenour did not answer his Google Voice number when CRN attempted to contact him.

According to Cochise County campaign finance reports, Resolute Republic Action's sole contributor in its Cochise County activities is James C. Pigott of Seattle, Washington.

The Seattle address given for Pigott in campaign finance records is the address of Pigott Enterprises and Moccasin Lake Foundation.

CRN called Pigott Enterprises and the Moccasin Lake Foundation seeking comment from Pigott, but this inquiry received no response.

Pigott, a long-retired octogenarian, is a member of Seattle's Pigott family, which was ranked by Forbes in 2020 as the thirty-sixth most wealthy family in the United States, worth more than $10 billion. The family initially made their fortune in auto manufacturing.

According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Resolute Republic is also registered at the federal level as a political action committee-- though the PAC does not appear to be an active contributor to any federal races at this time. FEC records do not show any contributions to the federal Resolute Republic PAC from Pigott.

It appears that Resolute Republic is primarily focused on specific local races. CRN has found records of its spending in Michigan and Arizona. In Michigan, the PAC has weighed in on a number of local races, most notably in opposition to incumbent Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf. Dar Leaf is far-right elections denier and “constitutional sheriff.”

In this instance, Pigott is not listed as a donor to the PAC, but a non-profit law enforcement reform/advocacy group out of North Carolina is. According to tax records, this group is a 501(c)(4) that does not disclose its funding.

Though everything about Resolute Republic is pretty opaque, a picture of where they may be coming from, at least in their Arizona activities, emerges when we look at the political spending history of their sole Cochise County PAC donor, James C. Pigott.

According to FEC records, Pigott exclusively supported Republican Party candidates (Slade Gorton, Kit Bond, Dick Cheney, Bob Dole, John McCain, etc.), the Washington State Republican Party, and the Republican National Committee, from 1986 through 2008.

There is no record of contributions from James C. Pigott of Seattle to federal candidates or committees between 2009 and 2018, but something clearly happened between those dates that caused Pigott to abandon his once fervent support of the Republican Party.

In case anyone has forgotten: Donald Trump successfully gained the Republican Party's nomination for the presidency in 2016 and occupied the White House from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021. On January 6, 2021, Trump instigated a violent mob to attack the U.S. Capital, as part of a failed attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. Trump and his surrogates continue to falsely claim, without evidence, that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

According to FEC records, Pigott's federal spending started up once again during the 2020 election cycle, with large donations to PACs supporting Democratic Party candidates and PACs. This included support for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, Arizona U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Candidate John Fetterman, and others.

FEC records show that through the 2022 and 2024 election cycles, Pigott has continued to contribute substantial sums exclusively to federal candidates of the Democratic Party and political action committees supportive of these candidates.

It is worth noting that a good portion of this federal campaign financial support has gone to Democratic Party candidates in the hotly contested states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

So why has Pigott's spending in Cochise County through Resolute Republic gone to Republican candidates for the county's first and third supervisory districts? Though Pigott did not respond to CRN's request for comment, a look at Resolute Republic's other activities in Arizona reveals a pattern suggestive of an answer.

Cochise County is not the only only Arizona county into which Pigott and Resolute Republic swooped at the eleventh hour, carrying a bag of cash for a Republican primary candidates.

According to Pinal County Elections Division records, Resolute Republic Action filed a statement of organization in that county on July 5 (the same day the group filed for organization in Cochise County).

On July 10, according to Pinal County records, Resolute Republic Action in Pinal County received $6,650 from James C. Pigott of Seattle. This was the same day, and the same amount, of the contribution made by Pigott to Resolute Republic in Cochise County, which was given the same day to Crosby's District 1 Republican challenger Briseno.

In the case of the Pima County donation, this was given, on July 11, to Pinal County Supervisory District 5 Republican Party challenger, Todd House.

House was vying against incumbent fellow Republican Jeff Serdy. House did not win in the primary election of July 30, and Serdy, like Crosby in Cochise County, will continue on to the general election in November.

But, Serdy, Crosby, along with outgoing Cochise Cochise County District 3 Supervisor Peggy Judd-- whose would-be replacement Sonia Gasho received $6,650 from Resolute Republic on July 11-- have even more in common: all three of these Arizona county supervisors supported illegal methods of ballot tabulation following the elections in 2022.

In Cochise County, Crosby and Judd (both Republicans) created such chaos surrounding elections matters that they dragged the county into needless litigation (at considerable public expense) related to elections matters, and caused two county elections directors to resign in 2023 alone. Both of those elections directors, Lisa Marra and Bob Bartelsmyer (both Republicans), cited Crosby, Judd, and the overall 'toxic' environment of elections misinformation in Cochise County, as cause for their departure. Cochise County went on to lose a third elections director in 2024, and, as we approach the 2024 general election, has an 'interim' (rather than permanent) elections director.

Following the 2022 elections, Crosby and Judd refused to certify the county's elections results, demanding a full hand recount. Both have since been indicted by the Office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on felony charges of elections interference. Their trial is currently set for October.

Pinal County has also been the target of an effort to eliminate the use of voting machines and return to hand counts-- this, despite the fact that experienced elections officials warn that hand counts are far more prone to error, and despite the fact that full hand counts of elections in lieu of more modern tabulation methods are not permitted under Arizona law.

Cochise Regional News has found that some of the same actors who influenced Judd (in particular) and Crosby in Cochise County have also been engaged in sowing doubt and misinformation regarding the integrity of Pinal County's administration of elections. Serdy, for his part, as chair of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, had advocated for hand counts of ballots-- though he appears to be less radical than either Crosby or Judd.

“Serdy is not an elections denier, but he is a skeptic,” Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer (a Republican) told CRN in an interview focused on elections denialism and disinformation in Pinal and Cochise counties earlier this year. “He would like to do a hand count-- not because he believes anything is stolen, but because people deserve it. He believes that if there's a question, we should essentially do everything we can to pull back that curtain and show them the Wizard of Oz, to give them faith that way.”

Volkmer told CRN that, like his counterpart Cochise County Attorney Bryan McIntyre, he had advised supervisors in his county of the illegality of full hand counts instead of tabulation methods prescribed by Arizona law.

According to campaign finance records, Resolute Republic Action also organized as a PAC in Maricopa County, in April of this year.

According to Maricopa County campaign finance records, Resolute Republic also gave the maximum allowable contribution ($6,650) to four Maricopa County candidates in the weeks before the primary election.

According to elections records, the sole source of Resolute Republic's campaign funding in Maricopa County was also James Pigott of Seattle.

Maricopa County candidates supported by Resolute Republic Action were: incumbent Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (Republican, donation date July 3); incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (Republican, donation date July 11); incumbent Maricopa County District 2 Supervisor Thomas Galvin (Republican, donation date July 3); and Republican Party candidate for Supervisory District 3, Kate Brophy McGee (donation date July 11).

Maricopa County, like Cochise and Pinal counties, has been a hotbed of far-right elections denialism since the 2020 election.

In 2023, incumbent District 3 Supervisor Bill Gates announced he would not seek re-election. Gates, a Republican, had faced harassment and death threats from the far-right in relation to elections misinformation. In this Republican primary election, McGee successfully faced elections skeptic Tabatha Cuellar Lavoie.

Incumbent District 2 Supervisor Galvin had, like Gates, defended the county's elections process against fringe attacks. In the Republican primary, he faced and defeated far-right challenger Michelle Ugenti-Rita.

Similarly, Maricopa Recorder Stephen Richer (whose office oversees elections in the county) had faced death threats and harassment for his support of our elections process. Richer was defeated in his Republican primary by apparent elections denier Justin Heap.

And, lastly, incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Mitchell, who had defended the county in elections-related lawsuits, also faced a challenger from the right, Gina Godbehere. Mitchell won her Republican primary contest.

While Resolute Republic's campaign finance activities in Arizona follows a pattern that some may find laudable (i.e. support of candidates who are not elections deniers, or who are challengers to extreme elections deniers), a strange and somewhat ironic pattern also emerges when combining through their activities in the state.

All told, according to campaign finance reports, Resolute Republic Action and their wealthy Seattle benefactor supported seven candidates, between the dates of July 3 and July 11, in the run-up to the July 30 primary election. In each case, the recipient candidate received the maximum amount allowable under Arizona law ($6,650).

Review of pre-primary campaign finance reports (covering the period from July 1 to July 13 in Maricopa and Pinal counties, and July 1 to 20 in Cochise County) shows that only three of these seven candidates disclosed their maximum-allowable contributions received from Resolute Republic Action.

So, here we have what seems to be a deliberately opaque PAC giving the maximum amount of allowable campaign cash, sourced from a very wealthy out-of-state donor, to local candidates-- and less than half of those candidates have, thus far, publicly disclosed those campaign contributions.

As previously discussed, Cochise County District 1 primary candidate Briseno did not report the funding he received from Resolute Republic, and even initially feigned ignorance when CRN asked him about the PAC.

Maricopa County District 3 supervisory candidate McGee also did not disclose the PAC's funding in her pre-primary report.

Speaking with CRN, McGee stated that she was waiting for a call from regarding an important campaign donation, and did not have much time to talk. McGee declined to confirm or deny whether she had knowledge of Resolute Republic or their $6,650 donation to her campaign (which would be, by far, the largest single PAC contribution her campaign has received).

Before hanging up on CRN, McGee did offer an interesting theory: perhaps the PAC's check was dated July 11, but her campaign did not actually receive it until after the July 13 pre-primary reporting cutoff period.

This seems like a plausible explanation, though it is also worth noting that each of the three candidates (Gasho in Cochise County, House in Pinal County, and Galvin in Maricopa County) who did report Resolute Republic's contributions in their pre-primary reports reported receiving the funding the same day, or the day after, the PAC, in its reports, claimed to have issued the funds. According to campaign finance records, Resolute Republic issued all of its pre-primary contributions between July 3 and July 11.

Maricopa County Attorney Mitchell's pre-primary report also contains no mention of any contribution from Resolute Republic. Speaking with CRN, Mitchell stated she had no knowledge of Resolute Republic or their donation. However, Mitchell campaign spokesman Daniel Scarpinato told CRN that the Mitchell campaign did receive Resolute Republic's check, which had been mailed from Alabama and dated July 11, after the pre-primary cutoff date of July 13. He said the campaign then deposited the check on July 18. As such, said Scarpinato, the donation will be reported on the campaign's next report.

Maricopa County Recorder Richer's pre-primary campaign finance report did not mention the PAC or any donation from it. According to Resolute Republic Action campaign finance reports, the PAC donated $6,650 to Richer's campaign on July 3.

Richer could not be reached for comment and an inquiry sent to his campaign email address was not answered.