AZ's Senate is paying state GOP chair $15K per month. Why some election watchers are worried

A nonprofit watchdog group says the Arizona Senate is paying the new chair of the Republican Party of Arizona too much for her job advising lawmakers about election policy.

Officials with American Oversight, a Washington, D.C.-based government transparency advocacy organization that mainly targets Republicans, argue Gina Swoboda's current Senate salary of $15,000 a month should be weighed against work she performs that allegedly "fuels" election conspiracy theories. The group dug up Swoboda's Senate contract and associated Senate records showing her pay and emails with elected lawmakers.

“With the 2024 election looming, elected officials in Arizona should be taking steps to restore faith in our elections, instead of contracting with individuals who have a history of sowing distrust in our democracy," said the group's executive director, Chioma Chukwu.

Swoboda was an election coordinator for former President Donald Trump and adviser to Kari Lake's unsuccessful 2022 gubernatorial campaign. Some moderate Republicans and liberals voiced concern following her unexpected rise to state party chair amid political intrigue last month. American Oversight has published several articles on its website disparaging her work as executive director of Phoenix-based Voter Reference Foundation, which they say provides "a resource for voter-fraud activists."

Her opportunity to lead the party came when Lake last month attacked Jeff DeWit, a former state treasurer and Trump 2020 campaign adviser who was only one year into his two-year term leading the state GOP. His business-minded approach had turned off hard-right Republicans who wanted him to push for their vision of election reform, which is largely based on conspiracy theories from the 2020 and 2022 elections.

A few days before the state party's annual meeting, Lake released a secret recording she had made of DeWit trying to convince her to leave her race for the U.S. Senate because "powerful" Republicans think she can't win. DeWit's subsequent resignation caused several local Republicans to begin jockeying for the position. But Donald Trump gave a surprise endorsement to Swoboda, who hadn't previously been in the running for the unpaid top party job, spurring Republicans to deliver her an overwhelming win during the state party's annual meeting.

State Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, defended his hire and her pay, saying Swoboda brings a tremendous amount of election experience and knowledge as a senior policy adviser. State government work isn't new for her: She worked in the Secretary of State's Office under both Republican Michele Reagan and Democrat Katie Hobbs.

"The organization seems to have a different view about how many people feel about her," Petersen said. "She's got a lot of election expertise."

He praised Swoboda's knowledge of election law and said no one should be surprised the conservative majority hires conservative advisers, or that Democrats hire liberal advisers. The contract calls for her to make the $15,000 per month only from January through April and she doesn't receive benefits like full-time employees, he said.

The contracted amount only carries her through the bulk of the legislative session, which typically ends in May or June, though the documents show the Senate paid her nearly $20,000 for work from roughly September through December. The Republican-controlled state Senate could not have afforded to hire her year-round, Petersen added.

American Oversight worried about Swoboda's work history

Swoboda earned the same $15,000 per month rate during the 2023 legislative session from January through April.

Her current contract states that she "shall provide advice regarding elections and election related legislation as requested by the Senate President. During the contract term, Consultant shall not perform any other work related to Arizona Elections that directly conflicts with this contract."

But it's her outside work that most concerns American Oversight.

Swoboda is the chief elections policy officer for the Voter Reference Foundation's parent company, Restoration of America. That's a quasi-religious voter advocacy group founded by 2014 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Doug Truax of Illinois and affiliated with the dark-money Restoration PAC. A 2022 ProPublica investigation linked Voter Reference to a PAC funded mainly by Richard Uihlein, the billionaire founder of the packing supply company Uline and a major contributor to Trump and Midwest Republican interests.

American Oversight says her company's website is a conduit for conspiracy theorists. The site, VoteRef.com, makes it easy to look up the home addresses and voting histories of millions of Americans. Though the site doesn't divulge how people voted, it's caused privacy concerns. The site took down its data from New Mexico last year after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a lawsuit by the state.

Arizona prohibits similar publication of voter rolls, which is generally allowed under federal law.

“Our investigations have shed light on how Swoboda’s organization, VoteRef — which has falsely claimed to have uncovered significant discrepancies in voting records across several states — could be used not only to threaten individual privacy, but also to intimidate voters, cancel registrations, and inundate local election offices with burdensome and inaccurate challenges," Chukwu said.

VoteRef.com says it's "dedicated to ensuring transparent, accurate and fair elections." The site has touted its ability to allow users to find alleged discrepancies between ballots cast in elections and the number of registered voters and claims it has uncovered tens of thousands of such discrepancies across several states. Some election experts say its methodology is flawed.

In 2022, the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal election advocacy group, sent a letter to Georgia counties asking them to ignore "mass challenges" of elections by citizens that are based on VoteRef.com's data. The group pointed to a high-profile debate that year by Cobb County Board of Elections members in Georgia that erupted after three residents challenged the eligibility of 152 voters based on the website's data. Some board members noted that data used by VoteRef.com, like postal change-of-addresses notices, isn't always a reliable indicator a person isn't eligible to vote.

Swoboda also has criticized Maricopa County elections as being questionable. She complained to the conservative site Grand Canyon Times last year that the county took away "traditional precinct voting locations" and emphasized putting voting centers near light-rail stations, which she said would be far away from "elderly suburban voters of the party on the right.”

“They have been driven to voting by mail by taking away their location that they used to be able to get to, that was in their neighborhood, that they knew where they were,” she said on the site's podcast. “And I find that disgraceful.”

In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Swoboda said the Voter Reference Foundation allows the public to participate more fully in the election process by publishing voter registration data "in a consumer-friendly format." The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 allows election records to be made public, she said, pointing to a recent court case ― PILF v. Bellows ― in which the U.S. Department of Justice and 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the concept.

The foundation "was founded with that in mind, and it supports integrity and transparency in the elections process, beginning with voter rolls," Swoboda said. She added the company "strongly believes the public only will have the confidence in the fairness and accuracy of elections if they're transparent."

Other Arizona Legislature staffers make more money

Tripp Laino, American Oversight's spokesperson, said Swoboda's "large," taxpayer-funded Senate salary is a "top-level concern" considering the extensive work she also does with her business and party duties.

This year's state House and Senate salary data, obtained by The Arizona Republic under state records law, shows that Swoboda's monthly Senate income makes her one of the highest-paid employees at the Legislature. On a yearly basis, the four months' pay would equal $180,000 a year. Averaging in the other $20,000 she made for an additional four months of work last year brings that down to $120,000.

But many staff members in the Legislature make around that much or more.

Senate chief of staff Joshua Kredit makes $210,000 per year. Paulino Valerio, the chief of staff for Senate Democrats, earns $179,280. Senate staff includes three general policy advisers who make between $105,000 and $130,000 per year. Democrats have four policy advisers of their own making between $115,020 and $147,692 annually. Those salaries are bolstered by state benefits.

In the House, which has twice as many lawmakers as the Senate, veteran chief of staff Michael Hunter earns the most annually of any staffer: $220,000. Besides several general policy advisers who all earn six-figure incomes, the House employs six Democratic policy advisers who make between $108,000 and $136,900 per year.

"With regard to my compensation, I believe I am compensated less than my colleagues on the majority staff," Swoboda said. "Additionally, I provide a savings for taxpayers by not receiving any benefits. I am incredibly grateful for my position advising the Senate on election policy. It is an honor to serve."

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Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Gina Swoboda's $15K per month pay worries some election watchers