The political future of Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez, a veteran lawmaker who recently took her bar exam, could be decided by three words in state law: “fines, penalties and judgments.”
We’ve condensed Arizona Revised Statutes 16-312 a bit, but Pima County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Kuhn will soon decide whether the six-figure sum Hernandez racked up in fines with the Arizona Secretary of State for late and missing campaign filings counts as “fines” or “judgments.”
A small legal distinction, but it’s now at the center of three separate election challenges filed Monday against Alma and her sister, Democratic Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, in Pima County Superior Court. (For simplicity and clarity, we’re gonna use Alma and Consuelo’s first names throughout this story.)
Alma Hernandez, Rocque Perez
An important precedent
The challenges against the Hernandez sisters are not your typical election fight. This isn’t about bad signatures or paperwork errors — it’s about whether candidates can stay on the ballot after repeatedly racking up campaign finance fines.
And trust us, it takes a lot to rack up the roughly $128,630 in fines Alma accumulated a few years ago. That figure from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office dwarfs the $20,355 cited in the lawsuit filed by her Democratic rival, former Tucson City Councilman Rocque Perez.
Regardless of which number is right, both are well beyond the $1,000 threshold in state law.
Eight years ago, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in Reyes vs Palacio that Democrat Devin Del Palacio could stay on the ballot, despite owing more than $1,000 in fines.
On paper, Palacio was in violation of ARS 16-312, but the court ruled that candidates with unpaid campaign finance penalties can remain on the ballot if the state hasn’t formally enforced those fines.
It is about due process, argued Daniel Arellano, Alma’s lawyer.
While fines are automatically added to the account for missing and late paperwork and compound over time, candidates don’t have an immediate way to dispute them. The next step in the process is for the Arizona Secretary of State to send a notice of violation to the Attorney General’s Office, which can then take action against a candidate with outstanding fines.
Alma apparently received a notice of violation from the Attorney General's office for her 2018 campaign and responded to it, according to court filings.
Despite the outstanding fines, the Attorney General’s office did not take the final step in the process and issue an appealable notice of penalty, Arellano argued. That penalty would have been the only way Alma could have fought the fines levied against her campaign by the state.
Arellano said Alma’s letter to the Secretary of State’s Office resolved the violation notice.
“This issue was resolved well before we ever got to the operative meeting for disqualification, which is the actual imposition of penalties,” he said.
Jim Barton, the attorney for a constituent in Legislative District 20, argued Reyes vs Palacio narrowly focused on a judgment against Palacio. He argued that while he believes a penalty was levied against Alma, it’s undisputed that thousands of dollars in fines remain tied to her old committee.1
Hernandez formed three separate campaign committees between 2018 and 2025, with the first campaign racking up huge fines. (Source: Arizona Secretary of State’s office)
Barton also represents another constituent in Legislative District 21 who filed a similar challenge against Consuelo.
Consuelo wasn’t at Monday’s hearing consolidating the election challenges against her and her sister — but her attorney did drop a notable update.
Shortly after the election contest was filed, Consuelo paid off all of her outstanding fines with the Arizona Attorney General’s office, her attorney said.
In total, she cut a check for $24,840.
Consuelo didn’t respond to our questions, but the Arizona Secretary of State’s office confirmed the payment.
An appeal is likely
After the hearing, Perez hinted that if Kuhn rules against him and the other plaintiff, he expects an appeal. While Perez represented himself in the lawsuit, his filing is nearly identical to the other challenge against Alma.
He argued that not submitting campaign finance reports is a huge breach in being accountable to your constituents.
“At a time when corporations and special interests continue to shape decision-making, the public deserves to know who’s beholden to them. Based on the very record presented to the court, the Hernandez family accrued thousands of dollars in fines for noncompliance in that respect coming into this year,” he said.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office concedes the current system is broken, but it claims the office is powerless to enforce fines.
“The issue of campaign finance violations and outstanding fines has been a consistent point of contention for this office. Current statute provides the Secretary of State’s Office no enforcement authority to hold individuals or organizations accountable,” said Arizona Secretary of State spokeswoman Cali Jones. “Our office has put forward legislation to rectify this issue and unfortunately the issue remains as these proposals were not given hearings.”
As there are no Republicans running for the state Senate seat in deep blue Legislative District 20, Perez would be only person on the ballot if the court(s) rule against Alma and take her off the ballot.
A decision from Kuhn is expected within days — and could quickly head to the appeals court.
Uncomfortable conversations: Like so many other Arizona school districts are doing lately, TUSD is starting the process of closing schools. But there is still plenty of time, and steps, before the district actually decides which schools to close, Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock writes. Morlock also took the Tucson City Council to task for making exaggerated claims that Tucson Electric Power shareholders will cover the cost of a $64 million side deal with the city.
Skyrocketing stats: The Safe City Initiative touted by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero is leading to a lot more drug arrests, the Arizona Luminaria’s Carolina Cuellar reports. Tucson police made 806 drug-related arrests since the start of the year, which accounts for an eye-popping 67% increase over the same period last year. Tucson also is seeing a spike in a more grisly category: pedestrian deaths on city streets, Athena Kehoe reports for KGUN. City officials reported 14 people were killed after being hit by vehicles so far in 2026, nearly three times as many as the five who died by this point last year.
Plans unchanged: The Iranian soccer team is still expected to train at the Kino Sports Complex this summer, Jorge Encinas reports for the Green Valley News. In the wake of the U.S. attack, Iran’s Football Federation asked for their team’s World Cup matches to be played in Mexico, instead of the U.S., but FIFA denied their request. As recently as Monday, Iranian soccer officials were contacting Kino Sports Complex Director Sarah Hanna about logistics.
Cautionary tale: University of Arizona researcher Jacob Negrey coauthored an article about a civil war among chimpanzees that tracks a little too closely to the political polarization in the United States. Here’s how it went down: Chimpanzees in Uganda got along just fine for decades, holding hands and intermingling freely. Then five adult males and an adult female died in 2014, which may have weakened social networks. Then something went wrong in 2015. One group started chasing the other group and by 2018 the groups were basically separated. Then they started killing each other. Researchers said the clashes could be the result of the size of the groups, competition for food and competition among males.
Chimpanzees don’t have journalists (at least as far as we know). Let’s see if human journalism can save us from a similar fate.
Play ball!: Little League baseball returned to Joaquin Murrieta Park on Tucson’s west side, after being shut down for $14 million in renovations, Andres Valenzuela reports for Arizona Sonoran News.
“This park has always been the cornerstone of baseball on the west side,” said Manny Valencia, vice president and majors coach for Western Little League. “It’s where families have come together for years, not only for ball players learning the game, but through communities and different generations all in one place.”
We’re not sure that this National Republican Congressional Committee ad for Congressman Juan Ciscomani is going to sway voters in November.
We’ve fact-checked the ad, which hits the Biden administration for record-high inflation figures and thanks Ciscomani for tax credits that are part of the Big Beautiful Bill. The claims are largely accurate, although the 30-second spot is short on specifics.
As gasoline prices hit record highs in the last two months, we are reminded that Ciscomani is largely silent on the Iran war, repeatedly dodges the press and the b-roll in the ad confirms our theories he only meets with tiny groups of constituents that won’t rock the boat.
Also tying Ciscomani to the same bill that led to 400,000 people in Arizona losing access to food stamps is a bold choice.
1 Both Perez, the candidate who is running against Alma, and a constituent filed separate lawsuits challenging her candidacy on the same grounds. The cases were consolidated.