Congressional District 6 Democratic candidate JoAnna Mendoza has paid herself a salary of just over $35,000 since January.
The figures come directly from her last two filings with the Federal Election Commission, suggesting Mendoza is on track to pay herself about $70,000 this year.
While not particularly common, it has been legal for congressional candidates to pay themselves a salary from campaign contributions for more than two decades, following the passage of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The law has since been updated by Congress.
Federal law limits candidate salaries to no more than half of the current annual congressional salary of $174,000 — meaning $87,000.1
Campaigning is a full-time job, but paying yourself to do it is generally not a practice we’ve seen in Southern Arizona. Every dollar paid to a candidate is a dollar that can’t be spent on TV ads, signs or mailers.
Her salary, which has been public since April, is being attacked by her political rivals supporting two-term Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and conservative publications like the Arizona Daily Independent.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ben Petersen threw shade on the practice, accusing Mendoza of giving herself a “plush campaign salary.”
Not to mention, the philanthropist George Soros’ son, Jonathan Soros, and Jonathan’s wife, Jennifer Allan Soros, each gave Mendoza’s campaign $7,000 — the maximum an individual can contribute during a primary and general election combined.
“It’s clear Mendoza embraced her far-left financiers’ tax-hiking, defund the police, open borders policies,” Petersen said.
Mendoza’s campaign says candidates on both sides of the aisle regularly take salaries out of their campaign coffers, just as members of Congress take taxpayer-funded paychecks.
Mendoza leads fundraising race
CD6 is one of the most competitive House races in the country, and Mendoza again raised more money than her Republican rival.
Between April 1 and June 30, the Marine veteran raised slightly more than $2 million, compared to nearly $1.1 million for Ciscomani’s campaign.
However, Mendoza spent slightly more than she raised in the last three months.
With Democrats counting on winning CD6 as part of a larger national strategy to take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mendoza’s campaign drew more than $1.7 million from individual donors in the last three months — meaning an overwhelming majority of her funds came from contributions from individuals.
A long list of endorsements from popular Democratic politicians has also helped Mendoza bring in campaign cash.
Ciscomani’s campaign raised roughly one-third of what Mendoza did from individuals during the same three-month period, $530,000.
PACs love Ciscomani
Not surprisingly, the Ciscomani campaign has benefited from a number of political action committees. In the last three months, Ciscomani received $250,000 from PACs, including House Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership committee, Grow the Majority.
So far this cycle, Ciscomani has raised $1.6 million from PACs.
On Friday, President Donald Trump endorsed Ciscomani. The endorsement wasn’t unexpected; Trump also backed him in 2022 and 2024.
While both candidates have already started campaigning like the primary is over, Ciscomani continues to hold the larger war chest.
As of two weeks ago, his campaign had $4.1 million on hand, compared to Mendoza’s $3.2 million.
The big item on today’s Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting agenda is appointing Pima County’s next treasurer.
We predict a lot of Pima County residents will have opinions about the nine candidates that they want to share with the board before supervisors collectively make a decision.
But that’s not the only hot item on the agenda.
Here are three other policies we have our eye on:
No to border walls: The supervisors will be voting on a (non-binding) resolution opposing a recent executive order by President Donald Trump to build a new wall on the Tohono O’odham Nation along its border with Mexico.
$25 million contract: The supervisors will be asked to approve a contract with B & F Contracting, Borderland Construction Company, Ellison-Mills Contracting and Hunter Contracting Company for construction-related repair, rehabilitation and emergency responses tied to the county’s sewer system.
Funding for farmers: During their study session, the supervisors will discuss funding for the UA Garden Kitchen’s Plaza Mobile Market. The program leveraged federal funds to subsidize local farmers to sell at a mobile market. But the funding was cut as part of last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.
Teamsters won’t strike: The Teamsters voted over the weekend not to strike, accepting an offer from Sun Tran management, calling it “one of the best contracts that we’ve had,” the Tucson Sentinel’s Mia Kortright reports. The three-year contract will give bus drivers a “seat at the table” as well as new, enhanced safety barriers to protect drivers.
Wall of support: Arizona’s top Republican lawmakers are backing the federal government in a lawsuit over plans to build 62 miles of border wall through the Tohono O’odham Nation, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen filed a legal brief saying the needs of the Department of Homeland Security outweigh those of members of the Tohono O’odham Nation who say the project would illegally cross reservation land and split communities with historical ties.
Keep your hands off: University of Arizona leaders are pushing back on a Trump administration proposal that would change how federal research grants are awarded, saying funding decisions should be based on scientific merit and the proposal would give federal agencies more power to cancel grants, Prerana Sannappanavar reports for the Arizona Daily Star. The White House claims the change would improve oversight, protect taxpayer dollars and make sure research follows federal policies. But UA officials and many researchers say the proposal could add more red tape, make funding less predictable, and hurt scientific research and innovation.
Fallen star: Former UA basketball player Kerr Kriisa has been charged with five counts of wire fraud after federal prosecutors accused him of scamming two people out of nearly $2.2 million, the Associated Press reports. Prosecutors say Kriisa pretended to be other people, including his mother, and made up family emergencies to convince victims to send him money. Kriisa was arrested over the weekend and is expected to appear in federal court in West Virginia this week.
Well, that figures: In a roundabout sort of way, President Donald Trump has a stake in the Project Blue data centers, including some of the data centers that are going up in Marana. Amid the hullabaloo over the “Freedom Fuel” gas stations, Politico reported that some of the gas stations offering the mysteriously discounted fuel are owned by Blue Owl. That’s the asset manager that’s backing Beale Infrastructure, the developer of Project Blue. Here’s the kicker: Trump bought and sold millions of dollars’ worth of Blue Owl stock last year and still “retains significant holdings,” per Politico.
We’re thrilled for the Tucson family that got some help from Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani when their federal healthcare coverage was about to lapse.
But we have to point out the chutzpah of a candidate praising themselves for helping out one family, when he actually screwed over thousands of other families that are in a similar plight.
It’s going to be a lot of fun watching Ciscomani try to wriggle his way out of the fact that he voted last year to gut Medicaid.
For now, it looks like he’s banking on people forgetting about it altogether.
1 Or candidates can pay themselves the average annual income that they earned during the most recent five calendar years, as long as that’s not more than half of the salary of the gig.