The Republican Governors Association (RGA) offers more help Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Kari Lake By funding new collaborative campaigns.

News promotion: The RGA is canceling about $6.5 million in reserved TV time up to Election Day and instead transferring that money to the Yuma County Republican Party.

• The Yuma Republican Coordination Campaign with Lake booked about $7.1 million worth or airtime from this week through November 8th.
• To date, RGA has spent more than $4 million on television ads for Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs.

Important reasons: Candidates are charged more for airtime than external groups such as the RGA.

• The coordinated campaign could buy about $1 million more TV advertising than the RGA could buy for the same amount, JP Twist, RGA’s political director, told Axios.
• External groups known as Independent Expenditures (IEs) are not allowed to coordinate with candidates, but state law allows political parties to do so.

Opposite side: The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) Funding Coordinated Campaigns Between Hobbes and the Arizona Democratic Party.

• Funded by the DGA, this coordinated campaign has so far spent approximately $4 million on television advertising, compared to approximately $2.5 million for the Hobbes campaign.

State of play: Lake’s TV presence was brief — she launched her First TV ad for general election this week.

Line spacing: The RGA funds the Yuma County party, not the Arizona Republican Party.

• Twist said the Yuma County Republican Party was “better suited” to campaign, but didn’t elaborate on why.

conspiracy: There is much animosity between AZGOP chairman Kelli Ward and the more established wings of the party, and the two have been at odds for years.

• “Obviously the RGA leadership was not happy with the state parties and how they handled their money, so they chose to set up and run a separate organization with everything,” said the former Yuma County GOP chairman. Phil Townsend told Axios.
• Townsend was in a similar position in 2010. Senator John McCain took advantage of Yuma County A party that runs statewide campaigns for Republican candidates on behalf of AZGOP.
• After Ward’s re-election as party leader in January 2021, Twist murmured“So AZGOP won’t play a significant role in 2022. We have no choice but to work with others. We’ve been here before. No big deal.”

note: A spokesperson for AZGOP did not return an email from Axios, but the parties wrote on twitter To say that the RGA’s decision was cynical is a “ridiculous theory” and that party donors “appreciate the fact that the majority of donations do not go into the pockets of political consultants.”