Mesa Voters Face AI-Generated Campaign Ads as Arizona Lawmakers Bypass State Disclosure Rules

Mesa voters are seeing a new wave of artificial intelligence-generated political content in Arizona elections. State lawmakers and congressional candidates are using AI to create campaign ads, mock opponents, and fabricate photos of themselves meeting constituents. Arizona's disclosure laws offer little protection for voters who encounter these manipulated images and videos.

According to the Arizona Capitol Times, politicians across the state are increasingly turning to AI tools like Gemini and Grok to produce campaign material. The trend spans both major parties and includes sitting state legislators, congressional hopefuls, and primary challengers.

A New Tool for Political Attacks

Sen. Mark Finchem, R-Prescott, has posted AI-generated images of Secretary of State Adrian Fontes being led away in handcuffs and standing before an angry judge. One post included a fundraising appeal asking supporters to donate $25, $50, or $100.

"I'm fighting to finish cleaning up their election corruption under Fontes and Richer. They want me silenced," Finchem wrote in one post. "If we fail, the fraud machine keeps running."

Former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer responded by making one of the AI images his profile photo.

"I'm flattered that I'm chosen as a high-profile fundraising lure," Richer said.

Richer told the Capitol Times that AI has not changed the nature of political attacks. He said it has only made them easier and more detailed.

"Mark Finchem said deceitful stuff about me before AI was created," Richer said. "Now he just gets to depict it."

Senate Majority Leader Uses AI Against Primary Opponent

Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, a Republican from Fountain Hills, created a video depicting himself as a Ghostbuster and his primary opponent Robert Wallace as a "bathroom spirit." The video carries a Gemini watermark in the corner.

Kavanagh also launched a website featuring AI-generated photos of Wallace. The images were inspired by Reddit posts Wallace allegedly made about psychedelics and reincarnation. Kavanagh told the Capitol Times the site was designed to highlight the dangers of electing a "weird" person.

Wallace said he found the website hilarious.

Congressional Candidate Creates Full AI Ad

Rick McCartney, a Democrat running in Arizona's 1st Congressional District, which includes Mesa, said his campaign produced the first fully AI-generated political ad in the state. The ad featured memes of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance as a criticism of dysfunction in Washington.

"We know what this chaos looks like, and one of the big reasons I'm running is for us to diffuse it," McCartney said. "We wanted to demonstrate that frivolous use (of AI), particularly in political campaigns and with this administration, to distract."

McCartney said his team intentionally added an AI disclosure to the ad. He said the goal was not to deceive voters but to illustrate the flood of content Americans face from politicians.

"We weren't trying to create other realities. We were trying to play on stuff that other people had created or that had gone viral in some way," McCartney said.

Arizona's Lax AI Election Laws

Arizona has two statutes governing AI use in elections, according to the Capitol Times. Neither imposes strict penalties.

One law requires AI disclosures on manipulated content posted within 90 days of an election. A candidate can ask a judge to impose a $10 fine for every day content remains online without a disclosure. A judge can also declare a photo or video fake. But a judge cannot order removal of the content or impose fines solely for creating AI content.

Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, has posted AI photos that appear to show him meeting with constituents and border patrol agents. The photos do not include AI disclosures. Closer inspection revealed the figure in the photos does not actually resemble Blackman. One image showed him standing outside a shop with a misspelled sign reading "mercnatile."

Calls for Stronger Guardrails

McCartney said he supports AI innovation but also wants stronger regulation.

"I am very much pro-AI innovation, but we also have to strongly be pro-AI regulation," McCartney said. "It's already starting to shape elections, it's affecting jobs, privacy, healthcare, education, national security. All of those are very serious pieces to this and if we don't work to create guidelines and guardrails around them, who knows what they could turn into?"

Mesa voters in the 1st Congressional District and across Arizona will encounter AI-generated content in the upcoming primary and general elections. The state's current laws provide minimal recourse for voters who question the authenticity of campaign material.

By Marcus Whitfield, Arizona State News