The Trailer Park Money
Kris Mayes sued BoaVida for leaving mobile-home residents without power in the summer heat. BoaVida became the single biggest funder of the PAC working to elect Warren Petersen.
The lawsuit and the money · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
As the court case tightened, the checks got bigger
What happened, in order
- Aug 21, 2025Mayes sues Redwood Thunderbird MHPS and its manager, BoaVida Communities LLC, under the Consumer Fraud Act. The complaint describes outages at Tucson's Redwood Mobile Home Park, with residents unable to run air conditioning in triple-digit temperatures.AZ Attorney General press release, 8/21/25
- Sep 2, 2025BoaVida founder Eli Weiner and Boa Vida RV manager Aric Resnicke each give Petersen's own campaign the legal maximum of $5,500. With two members of their households giving the same amount that day, the total comes to $22,000 in a single day.Friends of Warren Petersen (Cmte. 201600171), 2025 report
- Dec 2025A court-approved agreement requires major electrical repairs by March 30, 2026.AZ Attorney General press release, 5/6/26
- Jan 23, 2026The BoaVida Group gives Restore Order Arizona $100,000, which makes it the PAC's largest donor.Restore Order Arizona, 2026 Q1 report
- Mar 30, 2026The repair deadline passes. The repairs aren't finished.AZ Attorney General press release, 5/6/26
- May 6, 2026Mayes asks the court to hold the owners in contempt and seeks fines of up to $25,000 per violation of the court's order.AZ Attorney General press release, 5/6/26
- May 11, 2026Three BoaVida companies give the pro-Petersen PAC $500,000 in one day.Restore Order Arizona, 2026 Q2 report (ID 386186)
- Jul 2026Weiner explains BoaVida's view of the attorney general: "We're not a fan of the AG's practices. It seems like she's looking for targets of publicity."Capitol Media Services, via Arizona Daily Star, 7/19/26
The bills that never got a vote
Park residents have complained about administrative fees on their utility bills. In 2026, lawmakers tried to cap those fees at $8. Here's what happened to the bills, according to the Arizona Mirror:
Mary Alice Theroux, a Tucson park resident who pushed for the cap, told the Mirror what she saw: "We got the bill passed 100% in the House, so they started coughing up their money when it got to the Senate." She added: "I'm sick and tired of seeing elderly women and elderly men taken advantage of."Arizona Mirror, 7/16/26
The Mirror put it plainly: "Petersen killed multiple bills." Capitol Media Services reported that Weiner credited Petersen with promoting favorable legislation and using his position as Senate president to kill other bills.Arizona Mirror, 7/16/26; Arizona Daily Star, 7/19/26
Every $100 the pro-Petersen PAC raised
$48 came from mobile home park companies
- BoaVida network$602,026
- Other park operators$84,500
- Everyone else$750,143
"He killed the bill, he would not put it forward."
"Mobile home units in triple digit heat and no A/C become an oven."
Who else is paying
BoaVida isn't the only donor with business before the attorney general. These are some of the other contributors to Restore Order Arizona and to Petersen's own campaign.
| Donor | What they do | Given to the PAC + campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Owner of RSV Holdings / Red Star Vapor | A major player in Arizona's nicotine vape industry, which Mayes has aggressively sought to regulate. He is the PAC's largest individual donor.Arizona Mirror, 7/16/26 | |
| Havenpark, Newbury/Newbrook, Comfort Communities | Out-of-state mobile home park operators from Utah, Michigan and California.Restore Order Arizona, 2026 Q2 | |
| The GEO Group | A private prison company that operates immigration detention facilities.Arizona Mirror, 6/2/26 | |
| American Homes 4 Rent | One of the country's largest corporate single-family landlords.Restore Order Arizona, 2026 Q2; Friends of Warren Petersen, 2025 | |
| Manufactured housing industry PACs | Two industry political committees, each giving the maximum directly to Petersen.Friends of Warren Petersen, 2025 report | |
| VGW Luckyland Inc. | An online sweepstakes-casino operator whose sites the Arizona Department of Gaming, backed by Mayes, has sought to shut down.Arizona Mirror, 7/16/26 |
The Secret Money
In 2022, Arizona voters decided they have a right to know who is paying for political ads. Warren Petersen went to court to take that right away.
Proposition 211 · November 2022
Voters said yes by nearly 3 to 1
Petersen's lawsuit to overturn it
- Aug 2023Petersen and then-Speaker Toma sue to overturn the law.
- Dec 2023Trial judge rejects their bid to block it, calling the suit an "end-run" around voters.
- Jun 2024Appeals court upholds the bulk of the law.
- Sep 2025Divided Arizona Supreme Court lets the case continue, 5–2.
- 2026The case is back in trial court. Petersen is still fighting.
Proposition 211, the Voters' Right to Know Act, requires groups that spend big on Arizona elections to disclose the original source of any contribution over $5,000. It passed with 72% of the vote and carried every county in the state.Arizona Republic, 7/2/24 & 8/10/23
In August 2023, Petersen and then-House Speaker Ben Toma sued to overturn it. Their filing claimed the Legislature would suffer "ongoing, irreparable injury and loss of its constitutional rights" if the voters' law were allowed to stand.Arizona Republic, 8/10/23
Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts called the lawsuit "some serious chutzpah," noting that the legislative leaders were paying high-powered lawyers "to sue us with our money, no less."Arizona Republic, 8/10/23
It passed with early voters and on Election Day.
He filed the suit as Senate president, on behalf of the Legislature.
His Family's Business
Warren Petersen has been paid by his family's homebuilding company every year he's been in office. In that time he has voted on the rules and fees that govern it.
Petersen's own financial disclosures, 2012–2026
Every year: paid by VIP Homes
Follow the fee
He voted to cut what builders pay into the fund for defrauded homeowners
Every financial disclosure Petersen has filed from 2012 through 2026 lists VIP Homes / VIP Construction as a source of compensation.AZ Secretary of State; AZ Registrar of Contractors, ROC 0999261
Petersen backed SB 1291 in 2024, which would have cut contractors' payments into the Recovery Fund by up to 50%. In 2025 he voted for SB 1087 to cut them again. Gov. Hobbs vetoed SB 1087, writing that it "harms the state's ability to assist homeowners who have been harmed or defrauded by contractors."AZ Legislature, SB 1291 & SB 1087; Governor's veto letter
Arizona's ethics rules allowed him to do it. A lawmaker can vote on a bill that helps him financially as long as at least ten others in the same "class" also benefit, a threshold the Arizona Capitol Times said is "so high that few ever run afoul of it."Arizona Capitol Times, 8/3/12
That includes trade groups, their PACs and industry executives.
AZ Secretary of State, SeeTheMoneyIn 2001, the Registrar of Contractors found the work on a Scottsdale home failed minimum workmanship standards.
AZ Registrar of ContractorsVIP paid Maricopa County for five violations, including failing to control dust.
Maricopa County Air Quality Dept.; East Valley TribuneYour Water
For 45 years, Arizona has required developers to prove a 100-year water supply before they build. Petersen called that rule insane and then sued to undo it, alongside the homebuilders' lobby.
How many years of water should a new subdivision have to prove?
Petersen wanted Arizona closer to California
In November 2023, Petersen told reporters the 100-year requirement was "arbitrary" and "insane." His argument: "When you go to the gas station, do you get a 100-year gas supply? When you go shopping, do you need 100 years' of food?"Sierra Vista Herald-Review, 11/18/23; Arizona Daily Star, 11/22/23
Gov. Hobbs answered: "Attacking critical protections for our finite water resources is irresponsible, and it's not going to happen on my watch."
In March 2025, Petersen used his position as Senate president to join the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona in suing the state's water agency. In April 2026, a judge struck down the agency's rule. Kathleen Ferris, an architect of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, warned the ruling could be "the death knell" for the 100-year requirement.Arizona Capitol Times, 4/22/26; KJZZ, 4/23/26; ABC15, 4/23/26
"This is insane."
Water levels could "fall to alarming depths of 1,000 feet."
Your Health Care
Warren Petersen has had taxpayer-funded health insurance. He's spent his career fighting to keep yours from you.
Guaranteeing coverage for pre-existing conditions · June 2020
90 Arizona lawmakers. One no vote.
In 2013, when Arizona expanded health coverage to working people, Petersen told a Capitol rally: "We have a choice: more socialism and bigger government, or more freedom and fiscal stability." He was enrolled in a state-sponsored health plan at the time.Arizona Republic, 4/26/13
In 2015, he was one of the Republican lawmakers who sued to halt funding for the expansion. The Arizona Republic found that 26 of the 36 lawmakers who sued, Petersen among them, were enrolled in state-funded health plans with better benefits than most Arizonans get from private employers.Arizona Republic, 7/12/15
In 2020, the Legislature voted to guarantee coverage for people with pre-existing conditions in Arizona law, in case the Affordable Care Act were struck down. Gov. Doug Ducey signed it. The only lawmaker in either chamber to vote no was Warren Petersen.Arizona Capitol Times, 6/12/20
He said it at a Capitol rally in April 2013, while he was on a state plan himself.
Petersen was one of them.