Rhode Island
Donate, Then Dictate: Sunshine Bankrolled Hobbs, Won a Rate Hike—and Escaped Penalties After a Foster Child Died
What happened
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has spent the year under a pay-to-play cloud involving Sunshine Residential Homes, the state’s largest Department of Child Safety group-home contractor. Associated Press reporting, building on The Arizona Republic’s earlier investigation, documents a clear money trail: Sunshine and related donors put hundreds of thousands of dollars into Hobbs-adjacent politics—including $200,000 to the Arizona Democratic Party before the 2022 election, $100,000 to Hobbs’ inaugural fund, another $100,000 to the party in August 2023, and about $150,000 later to a Hobbs legal defense fund. AP’s Sept. 4 tally puts total contributions around $550,000. Founder Simon Kottoor and his wife each also gave $10,000 total to Hobbs campaigns.
In May 2023, DCS approved a roughly 30% bed-rate increase for Sunshine—from $149 to $195 per bed. AP notes only Sunshine and one other company received increases in that 2022–23 contracting period. Sunshine had warned it would cut bed capacity and shift placements to higher-paying federal contracts for unaccompanied immigrant children if denied. Hobbs denies involvement; DCS says then-Director David Lujan approved the hike and that the governor’s staff were not involved.
On Aug. 21, 2026, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes declined criminal bribery charges after a multi-year probe, saying investigators found no evidence of the quid pro quo required for bribery and that the rate hikes reflected Sunshine’s “outsized leverage,” not a proven bribe. Mayes still urged legislative transparency reforms for contractor donations. Arizona Capitol Times notes Mayes did not mention that Hobbs twice vetoed GOP bills requiring state-contract bidders to disclose donations to the governor, candidates, and their committees over five years. Hobbs declined a live interview with AG investigators and submitted written statements instead. A separate auditor-general probe assisted by Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell continues.
The competence failure is not abstract. Jakob Blodgett, 9, died in December 2022 of Type 1 diabetes complications after a stay at a Sunshine home. Staff texts show an elevated glucose reading met with advice to give water; long-lasting insulin doses were missed. Two weeks before the May 2023 rate hike, DCS issued a licensing violation tied to the case—and imposed no fine, suspension, or license revocation, per AP’s Sept. 4 report. A wrongful-death suit is ongoing; a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office investigation remains open with no charges.
Rhode Island should recognize the pattern. Big contractors with political access and monopoly leverage; fellow-party prosecutors declining criminal charges while documenting ugly optics; transparency reforms blocked. Rhode Island’s ILO/McKee procurement scandal and ethics fights are the local reminder: “no indictment” is not the same as trustworthy, competent, humble government.
Original reporting
Read the underlying articles:
Virtue Forge commentary
This is what cronyism looks like when government runs a scarcity market. Sunshine held the beds kids needed, wrote big checks into Hobbs’s political world, threatened to walk if rates didn’t rise—and still faced no real penalty after a foster child died under its care. Free enterprise means competition and accountability. State monopoly leverage means the biggest vendor can dictate terms while politicians talk “best interest of the kids.”
Humble government would put contractor money in the sunlight and punish deadly competence failures. Hobbs vetoed disclosure bills that would have forced that sunlight, then waved away the rate decision as a department matter. That is centralization of power without responsibility—the opposite of civic virtue.
Pro-American free enterprise builds capacity by inviting more providers to compete, not by letting one politically wired giant hold the system hostage. Rhode Island voters who just lived through McKee-era procurement and competence scandals should treat Arizona as a warning label, not a distant soap opera.