Scottsdale Police are investigating two threatening messages sent to the campaign of Tammy Caputi, the Democratic candidate for the Arizona House in Legislative District 4.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Allison Sempsis told JNS on Thursday that the department learned of one threat over the weekend and of another message on Wednesday. A report was taken, and detectives are following leads to find the source. Caputi told The Arizona Inquirer on Friday that the FBI is involved as well. No one has been arrested.
Both messages arrived through her campaign website, Caputi said, and nothing more has come in since Wednesday. No one has publicly claimed them.
The campaign's Oct. 21 release says the threats came from multiple individuals, through its campaign website, in response to campaign advertisements distributed in the community. It quotes two messages. One: "If you keep running for office, I will come to your house and you will regret it. Watch your back." The other, as quoted, begins mid-thought with "Or" and threatens to kill Caputi and her "entire family bloodline," ending with "you dumb Jew." The campaign says it is preserving the original messages for police.
The candidate
Caputi, a former Scottsdale councilwoman, is Jewish and has belonged to Temple Chai in Phoenix for nearly 25 years. She owns Yale Electric West, an electrical supply company she founded in 2001.
She won a Scottsdale council seat in 2020 and narrowly lost re-election in 2024, when Adam Kwasman and Maryann McAllen took the two open at-large seats over her and fellow incumbent Tom Durham. This year she is running for the state House.
"Political disagreements are one thing. Threatening to murder someone and their children is another," Caputi said in her statement. "This has crossed a line, and it needs to stop."
The threats have changed how she runs. She has stopped canvassing doors without other volunteers along.
The release called on officials across party lines to condemn the threats. "I refuse to let hatred and intimidation define our community," Caputi said.
The district
LD4 is one of a handful of Arizona districts that could decide control of the Legislature. Republicans hold all three of its seats after Rep. Pamela Carter and Sen. Carine Werner flipped two of them in 2024.
On Nov. 3, Democrats Caputi and Karen Gresham, a Madison Elementary School District board member, face Republican Reps. Matt Gress and Pamela Carter for the district's two House seats.
The residency fight
Caputi blamed the threats on "false accusations and lies" from her political opponents. Asked what she meant, she cited false claims about her policy positions, her Scottsdale City Council voting record, and her personal life and family situation, which she said are "raising the temperature and toxicity" of the political environment. She did not name a person, post or ad, and did not say the threats came from anyone in the race.
The accusations she is most publicly fighting are about where she lives. According to The Arizona Republic's Oct. 2 report, as summarized by KJZZ:
Caputi lists her home as a Scottsdale condo inside LD4, owned by Democratic donors Nestor and Suzanne Guzman, who each gave her campaign $5,500, the state maximum.
When she ran for council in 2024, she listed a north Scottsdale home in LD3, which county records show she still owns.
The condo was listed for sale in early October, and the listing came down the day the Republic's story ran.
Caputi says she moved into the condo in July 2025, rents it from a longtime friend, and lives there with one of her children. She has called the matter a deeply personal family situation and asked that it stay private.
Gress has said people running for office "should live in the district they seek to represent. Period." The Arizona Republican Party's chairman, Sergio Arellano, has filed a complaint asking the Maricopa County Attorney to investigate, according to the Arizona Daily Independent. That office has not announced any action.
Arizona courts have historically declined to remove candidates over residency disputes, including challenges involving Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers.
The season
Caputi's case is the latest in a run of threats against Arizona officials from both parties this fall:
Last week, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes's office received an envelope with white powder, one of hundreds sent to officials nationwide. Reps. Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva reported suspicious letters too.
Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican running for attorney general, highlighted a Facebook post saying he and Rep. Andy Biggs "should be Kirked."
12News reported that another Democratic candidate, Bernadette Greene-Placentia, was reportedly assaulted while fixing campaign signs.
Rep. Alma Hernandez, who endorsed Caputi, says she has received death threats for being Jewish, and asked on X: "Why are elected officials silent?" The Arizona Inquirer has reported that, 16 months after shots were fired outside her family's Tucson home, no one has been charged.
Threats against Arizona candidates rarely end in an arrest. Whether this one does depends on what Scottsdale detectives can trace.
This story is built from the Caputi campaign's Oct. 21 press release as posted on its Facebook page, which lists a press contact at the ADLCC; coverage by KJZZ, 12News and JNS; Caputi's written answers to The Arizona Inquirer on Oct. 23; Scottsdale Police Sgt. Allison Sempsis's statement to JNS; KJZZ's Oct. 8 summary of The Arizona Republic's residency reporting; the Arizona Daily Independent's report on the GOP complaint; public posts on X and Facebook; Ballotpedia's 2024 Scottsdale results; and Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. On Oct. 23 we searched X, Facebook and the open web for anyone claiming the messages and found none; Reddit and closed channels were not searched. The messages are quoted as the campaign released them; we have not seen the originals. The FBI's role is as Caputi described it; the bureau has not commented publicly. We are looking for which campaign ads drew the threats, whether the County Attorney has acted on the residency complaint, and anyone with information that could help Scottsdale detectives (480-312-5000). Questions went to the Caputi campaign, which answered, and to Reps. Matt Gress and Pamela Carter on Oct. 23; their responses will be added.
Update Oct. 23, 2026: Rep. Matt Gress responded, calling the threats "disgusting and completely unacceptable." Read his full response and our review of the claims each side made: Matt Gress Calls Threats Against Tammy Caputi "Disgusting," Says He Has Taken Homophobic Slurs Himself.