Better Together’s Latest Trick: Laundering the Money Trail Through Virginia

Axon CEO Rick Smith at the rally. Photo Credit: Arizona Republic

A Campaign Finance Report That Answers Nothing

Better Together wants Scottsdale voters to believe it has nothing to do with Axon. Its second-quarter campaign finance report shows no ties back to Axon, at least not directly. Every dollar the PAC raised this quarter came from a single source: National Horizon Inc., a self-described conservative super PAC based in Alexandria, Virginia.

That should be the end of the story. It isn’t.

Follow the Logic, Not Just the Ledger

Here’s the problem nobody at Better Together wants to explain. National Horizon calls itself a conservative outfit that fights for “less government and more respect for families.” Yet its $335,000 is being funneled straight into attacking three Republicans: Barry Graham, Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Bob Littlefield. That same money is simultaneously propping up Solange Whitehead and Eric Sloan, candidates considerably friendlier to Axon’s development ambitions.

A conservative Virginia PAC crossing the country to help defeat three conservatives and elect the more Axon-aligned alternatives makes no ideological sense. It makes perfect financial sense if the real client isn’t conservative at all.

Axon Rendering

Same Operatives, New Paperwork

Better Together isn’t some grassroots startup that materialized out of nowhere. Its treasurer was Axon’s spokesman as recently as May. Its chairman was Axon’s political consultant. Both men ran Arizonans for a Better Future, the PAC that took direct, on-the-record contributions from Axon CEO Rick Smith, President Josh Isner and Chief Legal Officer Isaiah Fields.

That PAC’s fingerprints are all over the effort to elect legislators who backed the Axon apartments. When that arrangement got too obvious, the same officers filed new paperwork on June 5 and launched Better Together. The mission stayed identical. Only the letterhead changed.

Money Doesn’t Need to Touch Axon’s Hands to Be Axon’s Money

Council candidates Ugenti-Rita and Littlefield aren’t buying the technical distinction, and neither should voters. Littlefield told the Daily Independent he’s confident Axon money is still involved, just taking, in his words, a circuitous route.

That’s the entire game. Super PACs let money change its identity as it crosses state lines. Axon writes a check nowhere near this filing, yet the same operatives who ran Axon’s last PAC are spending someone else’s dollars to fight Axon’s exact opponents. Whether that money originated with National Horizon’s own donors or was steered there specifically to launder its way back into Scottsdale is a question campaign finance law doesn’t require anyone to answer, at least not before Election Day.

Voters Deserve Better Than a Shell Game

Axon’s spokesman/Better Together’s treasurer insists this is all above board, and legally, it may well be. That’s precisely the point. Nothing about Better Together’s structure is illegal. It’s simply designed so voters can’t trace the money before they cast a ballot.

Scottsdale residents should ask themselves a simple question before July 28. Why would out-of-state conservatives spend a third of a million dollars helping elect Scottsdale’s more development-friendly candidates? The honest answer probably isn’t ideology. It’s real estate.