Guest Editorial: We Choose Residents. Zubia Chooses Special Interests.

A simple theme has emerged in this City Council election: We choose Scottsdale residents, while Raoul Zubia consistently chooses special interests.

That difference is obvious on the water security issue. The city’s water experts say our supply is secure. We believe it must still be conserved, recycled, banked, and — most importantly — not given away to high-density developers. Zubia chooses fear instead, pushing a discredited water hoax after he lobbied the Council for thousands of apartments.

The same pattern holds true on campaign endorsements and donations: Scottsdale Police chose us, while Axon’s apartment developers, the Bar District, and fringe groups like the Democratic Socialists of America chose Zubia.

It applies to neighborhoods as well. We want to protect them, while Zubia took $13,500 from the Short-Term Rental lobby and pushed to squeeze a regional-intake homeless shelter into a neighborhood on an elementary campus.

The difference also shows up on spending. We’re fiscal conservatives. Your taxes should fund public safety, roads, parks, and water. Zubia has pushed for higher taxes and lobbied the City Council to expand social programs and fund ideological bureaucracies.

And it holds up on Axon’s massive apartment campus. We were attacked for fighting it. Zubia endorsed the company’s high-density development, accepted their money, and blamed residents for cancelling the referendum that would’ve given residents a voice on the project.

We were both raised here, and we’re raising our families here. We want the next generation to grow up in a Scottsdale like we enjoyed — safe neighborhoods, secure water, open space, and a city that has a strong sense of community.

You get two votes for City Council. Protect your water, your safety, your taxes, and your quality of life from the special interests who want to take them away.

Please use both your votes for Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Barry Graham.