Part I: City Manager Search A key rule in life and business is when something isn’t working don’t keep doing the same thing. Change course. That’s certainly in order now that the Scottsdale City Council has again failed to reach consensus on a new City Manager, which is long overdue. It’s confounding that the apparent direction from council is to … Read More
Scottsdale 2016 Election Winners & Losers
Winner: Jim Lane. The incumbent ran the best candidate campaign since Robert Pettycrew’s shoe-string council victory in 1994, one of Drinkwater’s waltzes, or perhaps ever. He raised big money, the most in Scottsdale history. That’s what good campaigns do. He spent it wisely. Lane messaged smartly and took it to Bob Littlefield, a name who had never lost a municipal … Read More
Odds & Ends To The Week
*He endorsed Trump, but he will likely be responsible for his demise. He is Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, an impressive congressional nominee who is getting precious little help from national Republicans due to the GOP having to defend more seats than they had hoped this year. Prediction: If Babeu loses his congressional race look for him to move to … Read More
New Scottsdale Poll Shows Big Lane Lead, Close Council Contest
Public Opinion Strategies, the polling company to Governor Ducey, Senator McCain, NBC and the Wall Street Journal, among many others, just concluded a October 17-18 survey among Scottsdale voters. As they showed in their September survey Mayor Jim Lane maintains a big lead over former Councilman and failed State House of Representatives candidate Bob Littlefield. Lane holds a 28-point advantage … Read More
The Unbearable Lightness Of Littlefield
The Unbearable Lightness of Being was a 1984 work about two men and two women. It’s an appropriate reference to the tale of Scottsdale 2016 and the unbearable idea of two Littlefields serving on the City Council at the same time. Mayoral candidate Bob Littlefield also likes to be on two sides of every issue. He was for the Desert … Read More
Odds & Ends To The Week
*A second candidate poll in Scottsdale this week finds the City Council races tight (as the poll before it did) with Mayor Lane maintaining his commanding lead over Littlefield. *The real question now for Littlefield’s ill-conceived mayoral run is how badly it will hurt his wife re-election’s prospects in 2018? It will likely be significant. And with Councilman David Smith … Read More
Littlefield’s Big Problem
The embattled Bob Littlefield has many problems as he seeks to become Scottsdale’s Mayor at the same time his wife is serving as Vice Mayor. Bad polling numbers. Mayor Lane’s adoption of a “Two Littlefields Are Too Much” message which is devastatingly simple for voters to understand. Etcetera doesn’t do justice to the enumeration that could take place on what … Read More
BREAKING: Scottsdale Mayor Lane Up Big, Council Races Close New Poll Shows
According to a new poll conducted September 14-15 by Public Opinion Strategies, one of the country’s more notable pollsters with extensive experience in Arizona and Scottsdale, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane holds a commanding 27% lead over former Councilman Bob Littlefield. And that’s before Lane has started spending the bulk of his substantial campaign coffers. Lane’s large margin is an uptick from … Read More
Paradise Valley Ponderings
With massive reserves in place and some terrific new resorts coming online the tony Town of Paradise Valley doesn’t have too many problems. But there are two items on the horizon worth recommendations. The first is the likely departure of Town Councilwoman Maria Syms. She was the top vote-getter in the August 30th GOP Primary Election for one of two seats … Read More
Odds & Ends To The Week
*The Arizona Republic’s breathless liberal opinionistas can’t understand why Governor Ducey would speak at a Trump rally, as he did this week. It’s simple. He doesn’t want to get primaried in 2018, and Trump ally and State Treasurer Jeff Dewitt looms as a potentially formidable challenger. There may be others. Anyone would start as an underdog versus Ducey – Kelli … Read More