Ishac Loses to Dubauskas a Second Time

By Vanessa Rogers

Conservatives of Greater Scottsdale announced this week that it is “suspending” its recall campaign against Councilwoman Jan Dubauskas, citing a lack of signature-gathering manpower ahead of the September 2 deadline. Translation: they didn’t have the votes, they didn’t have the case, and as we said back in the spring, they never really had a reason.

A Grudge Dressed Up as a Cause

We called this one early. In A Recall in Search of a Reason, I argued this effort was less an accountability measure than a personal grudge wearing a civic costume, courtesy of Dan Ishac, a man voters already rejected once. Nothing since has changed that assessment. A parking garage vote and a criminal complaint Dubauskas felt compelled to file are policy disputes, not recall-worthy conduct. Five months and reportedly six figures in promised funding later, that’s still all the group has.

Dan Ishac. Photo Credit: scottsdale.org

The Money Trail Raises Its Own Questions

Campaign finance filings show the group raised just $2,502 in cash last quarter against $3,257 in in-kind contributions, the largest of which came from Lamar Whitmer and Susan Wood, both employed by Mayor Lisa Borowsky. Both Borowsky and Ishac insist she has nothing to do with the recall. Fine. But it’s a coincidence worth noting, especially since the release itself hinted at “political pressure” scaring off signature-gathering firms.

Suspended, Not Sorry

The group insists this is a pause, not a surrender, promising to come back after the November election “if circumstances warrant.” That’s a tell. Nothing about Dubauskas’s conduct has changed since May. What’s changed is that Ishac ran out of runway before the deadline.

Voters Already Answered This

Jan Dubauskas. Photo Credit: Coalition for Greater Scottsdale

Dubauskas said it best: the recall’s failure “speaks to the fact that I have delivered on my promises.” Ishac finished at the bottom of the field in his own 2022 council bid. A recall was never going to be the venue where he got a different answer.

Hopefully this was the lesson Ishac needed to exit the public sphere for good and pursue more productive and less personally corrosive hobbies, but unfortunately I doubt it. Such unquenchably aimless egos rarely get that memo.