Unintended Consequences Coming to Scottsdale: Why the Dubauskas Recall Now Means that Anyone is Fair Game

By Ronald Sampson

Scottsdale has real issues to navigate: water supply pressures, development tensions, a competitive city budget cycle, and an ongoing power struggle on the City Council that has consumed far too much oxygen for far too long. What the city does not need is a recall effort driven by a failed candidate settling ideological scores, and setting one of the most dangerous potential precedents in the meantime..

And yet, here we are, with a recall effort against Jan Dubauskas.

Who Is Behind This?

A political action committee called Conservatives of Greater Scottsdale filed a recall petition against Councilwoman Jan Dubauskas on May 5. The petition was authored by Dan Ishac, a retired actuary who ran for Scottsdale City Council in 2022 and finished dead last with roughly 9% of the vote. Voters have already rendered a verdict on Ishac’s political judgment. He is now asking them to render a different verdict on someone else’s. But more than that? Dan Ishac has never been a Republican as far as we know, so the name of the group itself is misleading, and probably purposely so.

Dan Ishac. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The stated grievances are a laundry list of ideological disagreements: a parking garage vote, a criminal complaint Dubauskas allegedly helped file against the mayor, a city manager hire, council procedural rules. These are legitimate policy debates. They are not recall-worthy conduct. They are the ordinary stuff of a divided council working through genuine disagreements.

A Dangerous Precedent

Recall provisions exist for a reason: to remove officials who have engaged in genuine misconduct, corruption, or a fundamental betrayal of public trust. They are not meant to be a do-over mechanism for losing candidates or a tool for factions that simply dislike how an elected official votes.

If ideological differences and council bloc politics clear the bar for recall, that bar is on the ground. Mayor Lisa Borowsky has been on the other side of those 4-3 votes repeatedly. So has Councilmember Maryann McAllen. By Ishac’s own logic, either of them could be recalled tomorrow by a well-funded PAC with a grievance list and 120 days to collect signatures. And there’s an excellent chance that both of those elected officials would lose in a yes-or-no race.

This is a classic scenario where the law of unintended consequences is likely to rear its ugly head. A rubicon crossed, a precedent set. If we don’t like you, we will try to recall you. 

That is not civic accountability. That is civic chaos.

Voters Already Decided

Dubauskas did not just win her seat in 2024. She was the only council candidate to win outright in the primary, clearing a majority without needing a runoff. Scottsdale voters made a clear choice. A last-place finisher from a different election cycle does not get to unilaterally override that outcome because he disagrees with her votes.

Recall the recall effort. Because if Dubauskas is fair game then Borowsky and McAllen are too, which would be about as inappropriate as the current recall effort.