Recent Political Sighting Demonstrates Both the Best and Worst of Scottsdale

By Ronald Sampson Scottsdale is a city that prides itself on a certain standard — of beauty, of civic engagement, of community. So when a single photograph taken at a San Francisco Giants spring training game manages to capture both what is right and what is deeply wrong about local politics, it’s worth pausing to reflect on both. The image … Read More

Homeless Hotel No More: What Recent Closure Says About the City’s Future

Homelessness was a significant local issue in the last election, and even though there is far less of it than most other cities in America, some of the more conservative candidates used it very deftly to their advantage. A centerpiece of that was Scottsdale’s “homeless hotel”, where an old hotel was used to house a couple handfuls of homeless women … Read More

Reflecting on an Interesting Four Years: The Legacy of Former Mayor Dave Ortega

One of the bigger surprises of the November election was the relative trouncing that incumbent Mayor Dave Ortega received at the hands of Lisa Borowsky. Most pundits figured it would be a close election but that the power of incumbency would win out; instead, the mayoral race mirrored a significant rightward shift across American politics, and Borowsky won by over … Read More

How Not to Lose: David Ortega Does No Favors for His Legacy

by Ronald Sampson Many times history won’t judge you based on how you act after you win, but how you react to a loss. It’s easy to be gracious after a victory, but after a bitter, grueling effort that results in an unfortunate outcome, do you offer best wishes for your opponent or do you claim malfeasance and attempt to … Read More

This is How You Do It: Kudos to Scottsdale’s Leadership

By Alexander Lomax When the Scottsdale City Council and Mayor met last Thursday, in most ways it was a normal, even boring meeting. There were a few nominees for boards that needed to be voted on, there were some budgeting and zoning items that were agreed to by consent. But in some ways it was very different. That meeting will … Read More

Tearing Apart the Data of the Scottsdale Elections: City Council

In our series where we break down the election results from Scottsdale, we have already looked at the mayoral race as well as the ballot propositions. For our third of three pieces, we will take a look at the Scottsdale City Council races, typified by major upheaval as both incumbents on the November ballot were ousted (after newcomer Jan Dubauskas … Read More

Tearing Apart the Data of the Scottsdale Elections: the Mayoral Race

It was a truly interesting election season in Scottsdale this year, as incumbent Mayor Dave Ortega was ousted by a significant margin, the city council will welcome three new members, and two propositions won by wide margins. Some of these items are related and some are indicative of wider trends within the city’s electorate. In this three-part series we get … Read More

Scottsdale Mayoral Campaign Update: Where Do the Candidates Stand?

The Scottsdale Mayoral run-off between Mayor David Ortega and Lisa Borowsky is entering its final stages, and there are a number of things we can glean from the final stretch. First, the last campaign finance reports of note have been released, and that offers crucial insight. Q3 was a very strong fundraising quarter for Mayor Ortega, raising $113K and leaving … Read More