By John Ainlay Scottsdale City Council is a clown show. That’s why I commend Raoul Zubia’s campaign signs that read “Kick out the clowns.” This slogan will resonate with anyone who has attended a council meeting in the last year and a half and it expresses exactly what voters need to do this July when we have an opportunity to … Read More
Handicapping the Election: Arizona’s 1st Congressional District Primaries
By Alexander Lomax David Schweikert is gone. The longtime Republican congressman vacated Arizona’s 1st Congressional District to run for governor, and the seat he held since 2011 is now a free-for-all. It has favored Democrats in seven of the last nine statewide or presidential contests since 2020. Both primaries reflect that uncertainty: crowded, competitive, and unresolved. The Republican Primary: Trump’s … Read More
Maricopa County’s Election Office, Now Starring in Its Own Chaos
Justin Heap campaigned for Maricopa County Recorder on a simple promise: he would restore trust in elections that he and his allies claimed had been mishandled. It was a message built on suspicion of process, chain of custody, and procedural integrity. Eighteen months into the job, those very concerns are now being raised about his own office. A Scanner, a … Read More
Breaking News: Axon Is Polling to Purchase a Scottsdale City Council
By Alexander Lomax The corporate playbook for buying local influence is not new. Scottsdale has seen it before. But the scale and audacity of what appears to be unfolding ahead of the July 21st primary deserves the full attention of every resident who cares about who actually governs this city. Several sources say Axon Enterprise is conducting active polling in … Read More
Get to Know Your Candidates: Our Exclusive Q&A with Scottsdale City Council Candidate Bob Littlefield
In the name of helping our readers make more informed decisions and better understand the people who want to lead our city, we sent out questionnaires to all Scottsdale City Council candidates. All of the questions were the same for each except for two questions that were customized for each candidate. Mr. Littlefield declined to answer two of the questions. … Read More
Get to Know Your Candidates: Our Q&A with Scottsdale City Council Candidate Raoul Zubia
As a reminder, we sent out a similar questionnaire to every candidate for Scottsdale city council. Their submissions are being posted in the order of being received. All of the questions were the same except for the last two, which were customized to each candidate. Do you support the Axon development as originally proposed, including up to 1,900 residential units, … Read More
A Shanked Field Goal: Jay Feely’s Attack on Joseph Chaplik Is a New Low in the CD-1 Primary
There is an old football saying: you can tell a lot about a team’s character when the game gets hard. Jay Feely, the former Arizona Cardinals kicker turned congressional candidate, just showed voters who he is when things got hard. It is not a flattering picture. Feely’s campaign recently attacked primary opponent Joseph Chaplik over missed votes during his final … Read More
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 … Read More
Rasta Kari
No, this is not a joke. Kari Lake, who was appointed to head the Voice of America only to then be told to gut it, is being given another much more unusual consolation prize: the Ambassadorship to Jamaica. Strangely enough, in Trump’s first term he also appointed an Arizonan to the Jamaica ambassadorship: Don Tapia. This announcement may not be … Read More
Get to Know Your Candidates: Our Q&A with Scottsdale City Councilmember Solange Whitehead
As a reminder, we sent out a similar questionnaire to every candidate for Scottsdale city council. Their submissions are being posted in the order of being received. All of the questions were the same except for the last two, which were customized to each candidate. Do you support the Axon development as originally proposed, including up to 1,900 residential units, … Read More