By Betty Janik While media was captivated with the breakup of the Trump/Musk bromance, Scottsdale had its own melodrama. In records released by County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, it was revealed that Councilwoman Jan Dubauskas, with strong support from Councilmen Barry Graham and Adam Kwasman, filed the “Parkingate” criminal complaint against Mayor Borowsky. This was an attempt to have Mayor Lisa … Read More
Will Scottsdale Leadership Kowtow to Goldwater? A Ritzy Banquet May Offer Clues
By Ronald Sampson Perhaps I’m biased, but Scottsdale voters have a pretty good track record when it comes to voting on propositions. There are very few that I believe we collectively made the wrong choice on. This past cycle was no different, as despite a very vocal minority the citizenry voted with a large margin to fully fund and expand … Read More
Promises made, promises kept: Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky details wins for Scottsdale
By Mayor Lisa Borowsky Politicians talk. My focus as Mayor these past five months has been to deliver for Scottsdale. When I was running for Mayor last year, I made a simple, six-point pledge to Scottsdale voters. This is where we stand in accomplishing those goals: Demand High-Quality Development, and Reject Density Scottsdale is special, but protecting what makes us … Read More
The Fight Against Axon Overreach Makes It to the Capitol
It’s been a long and winding road for Axon in its attempts to force its 1,900 apartment megacomplex (the biggest in state history) onto Scottsdale against its will. Once the people banded together, said “enough is enough”, and got enough signatures to put it to a public vote, Axon knew that it would lose (read our full coverage here). So … Read More
Scottsdale’s Bully Taking Its Bullying National
Any occasional readers of this blog knows our feelings about Axon; that it will bully its way into getting what it wants, with the most recent and egregious case being its massive apartment megacomplex plans in the heart of Scottsdale. And while we’d prefer not to have to continue writing about it, the company just keeps on pushing more and … Read More
Tearing Apart the Data of the Scottsdale Elections: Propositions 490 and 491
Scottsdale’s recent elections were interesting ones, with an incumbent mayor losing and two incumbent councilmembers losing their bids for re-election. And there was one (well, two) very clear winners in this election: Propositions 490 and 491. As a reminder, Proposition 490 served as an extension of the existing 0.2% sales tax which was expiring this year, reducing it to 0.15% … 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
Lisa Borowsky’s Path to Victory: How’d She Do It?
In a season of many election surprises locally, few were as surprising at the Scottsdale Mayoral race, where Lisa Borowsky overcame a significant deficit in the August primary to win a decisive victory over incumbent Mayor Dave Ortega. Now that we have the value of hindsight, it’s worth considering how this significant upset happened. So how did it? First, it’s … Read More
Thank You Councilman Durham! I’m Honored to be Cannon Fodder for You!
By Alexander Lomax For Scottsdale political wonks, it’s been a fun year regardless, but few developments have been as fun as Councilman Tom Durham essentially peacing-out of his re-election campaign and turning all of his efforts towards defeating Adam Kwasman in his race to defeat him. Rarely has an active candidate told everyone publicly, “Don’t vote for me, vote for … Read More
Guest Editorial: Time to Vote
By Councilwoman Betty Janik I urge you to re-elect Mayor Dave Ortega for a second term on Scottsdale City Council. Much has been accomplished in his first term. He was instrumental in passing the General Plan, he has been the regional leader in controlling short term rentals, he has kept city finances in the black while increasing reserves and reducing … Read More