Photo Credit: Arizona Digital Free Press
For winners of political campaigns, the to-do list is a fairly clear one: prepare themselves for the office, consider the staff they’ll need, and be ready to hit the ground running. What is next for elected officials who lose their re-election campaigns is far less frequently talked about.
What about Scottsdale Mayor Dave Ortega? After what was presumed to be a probable re-election, there is certain to be some licking of the wounds. Hopefully he takes a nice vacation, he earned it. But for those that are driven, the free time is likely to eat away at him.
There are plenty of examples and models that he could choose to emulate. A good one comes in the form of the opponent that he vanquished in the August election: Linda Milhaven. The former councilmember with work experience in the real estate field and strong support from Arizona’s realtors neatly and cleanly landed into her next role, as she was appointed to the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Committee in September.
In a different universe this could have been a great position for Ortega, as his work experience as an architect and his previous time on City Council would also make him uniquely qualified for this role. That said, his contentious relationship with the county, especially insofar as the Rio Verde Foothills water saga went, made him unappointable at the county level. But that’s not to say that he couldn’t use his skill set in a similar way.
In a related note, what kind of a positive olive branch would it be to appoint him to Scottsdale’s planning commission? Again, he had some contentious relationships within the city’s political class, but he would bring a host of truly useful experience and a wealth of knowledge to the city. For a mayor and council that talked about wanting to put the brakes on overdevelopment, it’s worth noting that he traditionally held developers to a high standard. Much of the blame for projects that are currently going up went to him, but many were approved before his time as Mayor. It’s unlikely but would be a nice development.
He could also go into consulting; with an architect’s eye for design and aesthetics, the wisdom of knowing the entire process via decades of experience, and the knowledge of how the sausage is made in the city, he would add a ton of value to developers and financiers who want to build in Scottsdale and beyond.
That said, we may be overlooking the most likely scenario: retirement. Ortega is pushing 70 and has earned a comfortable final chapter of his life. No one would besmirch him if he chose that route, as it would be after a solid career and a significant impact.