Follow the money in Scottsdale’s council election

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OPINION — I served on Scottsdale's Planning Commission when Axon asked to approve roughly 1,900 apartments at Hayden and the Loop 101. I read every page of the plans. I listened to the residents. And I voted no.

What followed was documented in a letter from the city attorney: pressure aimed at my private employer over that vote. I raise it not for sympathy, but because voters should understand how this fight has been waged.

Residents responded the right way, by gathering more than 26,000 signatures to put Axon's rezoning before voters. Axon didn't take its case to the voters. It took it to the Capitol. SB 1543 voided the referendum, and the election residents earned never reached a ballot.

Raoul Zubia says he shares concerns about overdevelopment. Yet at a public forum, he defended Axon, saying the company "had to go around everybody, go to the state, and get the law passed so they could move forward." He’s called Scottsdale's problem "a generation of citizens who want to keep Scottsdale the way it was."

I am one of those citizens. I suspect you are, too.

Follow the money: Mr. Zubia once said there was nothing from Axon in his campaign finances. There is now $5,000 from Axon's president. The Realtors PAC added $8,000 for good measure. Then there is Better Together, run by a former Axon lobbyist and a former Axon spokesman. The dark money PAC reported that its $335,000 funding came entirely from a Virginia super PAC. It has spent heavily against Barry Graham and Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the two candidates standing between Mr. Zubia and a seat on the city council.

Voters can weigh that.

Three candidates. Two seats. If Raoul Zubia wins one, the special interests that cancelled your vote get a seat on the dais. Vote Barry Graham and Michelle Ugenti-Rita.

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