Why and what it means – Shopmaisonbouey

Scottsdale voters showed their displeasure with the city by dumping all three incumbent council members running for re-election, instead electing two staunchly conservative challengers and a newcomer who is more left-leaning than anyone on the council today.

Those entrenched in Scottsdale’s political scene offer a number of reasons for the outcome. Some say it was the result of partisan politics and the “Republican wave” that swept the election nationally, while others argue that misinformation about local issues like overdevelopment swayed voters.

But the results indicate an overwhelming anti-incumbent sentiment carried into Scottsdale’s election day, as voters crossed ideological lines to fire incumbents.

Now, a change in the way the city works is guaranteed: a new five-member supermajority on the council is supposed to push everything from tighter scrutiny of the economy to an even more pro-development attitude and less vigorous opposition to short-term rentals.

“This was an election of change. And the residents told us very clearly that they were not happy with the direction of the city,” said Councilman Barry Graham, who was not up for re-election this year.

An “anti-incumbent cycle”: voters eschew ideology to overturn the status quo

Most of the 2024 cycle was defined by a battle for control of City Hall between an opposition faction of candidates and everyone else. When the general election rolled around, three categories of candidates emerged:

The opposition statescomposed of city council candidate Adam Kwasman and mayoral candidate Lisa Borowsky – two particularly conservative challengers who were highly critical of the current city leadership. Both won.
A status quo groupthree incumbents registered as independents: Mayor David Ortega and council members Tammy Caputi and Tom Durham. All three lost.
A lone liberal candidateMaryann McAllen, who was more like the status quo group than the opposition. She was part of the former group during discussions about majority control and was given a seat on the new council.

The campaign was steeped in partisan politics, with Republicans in Legislative District 8 placing Borowksy and Kwasman on their “golden ticket” of preferred candidates. That form usually does not include partisan local elections.

But Scottsdale residents avoided ideological consistency by electing both liberal McAllen and conservative Kwasman to the council, rather than the more centrist incumbents.

That trend carried over to the mayoral race. Borowsky comfortably defeated Ortega, although the latter was expected to get votes for supporters of Linda Milhaven, a third mayoral candidate who lost in July and is more ideologically similar to Ortega.

Meanwhile, Scottsdale voters approved Proposition 490 in a landslide, even though candidates like Kwasman did not support the initiative. The measure creates a sales tax to fund improvements and maintenance of Scottsdale’s parks and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

“There was clearly an anti-incumbency wave, both nationally and locally,” Kwasman said. “The people wanted authenticity, responsibility and change. And they will get it.”

Why the rebellion against the Scottsdale incumbents?

Outgoing council member Betty Janik believes multifamily development played a big role in turning voters against the current council. The same issue has fueled discontent in Scottsdale since at least the 2020 election.

Opposition candidates were very critical of the incumbents’ handling of that issue. Borowsky, specifically, often took shots at Ortega for allowing what she called overdevelopment to degrade the city’s suburban character.

Election data shows Borowsky won North Scottsdale this year a less development-friendly area of the city, despite Ortega secures large parts of the region when he beat Borowsky in the 2020 mayoral race.

However, some of that criticism was unfounded. Many flats built in the last four years had been approved by the previous council – they were just starting to be built and became more visible during the current council’s term.

“When the people see the apartments going up, they think the current council did it,” Janik said. “A lot of them are just from years ago.”

But the current council also approved some of its own unpopular projects, like the 1,300-unit Optima McDowell Mountain Village in north Scottsdale.

Janik said of the Optima, “When you get off the 101 in Scottsdale, your reaction is, ‘Oh no, it’s way too big.’ She added that it “is so visible that I don’t blame the citizens for saying, ‘What’s going on?’

The outgoing council member also cited projects such as the proposed Mercado Village, which is overwhelmingly opposed by residents but continues to be considered by the council.

“There are hundreds of pages of people saying they don’t want it. And it’s come up way too often. It’s like there’s never a real ‘no,'” she said. “I think the population is tired on it.”

Opposition candidates also ran on alleged financial mismanagement in the city, specifically related to constant budget overruns for city projects. Scottsdale’s The Bond 2019 program has often gone over budget by tens of millions of dollarsfor example.

Kwasman argues that these issues and others combined to form the main driver of anti-incumbency sentiment among voters: that the current council is out of touch.

“The incumbents tended to think everything was fine. The voters clearly said in a bipartisan way (that) it was not fine,” he said.

Party politics at stake? “One shot” ballots raise questions

Candidates and incumbents believe partisan politics played a role in the election, although it was not the primary factor.

City candidates do not run with an “R” or “D” next to their names, but the opposition slate openly branded themselves Republican in terms of their rhetoric and affiliation with GOP groups, such as the LD-8 Republican Committee.

Councilor Tom Durham, who suddenly dropped out of the race late in the campaign to throw their support to Caputi and McAllen, said voter dissatisfaction with Democrats at the top of the ticket may have reverberated the vote.

Janik also said the partisan brand helped Republican council candidates ride the red wave that swept national races in November.

“The Republicans were organized. They got their message out to the city early. They did it nonpartisan, which was not okay. It’s against our charter. (But) I really think that was the overwhelming factor,” she said.

Voting patterns also suggest partisan politics may have played a role, according to Councilman Caputi.

Approximately 119,000 of the 184,000 votes in the municipal council race, or nearly two-thirds were “undervotes”. This means residents only elected one councilor instead of two.

Caputi suspects that may have been the result of partisan voters choosing only McAllen or Kwasman, depending on whether the voter was liberal or conservative. That “one-shot strategy” may have skewed the vote against the Independent incumbents, Caputi believes.

“This was an anti-Umbient cycle that seemed to value partisanship over merit. The undervotes were impossible to overcome. I’m proud that despite both parties working against us, over 50,000 residents trusted me with their vote,” said Caputi.

The new Scottsdale council: what residents can expect

The new city council will sit in January with the conservative bloc holding a powerful five-strong supermajority on the seven-member council, giving them the power to control all decisions if they vote together. The incumbent group will consist of Borowsky, council members Graham and Kathy Littlefield, Jan Dubauskas who won in July and Kwasman.

Conservative bloc members want to address the city’s financial struggles. They have talked specifically about digging into the cause of frequent project cost overruns, like a road project that tripled in price earlier this year.

“I think Mayor Borowsky will present an agenda that has a focus on accountability, a focus on a citizen budget commission that will dive deep into where money is spent,” Kwasman said.

The current council has historically approved measures, such as e.g a $68 million transfer from the city’s general fund to cover project overruns. But under the new council, such projects are much more likely to be scaled back or scaled back.

Janik, who is not aligned with the conservatives, said the increased scrutiny could be a welcome change.

“There are some huge price increases on some of our projects … I think they will say, ‘You better explain that.’ They might have the ability to really slow it down or reduce it in size, she says.

Scottsdale’s regional leadership in regulating short-term rentals may be less powerful going forward if the council falls in line with Borowsky.

Ortega has been a staunch opponent of the short-term rental industry, leading lobbying efforts in the Arizona Legislature to increase cities’ regulatory powers and speak favorably of pre-2016 rules that allowed cities to ban short-term rentals.

Borowsky has a more laissez faire attitude. She told The Daily Independent in October that she “conditionally” supports short-term rentals as long as existing city rules for things like excessive noise are enforced.

She has signaled that she does not believe the city should infringe on the rights of property owners to rent out their own property, indicating that Scottsdale would not lobby for an outright ban or overriding regulations.

On the development front, the new council is likely to oppose any future multifamily projects, from Axon’s proposal in north Scottsdale to the ongoing Mercado Village.

But Janik suspects voters will be disappointed by what the council can do in that regard. The development ‘pipeline’ of previously approved projects will still exist, and the council cannot prevent them from moving forward.

“(Voters) are probably going to be disillusioned because they’re going to say, ‘Why is this happening?'” she said. “What they don’t realize is that (the projects) have already been approved. It’s the same thing that happened to us.”

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSam or reach him at [email protected].

An “anti-incumbent cycle”: voters eschew ideology to overturn the status quo

Why the rebellion against the Scottsdale incumbents?

Party politics at stake? “One shot” ballots raise questions

The new Scottsdale council: what residents can expect

Kaneb

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