Mesa's MAGA revival

And other notes from last night's local elections ... Please make us aristocrats ... And let the election conspiracies rage.

Welcome back, readers!

If you weren’t refreshing a stack of tabs last night to track Arizona’s local elections across 10 counties, good for you.

That’s what you have us for. We’ll break it all down.

But first, help us help you follow local elections.

Somewhere in the Great Beyond, Charlie Kirk is smiling.

Yesterday’s recall of Mesa City Councilmember Julie Spilsbury was the first big test for Kirk’s Turning Point USA since his assassination — Turning Point had gathered signatures to spark the recall, deployed its national army of volunteers to campaign in Mesa, and helped fund Spilsbury’s challenger, Dorean Taylor. It was the last campaign that Kirk was actively engaging in before he died.

And yesterday, Turning Point won.

Spilsbury first earned Turning Point’s ire when she publicly backed Democrats Kamala Harris and Ruben Gallego in last year’s election, joining a group of Mormon Republicans organizing and campaigning against Donald Trump. She had backing from some of Mesa’s most powerful politicos, business groups and Mormon leaders, and she cruised to victory in her reelection last year, despite openly opposing Trump in an area he won.

But she couldn’t withstand the door-knocking power the Turning Point machine delivered to Mesa. She offered a tearful concession of the race last night while she was trailing by about 900 votes, or 5 percentage points.

“The term ‘politically homeless’ resonates with me,” Spilsbury told NPR’s Ximena Bustillo in a profile of the Mormon group last year. “If you’re a Republican, but you’re not a MAGA Republican or a Trump Republican, where do you fit?”

Yesterday’s election answered that question.

Not much is known about Taylor, a political newcomer and small business owner who got her start in politics while working for Turning Point last year. She rarely speaks to the press and her website is bare-bones.

She’ll fill the remainder of the four-year term that Spilsbury won last year.

Valleywise teetering

Maricopa County voters appear to be narrowly approving a $898 million bond for Valleywise Health, the safety-net health care system for Maricopa County.

The bond — Prop 409 — would allow Valleywise to build new facilities, like a behavioral health hospital, and upgrade old ones.

As of last night, Prop 409 was leading by about 11,000 votes, or 2 percentage points.

There are somewhere around 100,000 ballots countywide that still need to be tallied.

Mayoral crisis solved

Chandler voters overwhelmingly decided to clear up that whole question of how long their city council members / mayors can serve before term limits kick in.

It’s eight years as a council member, and eight years as mayor without taking a break between, per the newly clarified City Charter, as amended by Chandler’s Prop 410 last night.

Voters also approved Chandler’s Prop 411, which clarifies that the City Council can fire the city manager and can negotiate the manager’s severance pay.

Over in Apache Junction, voters approved a request to extend the mayor’s term limit from two years to four years to stop, as Apache Junction Mayor Chip Wilson put it, “a cycle of near-constant fundraising and campaigning, which distracts from representing Apache Junction’s best interests.”

A Democratic sweep

Democrats swept the Tucson City Council for the 16th year straight.

Voters selected Democrat Miranda Schubert over Jay Tolkoff by a two-to-one margin.

As our sister ‘sletter the Tucson Agenda notes, Schubert is a self-proclaimed socialist who may push the already progressive council further left.

Voters also gave Democrat Kevin Dahl a second term, backing him over Republican Janet Wittenbraker two-to-one.

And Democrat Selina Barajas coasted to a council seat unopposed.

Fresh faces

The Prescott City Council got three new members filling open seats. Though it’s not entirely clear who the third is yet.

Mary Frederickson and Jim Garing are a lock for two of the at-large seats on the council. The third open seat will go to either Jay Ruby or Henry Ebarb II, who were separated by about 300 votes Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, voters in broader Yavapai County overwhelmingly approved a new 25-year franchise agreement with Arizona Public Service.

Not a volunteer gig

San Luis’s mayor and city council members will continue to get paid after voters rejected Prop 434, which would have eliminated their pay, trip allowances and benefits.

Councilmembers earn about $900 per month, and the mayor earns almost twice that. All told, the measure would have saved around $500,000 annually.

Second time’s the charm

Voters in Cochise County appear to have narrowly approved a new half-cent sales tax to fund the county jail system.

They narrowly approved the same thing two years ago, but the county didn’t send ballots to about 10,000 “inactive” voters who should’ve gotten them under state law.

So the courts called for a do-over.

The tax was actually in effect for a few months before the courts stepped in, so the county has already collected roughly $18 million.

A whole new Holbrook

Voters in the small town of Holbrook in Navajo County waded through 10 major town reform questions on their ballot, approving at least six of them. From here on out:

• Developers must pay for public improvements or pay a fee to maintain levels of service

• City council members are elected in even-numbered years, rather than odd-numbered years

  • Primaries will be held in August of even-numbered years (or whenever the state does it)

  • General elections will be held in November of even-numbered years (or whenever the state does it)

• All city council ordinances must be read twice on separate days before the council can vote on them

However, voters decided to keep the position of town treasurer and continue to limit the council to spending $500,000, rather than $1 million, without voter approval.

And the city charter will still use both the masculine and feminine genders of words, after an effort to get rid of the provision failed.

Meanwhile, voters are still divided on the idea of allowing the City Council to adopt ordinances about the conduct of elections, even if the ordinance does not conflict with state law or the Holbrook City Charter. That question was sitting at 175 votes for and 167 against last night.

The other recalls

Finally, we’ll end this local election hodgepodge right where we started: with a recall election.

In the tiny Gadsden Elementary School District serving about 5,000 students in Yuma County, two board members faced recalls from critic (and recall candidate) Mark Concha.

Concha’s case against board member Liliana Arroyo is that she is “unfit” to serve because she allegedly cannot speak English well enough.

Meanwhile, Concha argued that board president Luis Marquez has served too long and abused his power as a school board member.

As of Tuesday night, it appears one recall was successful. Concha led Marquez by 82 votes.

Arroyo was holding off challenger Manuel Rojas by more than 200 votes.

The Scottsdale sovereign: Arizona entrepreneur Chris Buskirk is a central figure in a campaign to elevate an elite ruling class, the Washington Post reports in a deep dive into Buskirk’s influence. Buskirk leads the Rockbridge Network, a secretive organization many credit with securing President Donald Trump’s reelection that still pulls major weight in GOP politics. Buskirk’s brand of “aristopopulism” aims to forge connections between wealthy capitalists and the working class.

“You either have an extractive elite — an oligarchy — or you have a productive elite — an aristocracy — in every society,” Buskirk told the Post during an interview in his Scottsdale office.

Help us infiltrate the aristocracy with this button.

Pills for the people: Gov. Katie Hobbs announced a prescription drug discount card program that any Arizona resident can use to get about 18% off brand-name drugs and up to 80% off generic prescriptions, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. It’s free to sign up, but the discounts are meant for Arizonans without prescription coverage.

A lesson in outrage: Teachers in a Vail high school’s math department are facing a flood of harassment after Turning Point USA declared their math-themed Halloween costumes were meant to mock the death of Charlie Kirk, the Republic’s Stephanie Murray reports. The costumes had nothing to do with Kirk’s death, but some politicians, like Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, are doubling down. In a now-deleted post, Hoffman called the teachers “BLOODTHIRSTY” and “psychopaths,” and later said the costumes were “worthy of termination even without a direct association to Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination.”

Congressional nap time: The federal government shutdown has cut off funding for Head Start programs serving 210 Arizona children, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. While none of Arizona’s providers have had to close yet, advocates warn 2,000 more kids could lose services if the government doesn’t reopen by December. So far, 19 of the child care programs across 15 states have closed without federal funds.

Damage control: The Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority bought a taxpayer-funded $2,500 monthly contract with a PR firm after ABC15 revealed a Prescott fire chief falsely accused a man of pulling a gun on him outside a gas station in 2023, Dave Biscobing reports. Surveillance footage later showed Deputy Chief Dustin Parra was the aggressor, and he trapped the other guy, Matt Mussucci, inside his car. Mussucci has been in a two-year legal battle over the false accusation.

In other, other news

Trump endorsed former Pinal County Sheriff and current congressional candidate Mark Lamb in his bid to replace Andy Biggs in Congressional District 5 — and Trump told former Cardinals kicker Jay Feely to find a different seat to run for (Laura Gersony / the Republic) … Canadians souring on the U.S. could mean fewer visitors and less money for Arizona (Phil Latzman / KJZZ) … A group of conservative students at a private university in Prescott filed a civil rights complaint against their school for overpolicing their event posters (Taylor Seely / the Republic) … And the Gila River Indian Community is giving tribal members $1,000 disbursements to weather SNAP cuts (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ).

Thought you’d be spared from election conspiracies during an off-year, municipal election? Cute.

Prominent GOP election deniers, like Sen. Jake Hoffman and Secretary of State hopeful Rep. Alexander Kolodin, took to Twitter to report Pima County elections staff “turning away political party observers.”

The Republican Party of Arizona did its due diligence to dispel the rumors.

To be clear, ballot replacement centers are run by county recorders who can restrict access inside the perimeter. A change in state law could redefine who has access to these sites.¹

Still, after the GOP’s heads-up, Hoffman doubled down:

“Total chaos at some locations

Dry run for 2026?!”

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t take away its Twitter.

1. Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly said no parties formally contacted her before Election Day to ask for space for observers. And while her office usually accommodates observers, she places a priority on handling ballots on Election Day, especially since there is a shortage of election workers.