I caught a lot of grief for my city council endorsements a couple of weeks ago, particularly from candidate Bill Crawford. He was also pretty hard on Councilman Guy Phillips, whose endorsements mirrored my own.
In fact, the atmosphere from the ‘activist community’ (whatever that is anymore) was so vitriolic and from so many ‘allies’ like those in the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale that I actually said to an acquaintance: “I’m being attacked more by my friends than by my enemies.” Which tells me I need new friends. After reading today’s Scottsdale Republic, I may still need new friends but at least I feel somewhat vindicated: Candidate Crawford and candidate David N. Smith ran ads in the rag today touting their endorsements; and boy howdy.
Crawford ad Arizona_Republic_20140816_ZJ27_4
Some of the names in Crawford’s ad jumped right off the page. Fred Unger is a nice guy, but he’s a developer who frequently receives pretty big zoning concessions from his friends on the city council. He also happens to be the beneficiary of a NO-BID multi-million dollar management contract relating to WestWorld.
Scattered through the rest of the names is a rogue’s gallery of left-wing whackos (Gary Boyd, Jim Derouin, both staunchly pro-rail and pro-debt) and right-wing nutjobs (Russell Pearce, Joe Arpaio). The rest are not familiar to me, but I have to think that all of them are surprised at some of the other names on the list! I see that the names are also on Crawford’s website. I’m guessing the COGS political committee folks didn’t actually read it before they endorsed him.
Smith’s list includes Jim Bruner, recent council departeds Ron McCullagh and Wayne (“The wrong people voted”) Ecton, and former mayor Sam “911” Campana. And as a friend said this morning, “the ever-popular ‘others who wish to remain anonymous.’ ”
Smith ad Arizona_Republic_20140816_ZJ23_1
These two guys didn’t even wait until after the election to sell us out. They did it in advance!