Follow The Money > Mesa City Council Election Campaigns 2016

Campaign Finance Reports are available online here
Current mayor John Giles is playing the hand he was dealt to get elected in 2014, apparently with no issues in front of the voters here according to his campaign website and oftentimes making public statements that "Everything is great".
It's a no-contest.
Three seats [half] up for grabs in Districts 1, 2 and 3.
What's it gonna be? More diversity or more of the same political machine that's controlled Mesa for generations?

There's a certain demographic group here, now after 135 years after Mesa's founding, less than 10% of the population, who have dominated and monopolized both elective and appointed offices inside City Hall and city government with just a few things in common, one of them being their religion that directly informs public service when they get elected by a system organized by LDS connections in meeting houses, stakes and wards. This is evident not only in local Mesa government but in Arizona state government as well, holding onto top positions in the state senate and state legislature.

Overwhelmingly they graduated from BYU in Provo, Utah, or through inter-marriage have "family connections" in religion and government, or make claims to office based on heritage of successive generations with extensive land holdings held in family or suburban land trusts and - most importantly - at the same time frequently tapping into a machine that delivers votes to chosen hand-selected candidates who usually say they got "a calling" [or a call from a crony] for public service whereby incumbents in elected office pass their positions on to those who get called time and time again. . . Call it "rigged" if you want with one minority group controlling what's supposed to be a democratic process. 

It is the reason why so many residents and voters here in Mesa choose not to get involved in city governance, rarely show up at public City Council sessions or citizen advisory board meetings and are effectively not engaged in government for the people.

While most conservatives condemn the so-called East coast "liberal elite" who attended Ivy League universities [Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Princeton] those with other progressive political perspectives tend to not question the politics of a private religion-run university except in the public sphere where assertions of religion into politics has constitutionally-mandated limits for good reasons - a product of The Age of Enlightenment.
So, let's throw some light into the arena of politics here in Mesa - you, dear readers NEED TO DO THE WORK

• Follow the money for contributions and expenditures
• Are there some underlying business relationships?
• Who gave what to who
• Why are certain individuals and groups giving money to certain candidates
• Keep an eye out for amounts over $100, $250, $500 or $1,000 and higher
• What about PACs - political action committees?

Just  a couple of examples:
1. Why has a union of public employees - Firefighters - getting paid salaries and other benefits like insurance and pension/retirement costs [that have escalated by 35%] by the city, established a PAC that contributed $2500 to District 3 candidate Jerry Lewis?
2. Why has a suburban mall developer contributed over $6500 to the same candidate?
3. Looking back to the 2014 John Giles for Mayor campaign, why was over $25,000 paid to just one company for copies of campaign materials?

Candidates
The underlined links open in another window to access the reports provided by the Mesa City Clerk's office.
There are other links for City Council Election campaigns going back to 2008 if you want to trace donations and expenditures that might have influenced actions of City Councilmembers once they got elected.

Mayor
John Giles for Mayor 2016

Council District 1
Guinn for Mesa
Mark Freeman for District 1
Pat Gilbert for Mesa

Council District 2 
Jeremy Whittaker for Mesa
Shelly Allen for Mesa
Winn for Mesa City Council

Council District 3
Jerry Lewis for Mesa City Council
Ryan Winkle for Mesa Sparks for Mesa
Yarbrough for Mesa District 3

                                                                                                                          
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