All-Too-Familiar Mesa Conservative Republicans: What's Their Game?

Dark Money? After living in big cities most of his life with typical tricky big-city politics played-out for a long time [ 20+ years in New York City made me immune to media-grabbing Donald Trump ], your MesaZona blogger is to be honest both taken aback and amused at the same time by seeing the same-old tired political games being played-out here by the same old-time political machine trying to pull off more stunts.

Who can't help but laugh at "one of the chosen", seen in the image to the right at the State-of-the-City speech back in January of this year, using a costumed character dressed as a devil to float a Pie-In-The-Sky half-baked proposal for an ASU satellite campus that would radically transform and devour downtown Mesa, hoping to ride on the back end-tail of a speculative real estate development boom-bubble that's played-out well in other cities to deliver on over-hyped promises for economic development.  

If ASU wants a campus in downtown Mesa, then let ASU pay for it. They've got the money, with planning another satellite campus in Payson where that municipality is smarter not to dole out over $100 million buck$ for new construction of 3-5 buildings here while leasing all the 250,000 Sq Ft of space for only $100,000 per year!
City Hall - with all the insiders and their well-connected friends with undisclosed business relationships - are taking you the voters and taxpayers for a ride. It's not on light rail.
Ever since ex-mayor Scott Smith arrived on-the-scene, the City of Mesa's General Bond Debt Service pay-back obligations [guaranteed in bond markets financing by hiking sales and use taxes] now eats up about 25% [$364.9M] of the Total Budget Pie for FY 2026/2017 of $1.67B. . . . the "Old Boys" Croney political appears to be working well, or is it?
There's a whole list of people in that political machine disclosed by legal reporting FEC requirements for the formation of the PAC paying a public relations group to influences voters on Question 1--- do any of the names surprise you?
Political Action Committees
Yes for Public Safety and Education PAC ID 201-6001
Source: http://apps.mesaaz.gov/clerkcampaignfinancereports/.

[ Image of Matt Salmon from Tumblr ]

Here's an idea to show you how that old game works with some added notations how Mesa conservative Republicans are trying to pull their new game in relation to the upcoming Question 1 on the Nov 8 ballot where politician-turned lobbyist-turned-politician again - District 5 Congressman Matt Salmon is using what people might call "influence peddling" even before he leaves office in Washington DC, having announced a job offer from ASU, just coincidentally about the same time as John Giles' SOTC.
On June 12, 2018 there's a post on this blogsite written about Matt Salmon and "revolving-door politics" that previewed the topic in this post.

The Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day
Your daily dose of GOP conservatives showing how their party has lost their collective minds.
Here's the link >> http://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/post/102974507588/matt-salmon
...... it really was easier than I would have wanted to spot kooky conservatives than I wanted it to be. I thought it was bad... but WOW, has the party I once respected ...lost their collective minds. . . it's shocking how overwhelming how pervasive the problem in the modern GOP is, and there really are psychos you probably haven't heard of, because they're not in your state, or not representing your district **. I can only hope you read this, and reconsider your vote in elections when you see a "R" next to someone's name.)
[ Blogger's note about Mesa City Council District 2 election farther into post ]

Edited for brevity here's the content from the above linked article:
Matt Salmon is the House Representative of Arizona’s 5^th District. He originally won office in the 1994 “Red Wave” election, and promised he would only serve three terms in Congress. In 2000, he lived up to that pledge, stepping down, and preparing for a run for Governor of Arizona in 2002, which he lost to Janet Napolitano, them becoming a lobbyist for a decade.
FYI: Sounds just like the same strategy used by ex-mayor Scott Smith, resigning from office ahead of time to get John Giles called to fill his empty seat on the Mesa City Council, then losing out to current governor Doug Dicey
...or for that matter the same way ex-mayor John Lewis in Gilbert passed on his office
...or how Matt Salmon chose not to run again for Congress, nominating fellow LDS Andy Biggs who won by less than 50 votes defeating Christine Jones
In 2012, he decided his former “term limit” promise was moot, and he ran for a fourth time for the House, and after a narrow victory in the primary, the highly conservative 5^th district sent him to Washington, again, where he’s now preparing for what will be his fifth non-consecutive term, after easily winning in the 2014 elections against a legally blind atheist ...
In his time in Congress, Salmon has won numerous awards from conservative groups for being a budget hawk, trimming as much fat as possible and voting against anything that even resembles a tax increase.
Salmon consistently votes against marriage equality, the right for gay families to adopt, and most gay rights legislation. While this should come as little surprise for a Republican, it’s a bit more sad because Matt Salmon’s son is gay, and a former head of the Log Cabin Republicans.
This of course, is in spite of his son, Matt R. Salmon, having been placed in gay reparative therapy.
Also see this interview with Brahm Resnick
...and this article with images and video from England's Daily Mail April9, 2013

Almost immediately after returning to Washington, D.C. on January 6^th, 2013, Rep. Salmon goes on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to discuss the debt ceiling debate and says, “It’s about time we had another government shutdown”.

Matt Salmon was one of the Republican delegation who for whatever reason, voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.

November 14^th, 2014: Matt Salmon is on Newsmax, where he’s already claiming that any action President Obama takes on immigration will be an impeachable offense. And he threatened to defund whatever that action was, in Congress. This without knowing what those executive actions would be, exactly, while ignoring that both President Reagan and H.W. Bush had done the very same thing.

Salmon also began to use the word “shutdown” a lot over the immigration action, not ruling out the possibility of Republicans shutting down the government over potential executive actions on immigration.

Blogger note: Who's Russell Pearce, another conservative Mesa Republican

Political Nonprofits (Dark Money)

Politically active nonprofits – principally 501(c)(4)s and 501(c)(6)s – have become a major force in federal elections over the last three cycles. The term "dark money" is often applied to this category of political spender because these groups do not have to disclose the sources of their funding – though a minority do disclose some or all of their donors, by choice or in response to specific circumstances.These organizations can receive unlimited corporate, individual, or union contributions that they do not have to make public, and though their political activity is supposed to be limited, the IRS – which has jurisdiction over these groups – by and large has done little to enforce those limits.

Read more >> Open Secrets Center for Responsive Politics

 

AND HERE IN MESA: Allegations of Dark Money in Mesa City Council District 2

This is highly visual on social media from candidate Jeremy Whittaker

 

Dark Money has attacked our campaign.

I have spoken out many times that I believe the biggest issue facing our city is our debt.  We currently have $1.6 billion in debt and "Mesa Question 1" increases our sales tax by 23%.  I wrote this article explaining how "Mesa's question 1" is another tax payer bailout mixed with more government spending http://www.jeremywhittaker.com/direct/23-tax-increase
After calling out special interest groups buying our City Council candidates I was attacked by Citizens United and property developers who will make millions on this project if it goes through.  Here is the attack ad they sent out to Mesa voters full of lies and deception and you will find my responses in RED.

Our campaign is hoping you will spread the word about the truth about "Mesa Question 1".  We have got to end special interest groups from destroying our city.