Mesa Voters Say NO to The Wrong Direction Mayor John Giles & His Friends Want to Take Our City

In spite of a bogus $500 Million Dollar Public Relations Fiasco that blew up in their faces, financed by a political action committee registered on the premises at his own private Personal Injury/Accident Attorney law offices, Giles & Dickson,  John Giles and his 'highly-influential" friends - referred to here as the FOG [Friends of Giles] - have been forced to back down, stopped in their tracks by the resounding sentiment of taxpayers who are now actively engaged to go against 'special interest' groups that have dominated city government for generations. 
Revolving-Door Congressman Matt Salmon, now hired by ASU as a lobbyist and 'influence-peddler', simply failed big time using the Summit Consulting Group that was paid over $400,00 for a self-described major screw-up that took all of them to the panic point . . . even more 'dirty money' was raised but that didn't have to get disclosed.

One way out of this big mess here in the New Urban Downtown Mesa is to run in another direction pointed out in the animated sign to the right for those that choose both to 'double-dip' holding public office at the same time dabbling in private real estate speculation here in downtown.
You simply cannot have it both ways.
That risky game has gone on far too long here between highly-influential people" - elected or employed inside City Hall - and their friends, family and undisclosed business connections.

Case in point with last week's General Election results where the Yes1Mesa ballot question was rejected by voters and taxpayers.
Here's a convenient line-up of some of the players in the cast of characters inThe FOG in the image to the left.
Starting at the left side is termed-out District 2 Mesa City Council member Alex Finter who's been in office for eight years and who previously held Mayor's office in the usual game of musical chairs played-out by the Political Machine.
He endorsed and ran the political campaign for Shelly Allen, former long-time employed bureaucrat inside the Office of Economic Development, who was defeated by popular vote to succeed the incumbent Alex Finter.

The winner in District 2 is Jeremy Whittaker, a political independent with a strong entrepreneurial record founding his own start-up company and small business development initiatives. 
Against all odds and thousands of dollars poured into his opponent's political campaign by outside-the-district contributions from firefighter and police unions and other special interests with dirty money, he won the run-off contest with a smart and well-informed strategy to overcome obstacles from the local cadre of cronies playing the same-old same-old game of tired old-time politics. Fresh thinking and new talent.

Second from the left is Jerry Lewis, longtime friend of Mayor John Giles, who was immediately endorsed by Giles on the same day he made the announcement stating his intentions to get elected to the Mesa Council for District 3. He received a joint endorsement from ex-mayor Scott Smith at the same time.
The product again of the generations-old political machine here, he was also defeated by community activist  Ryan Winkle, who was all over the placein his district practically all the time and everywhere using social media and his personal charisma to good advantage.
He beat Jerry Lewis by an overwhelming majority in the primary election, largely attributable to his positive actions in the community and taking the time to engage his constituents.
 

Readers of this blog can look into who the others members of the FOG are . . . it might linger and hold onto the ground for a while but sooner or later we will need to clear the air and work together moving our city forward.