City communications officials were the first-responders yesterday when Mayor John Giles got an alert from Tom Stapley that could have challenged their carefully-crafted public relations campaign to sell voters on approving another staggering $500,000,000 - that's half a billion bucks - in more public debt bond obligations to load more debt onto the already burdened backs of taxpayers.
(See post from yesterday on this blog "Gas-Lighting")
Let's have SOME MORE CONFUSION
Stapley, disturbed by what he sees as a clearly false message, filed a complaint with the Mesa City Clerk on Monday. . .
"I understand campaign law enough to know that the way they sent the text is most likely a campaign-law violation because there is no source or group attached," he said.
His complaint notes that whoever is behind the message is trying to influence the vote on Question 1 and disparage the mayor.
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"Giles says he was concerned by the text, seeing it as similar to fake posts spread during the presidential election now sneaking into municipal politics.
"We've been obsessed with this as a country for a few years, but this is a very local example," he said. . . "
"The text goes beyond the usual removing-yard-signs shenanigans in local politics, Giles said.
"This is a more sophisticated, evil version of that," he said.
"This is people pretending to be someone they are not. They are promulgating lies. ... They are trying to confuse people. Question 1 has literally nothing to do with utility rates."
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Here's the push-back barrage from EVT just after 'the news story' from KJZZ:
Mesa investigating after voters hit with deceptive text messages aimed to confuse
The consequences of a 'yes' or 'no' vote
