The latest “political hit” job indicates there’s a new cabal in town. Dark money in Yavapai County is back, and unfortunately, it looks like it’s here to stay.1
The latest “campaign” hit piece targets four of the seven current Prescott Council members, Save the Dells, AZFPI, the Executive Committee of Prescott Indivisible, Noel Campbell, Mary Beth Hrin, Harry Oberg, Chris Kuknyo and Brooks Compton. All are allegedly controlled by David Stringer, but most are not running for any office.2
Folks, that is one strange bunch of bedfellows. These people and groups do have one thing in common: they have not, and will not, do the bidding of long-time Prescott developers and the groups who enable them.3
So for all the new people in town (and those who’ve lived here forever and just can’t stand this stuff) here are some facts:
The atrocious negative campaigning started in 2017 with misleading hit pieces targeting Mary Beth Hrin and Jean Wilcox (both running against Greg Mengarelli for Mayor).4 Mengarelli ran unopposed in 2019, so no hit piece⎯what a surprise! In 2021 “dark money” really invaded Prescott elections. Nasty hit pieces came out against Phil Goode, Brandon Montoya and Eric Moore.2
AZFPI has been openly critical of Mengarelli’s policies and practices as an elected official. We pointed out he accepted developer money in every campaign except 2019 when he ran unopposed.5 In fact, he’s currently taking developer money in his campaign for District I County Supervisor.6 We discussed the water policy changes he championed and implemented as Mayor7⎯policies which benefited developers and frustrated voters who want more managed growth.
We have also written about Mengarelli’s potential conflicts of interest in his role with Prescott Frontier Days (the Rodeo) while serving as an elected official. We have documented the financial losses incurred by the Rodeo since he became their business manager.8 We questioned the $15.3 million dollar appropriation from the state to the Rodeo for improvements to taxpayer property, while keeping the Mayor and Prescott City Council in the dark during negotiations with state representatives.9 As of this writing, the citizen lawsuit over the $15.3 million is not decided by the court. (Astoundingly, the rodeo appropriation somehow survived the draconian state budget cuts this year.)
AZFPI writes on topics related to our mission.10 Everything we write is researched carefully and footnoted to a source. We circulate our blog where it can accessed by the most readers. Publishing outlets in Prescott and Yavapai County are very limited, and some will not publish perspectives which contradict the long-time prevailing Prescott mantra that “growth is always good.”
Most importantly, we do not use dark money to get our message out. We don’t need to.
Even when AZFPI endorses a candidate, our pledge remains the same: No matter who is elected, we will continue to call-out any elected official who does not represent the people, or whose ethics fall short of what is necessary to represent the public trust.
Finally, we pose two questions to voters and our readers. If using dark money and attack ads is how a candidate campaigns, is this the character of the person you want to represent you? And how many excellent potential candidates do we lose because they refuse to put themselves and their families through this? Your vote is important, please use it thoughtfully.
FOOTNOTES:
1The latest political attack pieces contain language reminiscent of the recent Prescott mayoral recall effort. Yet Prescott Mayor Goode is not running for anything this election cycle. The attack pieces also denigrate private individuals and community groups like Save the Dells, the Prescott Indivisible Executive Board, and Arizonans For Promoting Integrity (AZFPI). https://azfpi.org/growth/misuse-of-the-prescott-mayor-recall-process-whos-behind-the-curtain/
2Council members Montoya, Gambogi and Moore are conspicuously absent from the latest campaign hit materials. Not so in the recent past. Notably, AZFPI’s July 25, 2021 Prescott Daily Courier ad condemned dark money hit pieces used against Montoya, Moore and Goode. All three were elected. While Montoya is certainly entitled to express his displeasure with actual candidates, what is disconcerting is that he shared a website on his social media accounts from the same group responsible for disseminating the latest political attack pieces. Candidates running for office include: David Stringer, County Attorney; Brooks Compton, Board of Supervisors District 1; Chris Kuknyo, Board of Supervisors District 4.
3A number of the individuals and groups listed are not in a decision-making role managing development and growth. Clearly, individuals such as David Stringer (County Attorney candidate) would not be responsible for making such decisions. The rest of the candidates and groups noted have documented positions as advocates of managed and sensible growth.
4https://azfpi.org/conflicts/stop-dark-money-in-prescott-politics/
5The City of Prescott previously maintained campaign finance reports for previous elections in their public records portal. This information has been removed by the city clerk, however copies are obtainable through a public records request.
6 https://apps.yavapaiaz.gov/campaignfinance/
7 https://azfpi.org/growth/prescotts-kick-the-can-game-with-development-impact-fees/
8https://azfpi.org/growth/the-rodeo-and-the-recall/
9Arizona Central May 23, 2023 article by Ray Sterns, “Ron Owsley, the nonprofit’s president, acknowledged that the mayor was ‘pretty upset’ over being kept in the dark about the state money, but also said the rodeo officials ‘certainly kept it quiet’ when they began working with legislators on it. That was a business decision to prevent anyone else from ‘cutting up the pie, he said.’ ” Prescott Daily Courier May 15, 2023 article by Debra Winters, “Despite the city being a stakeholder, I wasn’t even consulted by anyone from the state regarding funding, especially not having any kind of agreement with the rodeo,” Goode said late last week. “Especially being a long-term plan [sic], they just assumed the city would be on board with this. There was no decency to double-check with us. I was very disturbed by the way it happened.”