Mesa City Council Races Heats Up After Whittaker Sheds Light On Finances

With the election right around the corner, Mesa City Councilman Jeremy Whittaker is shedding light on the campaign finances of his colleagues Francisco Heredia and David Luna. Both Heredia and Luna are facing challengers in Mesa’s Primary Election set for August 28, 2018.

Watchdog Councilman Kevin Thompson is not facing a primary challenger for his District 6 seat.
Whittaker, who represents District 2, published Mesa City Council, more corrupt than anyone in Washington D.C., on his website last week. In the post, Whittaker takes a look at the campaign contributions both Heredia and Luna have received by key developers and their associates.

“A few years ago, prior to my election, I found something in politics to be quite disturbing,” writes Whittaker. “Should the individuals and organizations whose issues are being voted on by a governing body also be lining the pockets of the politicians who sit on that governing body? Is that how our democracy was intended to run, whoever has money buys the candidates then the candidates vote in support of their issues? Or even worse should candidates be asking for political donations when individuals or organizations try to get an issue passed through their governing body? I know this is accepted as the status quo in countries like North Korea, Somalia, Syria, etc. But is this what our own democracy has come to? Is this what we want to continue to have it look like?”

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There are many Mesa residents asking the same questions as Whittaker. They began asking the same questions after the majority of the City Council voted this year to ignore the voters’ wishes.

Despite the fact that voters rejected a sales tax that would have funded a new campus for Arizona State University (ASU) featuring film, media, gaming, virtual reality programs and public safety in November 2016, the Council has pushed forward with the building project. Public safety needs have been put on the back burner.

In his post, Whittaker writes referring to Luna and Heredia, “Every single person who has donated to one of these politicians on the issues I outline below passed through City Council. This behavior indicates that our elected body no longer represents the people that it is supposed to, rather, quite the opposite. Whoever has the money buys the politician, the politician then enacts the policies to enrich the donor and the cycle continues. All the meanwhile the taxpayer and utility customers eat the cost through ever increasing taxes and water bills.”

“What becomes apparent,” writes Whittaker, “is that candidates are being bought and their principles, assuming they had any, discarded. I find it hard to believe this is the democracy our forefathers envisioned.”

(Read Whittaker’s exposé, Mesa City Council, more corrupt than anyone in Washington D.C., here)

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District 6
Incumbent Kevin Thompson is unopposed in the Mesa City Council District 6 primary.^[1]