3 candidates are running for the Scottsdale mayor's seat. What to know about the pivotal race
Scottsdale voters are deciding who will be the city’s mayor in the July 30 election, a race that’s slated to be competitive with three contenders who are already well-known in Scottsdale’s political scene.
The mayoral contest could decide who holds the City Council majority for the next four years. It's a critical choice that will either largely preserve the status quo or empower a new majority faction that’s likely to either halt or reverse course on many existing city’ initiatives.
All three mayoral candidates have held office in Scottsdale before:
Incumbent Mayor David Ortega, who first took the role in 2020 and also served one term on the City Council in the early aughts. He was the only candidate who did not respond to The Arizona Republic’s candidate questionnaire.
Former City Councilmember Linda Milhaven, who served three terms on the dais from 2011 to 2023.
Former Councilmember Lisa Borowski, who served from 2008 to 2012.
The contenders have varying positions on everything from development to the city’s finances, but the most consequential outcome of their candidacy may be their role in determining what political faction on the July ticket secures control of Scottsdale’s city government.
On one side is the opposition block that consists of Borowski and four conservative City Council candidates who tend to be more critical of Scottsdale's leadership over what they deem wasteful city spending and overdevelopment.
Borowski often has more substantive policy plans and less politically charged or exaggerated talking points than her allies.
An opposition-led council would likely roll back city spending, oppose many city programs and initiatives overall, and be flatly against almost all development.
On the other side is the status quo block, which consists of Ortega, Millhaven and five less-partisan moderates. Its members don’t share a single policy platform, but all have views that resemble what’s been typical on the council since 2020 in regard to everything from sustainability to housing.
The group also differs from the opposition in that it's not constantly critical of the city’s current government.
If the status quo faction maintains the majority the council will likely remain generally conservative when it comes to development, support a broader range of city initiatives than the opposition, and pursue planned projects even if that means covering at least some budget overrides with extra cash.
The mayoral race could end up being the tiebreaker in that battle for council control. At the very least, it will decide who leads what will almost certainly be a heavily divided City Council until at least 2029.
Arizona local elections: Read our full coverage of the Scottsdale mayor’s race
Early voting began July 3. Voters can check on the status of their mailed-in ballot on Maricopa County’s website at https://elections.maricopa.gov/voting/voter-dashboard-login. Those who choose to vote by mail are advised to mail their ballot by July 23 or drop it off at a ballot drop-off location or voting location by July 30.
The broader context: how the mayor’s race could determine overall city control
July’s ballot has the mayor’s seat, as well as three City Council positions.
The three City Council seats that aren’t on the ballot this year are held by one establishment official, Councilmember Solange Whitehead, and two critics — Councilmembers Betty Littlefield and Barry Graham.
That means the opposition needs only two of its four City Council candidates to win in order to secure an outright majority on the seven-person governing body.
The status quo camp needs to win all three council seats in order to maintain its majority, but it has an advantage because the block has both council incumbents, Councilmembers Tammy Caputi and Tom Durham.
Ortega and Milhaven are more closely aligned with the status quo camp, so that faction would likely have the ability to unilaterally pass most initiatives if they won.
The same would be true for the opposition if Borowsky clinched the mayoral position after the council vote was split.
Development: three mayoral candidates, three different views
The one key area where each contender has a distinctly different view is development, although each is relatively conservative, and none support high-density housing near neighborhoods.
Milhaven is the most open to development.
She was one of the only members of the 2021-2023 City Council who thought increasing Scottsdale’s housing stock was necessary to combat housing affordability issues and drive economic growth by making it possible for Scottsdale’s workforce to live inside the city.
She maintains that stance and sees housing near Old Town as an economic driver for small businesses but is adamant that apartments “need to be away from our single-family neighborhoods,” and placed in appropriate areas, like near commercial districts.
“I believe adding houses in our employment centers to (allow) people who work here to live here will help our business community but will also cut down on the number of vehicle miles that people travel on our roads,” she said.
“I think we need a mix of housing in our community in order to be a robust and vibrant community.”
Ortega is generally against apartments and other high-density development, but he has on occasion voted for initiatives such as using county funds to build a small affordable housing complex for the elderly and funding some transitional housing for homeless families.
He’s also supported some efforts to have private developers set aside a certain number of units for workforce housing.
The incumbent mayor disagrees with Milhaven that commercial areas like Old Town are right for some apartments but said there are some out-of-the-way places that could work.
“We need to preserve our Old Town. Not crush and substitute commercial areas for residential apartments,” he said. “Those apartments should be near the highway, closer to our water system so things are circulating correctly (and) where those employment centers are.”
Borowski is the most anti-development candidate.
She has not indicated that she would approve of any apartment development and has taken shots at Ortega during the campaign for what she calls “overurbanization” and “overdevelopment,” which she blames for everything from crime to traffic congestion.
“Why are all of these lackluster apartment projects coming through?” She asked during a candidate forum. “We can decline to approve them. It’s not a matter of right that you can build a high-density, six-story apartment complex in Scottsdale.”
The City Council has approved few apartment units since 2020 and developers have largely stopped bothering to propose new developments — Scottsdale’s council has not received one project pitch this whole year.
Given that record, the basis for Borowsky’s claim of overdevelopment isn’t entirely clear, but that’s been a talking point for almost all of the opposition candidates.
She and her allies may be referring to Scottsdale’s development pipeline, which contains thousands of housing units at various stages of city approval and development.
The bulk of those units were approved before 2021, so the current City Council wouldn’t have been involved.
That’s why Ortega shot back at Borowsky over her criticism, saying, “It is true that … overdevelopment of apartments has occurred, beginning with Ms. Borowsky in 2010 all the way to 2021," during a June 11 candidate forum hosted by Scottsdale Independent.
Borowski and Milhaven agree both want to limit the amount of time a project can remain in the pipeline so that it doesn’t build up again. That could involve putting an expiration date on zoning entitlements or other city-approved easements developers need.
City finances: dual criticism, skepticism of Ortega’s handling
The two women challenging Ortega also take a similar stance when it comes to concern over city spending.
They’ve cited things like the city’s Bond 2019 program, a voter-approved initiative that allowed the city to take on $319 million in bond debt to fund nearly 60 infrastructure projects. It was $115 million over budget early last year, sparking frustration among a subset of residents and officials.
“Of the 58 projects approved in Bond 2019, 11 have been completed,” Borowski said, criticizing what she called Scottsdale’s “irresponsible approach to fiscal oversight.”
City staffers blame most of the budget override on post-pandemic inflation, which has caused funding issues in communities across the country.
The current city leadership has been able to fill some of those shortfalls for the more pressing projects using extra savings, so some officials like Ortega and Caputi have claimed it as a victory as the city’s “conservative” budgeting allowed it to overcome those external pressures.
But inflation doesn’t account for the entire problem, given that many projects have increased far beyond the rate of inflation. The city has never fully explained why that is, which Borowski also pointed out.
“No one has called for an audit. Everyone has been squashed who dares challenge why this is happening,” she said, blaming the overture on poor management by the city and saying she would re-institute a citizen commission to audit Scottsdale’s spending.
Milhaven also mentioned the city’s desire to increase its expenditure limit, which will be on the ballot this November. The initiative would essentially allow Scottsdale to use more of its funds than it currently can under state law.
The reason for that, too, hasn’t been made entirely clear. Milhaven said the city needs to fully flesh that out, but took a less accusatory tack than Bowoski, saying she was agnostic on whether it was due to mismanagement.
“I think we need to dig in and identify why that is. There may be some very good reasons, but nobody has explained to us why,” Milhaven said.
Ortega defended his financial record as mayor in response to the critiques during the June 11 forum.
“We have reduced property taxes by 5% under my administration, we have also increased services by adding an ambulance service and fully funding our police and fire,” he said.
“We have seen many disruptions that are basically worldwide disruptions. We are a very competent city.”
Candidate viability: who’s backing them and how full are their campaign coffers
Ortega’s campaign has the deepest pockets of all three contenders, having raised $119,000. That’s partly because he has kept it open since taking office in 2021 rather than closing it after the election cycle like most candidates.
Still, Ortega has received just about 40 individual donations since January 2021. And 57% of his money has come from just two groups, individuals associated with Sunbrella Properties and RIOT Hospitality Group.
He also has no prominent endorsements, raising questions about how broad support for his campaign actually is.
Milhaven has raised roughly $83,000, about 60% of which came from a $50,000 loan she gave herself.
But she also received about $22,000 from roughly two dozen individual donations during the first three months of 2024. Those in the real estate and development industries were among the most well-represented donor groups.
Milhaven also has the most prominent local endorsements. The local police union called the Police Officers of Scottsdale Association and the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors have both backed her campaign.
Borowski has the least amount of cash, having raised about $50,000 in total. But the vast majority of that, or $37,000, came from a diverse pool of individual donors who range from lawyers to real estate professionals to an IT consultant. She loaned herself the rest of her cash.
She also has the longest list of endorsements, although it doesn’t include prominent local groups such as the Scottsdale Chamber or city unions, which often have the largest impact on city elections in the Valley.
Borowski’s backers include former Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, Arizona Rep. Joseph Chaplik and Alexander Kolodin, former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Barry Goldwater Jr.
Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSamor or reach him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottsdale mayoral election 2024: Meet the candidates