Missing the Forest for the Trees in Arizona (Part 2.0 - 2025 Edition)
The details of controversial conversations are demanding explanation, but are constantly ignored for top-line sensationalism. Who is running our local and federal governments, if not The People?
Last week, a controversial floor vote went down in the Arizona House of Representatives over a local issue in which Scottsdale’s rights to make its own decisions in accordance with the wishes of citizens was usurped by the legislature. The issue, which involves a dispute over a local corporation (Axon) and housing, is likely to find its way into court and spark significant debate about overreach and the authority given to both municipal governments and the legislature.
On Saturday, I accompanied my better half, Representative Rachel Keshel (Arizona’s 17th Legislative District) to her monthly district meeting, which brings GOP leadership together to tackle local items and gives the opportunity for elected officials to brief party brass. District 17 has one GOP representative (Rachel) and a GOP Senator (Vince Leach). Anyway, Rachel had voted No on the Axon bill, favoring Scottsdale, but wound up voting with a group that lost 40-19 in the House. Leach, who plans to vote Yes when given the opportunity in the Senate, insinuated that Rachel seems to be out of touch given that she voted in a group that lost the vote by more than 2 to 1. Rachel popped back, “Maybe we should check out the campaign donations, then.”
Some GOP legislators who were No votes have offered testimony in which it is implied that such a vote would jeopardize that legislator’s political career (vote for us or we run you off). Nick Kupper, a freshman Republican from Surprise (and Air Force retiree), gave the most descriptive account of this coercive behavior and specifically noted the unwillingness to make the smallest of compromises to potentially sway his vote. Kupper’s account (embedded below), along with feedback from others and the vote outcome, makes it appear that the persuasive powers of outside entities outweigh those of the legitimate stakeholders (The People), who are outclassed by money, threats, and undue clout.
For another example, check out Rep. Joe Chaplik’s floor tirade against what he called the most scandalous thing he’d seen in five years in the legislature. Chaplik was reportedly chastised by Axon’s CEO, Rick Smith, personally.
The simple fact that more people aren’t saying time-out and digging into the testimonies of Kupper and other dissenting Republicans alleging dirty play reminds me of last year’s main political debacle in Arizona, which took place in January 2024. Kari Lake had recorded a personal conversation with then-GOP chairman Jeff DeWit at some previous point, and when the audio went public, all hell broke loose. I am most closely aligned with Lake’s faction and speed of Republican politics and consider myself firmly entrenched in that way of thought, as my regular readers will attest; however, my network is vast, and I also know plenty of Lake-haters and those in between who try to ride political fences as much as possible. Needless to say, I heard both sides of this story when it broke out.
Jeff DeWit wanted to bribe Kari Lake!
Kari Lake betrayed Jeff DeWit’s trust!
How could we be doing this during an election year!?
I could go on, but you get the point. Everyone was playing politics when they should have been dialed in to what was said in the actual conversation. The issue escalated, DeWit resigned, and Gina Swoboda replaced him as Arizona GOP Chair a few days later. Primaries continued on, the government tried to kill President Trump, and the election came and went – and so did the valuable opportunity to dig into the most important thing Chairman DeWit said that could have actually shifted the window into how we engage in our political discourse.
Politics, at least here in America, is supposed to consider and prioritize the will of the people in light of existing checks and balances. It should not be contorted and manipulated by outside forces seeking to pervert the process, whether through bribery (hard or soft), coercion, or outright threats of violence. Read what I posted in my January 2024 article about what the true outrage of the Lake-DeWit encounter should have been remembered as:
For reference, here is a post from X with the ten-minute audio release.
Near the end of the audio, at the 9:30 mark, this exchange occurs:
Lake - I think you should go public with this and then say, “hey…”
DeWit - No, no, no, no, no, no – then I turn my key in my car and BOOM!
The recording concludes with Lake being asked for a “counter,” and her insistence that she can’t be bought. Isn’t that what people have always wanted? For their elected or appointed officials to not be bought off and corrupted? We have come full circle in our idiocy when outrage over this audio surfacing prevails over the substance of what is being said.
This is certainly not DeWit’s idea, and that can be discerned through the recording and through the unease in which he approaches Lake with this idea that she should sit out the 2024 election cycle because the folks “back east” have a new, controllable political robot in mind to fill the open Senate seat once held by feckless Republican weakling Jeff Flake. What should have happened here is exactly what was suggested at the end of the call – that both Lake and DeWit blew the lid off what the true problem in politics is:
Outside influences control state politics through bribery, compromise, and coercion.
Again, people are arguing about the impacts of the fallout. What will become of the state GOP in an election year has turned into The Republican city of Scottsdale got overruled by the Republican-majority legislature, when in fact the main question should default to:
Who in the hell is threatening (or buying) the elected representatives of The People and preventing them from freely voting in the best interests of (and often in accordance with the wishes of) the people they swore to represent as their voice in government?
If our elected officials or prominent party leaders are too afraid to make the right decisions or at least exercise their votes freely without coercion, have we already crossed one bridge too far in the experiment for freedom and self-government?
Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.
Great article. Shared it (and your referral link) with the Montana Freedom Caucus as we're seeing the same kind of shenanigans in our current legislative session.
Makes me sick to my stomach!!!