Scottsdale City Council candidate Bob Littlefield withdrew from the race this week to avoid splitting votes among candidates seeking to stop the Axon development.
Littlefield, a three-term councilman from 2002 to 2014, dropped out of the race just days after expressing gratitude for winning in the primary. Littlefield expressed a desire to have more votes in the general election go to fellow, likeminded candidates Barry Graham and Michelle Ugenti-Rita — all three have been vocal in their desire to prevent a development effort by Axon Enterprises.
Dear Friends,
Today I made the difficult and personally painful decision to withdraw from the City Council race and return to my position as the Chairman of TAAAZE (Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions). I made this decision based on the results of the recent…
Raoul Zubia, the fourth primary victor, and incumbent Councilwoman Solange Whitehead, have expressed support for the Axon apartment development, though they have lamented the legislative intervention that thwarted a ballot referendum.
Littlefield, Graham, and Ugenti-Rita have opposed Axon, citing concerns with overdevelopment. The trio recently accused the company of engaging in a pay-to-play scheme to sway the council election. They claimed certain Axon executives funneled more than $1 million into cohort-run political action committees (PAC) dedicated to ensuring only development-friendly candidates were elected: Arizonans for a Better Future, and Better Together.
Arizonans for a Better Future has collected more than $1.1 million, which included $500,000 from Axon, $500,000 from Axon CEO Rick Smith, $100,000 from Axon President Josh Isner, and $20,000 from Axon Chief Legal Officer Isaiah Fields.
In June, the PAC gave $225,000 to American Perspective, a Virginia-based PAC, and spent around $30,000 for communications, more than $16,700 for polling and research, and $1,500 for legal services.
Better Together has raised more than $335,000 from National Horizon, a Virginia-based conservative super PAC. Better Together has spent approximately $200,000 to oppose Littlefield, Graham, and Ugenti-Rita, and $62,000 to support Whitehead.
“Bottom line, if Axon defeats the candidates who told them ‘no,’ Axon will never hear ‘no’ from the Scottsdale City Council again,” said Littlefield in June.
Dear Friends,
For 25 years, overdevelopment has been the dominant issue in Scottsdale elections — and the biggest threat to our city’s character and quality of life. Clogged roads, blocked views, higher taxes, and strained infrastructure are its lasting legacy.…
The city council approved a deal with Axon to fast-track its headquarters expansion last November following the company’s legislative intervention against grassroots opposition. Axon executives had initially called it quits on the city last summer after declining to break ground on its new headquarters early last year.
A ballot referendum led by Littlefield, Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions (TAAZE), had gained enough signatures to appear on the ballot and allow voters to decide on the rezoning.
TAAZE emerged following a lame-duck city council agreement in 2024. The group had accused Axon of paying petition blockers to prevent Scottsdale residents from signing petitions to put Axon’s apartment development to a vote on the November 2026 ballot.
TAAZE raised 26,000 signatures and was poised to put the fate of the development to a vote.
Axon Referendum Update: I am happy to report our effort to collect the necessary signatures to refer the massive Axon apartment complex to the ballot is ahead of schedule. This in spite Axon's efforts to undermine our petition drive by deploying blockers to harass our petition… pic.twitter.com/opxb1Qaec6
However, in the months following the petition signature dropoff, Axon successfully lobbied the legislature to pass a bill preventing certain municipalities from allowing residents to decide land zoning measures pertaining to hoteling and housing. Gov. Katie Hobbs signed that bill into law in April 2025.
In May, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled the law to be constitutional.
Littlefield promised to continue to fight the Axon apartment development from outside the council.
Turning Point COO Tyler Bowyer commended Littlefield for withdrawing.
“Huge props to Bob Littlefield for putting Scottsdale ahead of himself, which he has always done,” said Bowyer.
True! 🇺🇸
Huge props to Bob Littlefield for putting Scottsdale ahead of himself, which he has always done
Ugenti-Rita commended Littlefield’s decision as “sacrifice” and an exemplar of leadership.
“For decades, Bob has been one of this city’s fiercest and most principled advocates, always willing to stand up to special interests and fight for the residents of Scottsdale, no matter the personal or political cost,” said Ugenti-Rita
I want to honor Bob Littlefield for his extraordinary service to #Scottsdale. For decades, Bob has been one of this city’s fiercest and most principled advocates, always willing to stand up to special interests and fight for the residents of Scottsdale, no matter the personal or… https://t.co/jpvAHbL8eE
— Michelle Ugenti-Rita (MUR) (@MichelleUgenti) August 5, 2026
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Scottsdale leaders have accused senior executives with the weapons company behind the Taser, Axon Enterprises, of using a pay-to-play scheme to sway the outcome of the Scottsdale City Council election.
Scottsdale City Councilman Barry Graham, former Councilman Bob Littlefield, and former State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita made the case for their complaint in a letter to the Axon Enterprise board of directors. All three are also running for council seats.
In a press release, Graham accused Axon’s senior executives of engaging in what appeared to be an attempt to influence the city council election. If their actions were what they appeared to be, said Graham, then that would raise troubling implications concerning corporate involvement in local elections.
The letter to Axon’s board claimed Axon executives funneled over $1.1 million into at least one political action committee their cohorts created — Arizonans for a Better Future — to defeat city council candidates opposed to a rezoning for their company’s headquarters campus.
These same cohorts created another political action committee earlier this month, Better Together, but total funds aren’t yet available since its first campaign finance report won’t be due until July 15.
Ballots for the city council election began to be mailed out on Wednesday.
This power struggle between Scottsdale leadership and Axon can be traced back to 2024, when a lame-duck majority of the Scottsdale City Council approved Axon’s petition to rezone 74 acres for apartments to serve its new headquarters. Scottsdale residents who objected to the rezoning formed the Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions and successfully gathered more than 25,000 signatures for a ballot referendum.
However, before that election could occur, Axon headed off a potential voter rejection of their desired rezoning by convincing the legislature to pass SB 1543, dubbed the “Axon Bill.” The legislation prevents municipalities with populations between 200,000 to 500,000 from allowing residents to weigh in on certain land zoning measures pertaining to hoteling and housing.
The legislative workaround irked Scottsdale’s elected leaders, including key Scottsdale lawmakers who claimed they were left out of discussions on the bill. Mayor Lisa Borowsky accused Gov. Katie Hobbs and the legislature of “unconstitutional overreach” that would ultimately harm the Scottsdale community.
I am disappointed with the way the Axon Bill has played out, culminating with the Governor signing this awful legislation—-without any discussion with representatives of #Scottsdale, knowing the impact it will have exclusively on our communities.
These political action committees were characterized as coordinating entities engaged in “aggressive” political campaigns against Graham, Littlefield, and Ugenti-Rita, whom the letter said were the only three candidates that had supported all but Axon’s apartment component of their headquarters project.
“[T]he circumstantial evidence here is substantial and difficult to ignore. It suggests that senior executives of a major public corporation are attempting to remove local elected officials and candidates perceived as insufficiently supportive of the company’s development objectives,” stated the letter. “Scottsdale voters should decide who represents Scottsdale — not corporate executives, political consultants, or special interests with access to virtually unlimited financial resources.”
The complaint letter relayed that the political action committee was created and entirely funded by Axon leadership.
Axon lobbyist Chris Baker and Axon spokesman David Leibowitz formed the two political action committees. Arizonans for a Better Future received $500,000 from the Axon company itself, $500,000 from Axon CEO Rick Smith, $100,000 from Axon President Josh Isner, and $20,000 from Axon Chief Legal Officer Isaiah Fields.
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Former Arizona state Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita called on Rep. Jake Hoffman, founding chairman ofthe Arizona Freedom Caucus, to amend a bill involving sexually explicit materials in schools to include the Maricopa County Library District.
Senate Bill 1007 proposed by Hoffman, a Republican, makes it a class 5 felony for a public school to show a student sexually explicit materials or use it in the classroom in any way.
“I would like to encourage the bill sponsor, @JakeHoffmanAZ and my former colleagues to amend this bill to include the Maricopa County Library District since @ThomasGalvin won’t do anything to stop county libraries from facilitating a liberal woke agenda by promoting sexually graphic and sensitive material to children,” said Ugenti-Rita, a Republican who represented Arizona’s District 23 from 2019 to 2023.
The bill prohibits Arizona public schools to refer students to sexually explicit material unless “the material possesses serious educational value for minors or serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” or “the public school requires written parental consent, on a per-material basis, before referring a student to or using the material.”
The public school must also provide students whose parents do not consent for them to see the material with an alternative assignment that does not contain sexually explicit material.
Sexually explicit materials include “textual, visual or audio materials or materials accessed via any other medium that depict sexual conduct, sexual excitement or ultimate sexual acts,” the bill says.
Charter schools can require parents to waive the right to object to learning materials or activities as a condition of enrollment if the charter school provides a comprehensive list of books and materials used for instruction each school year before the student enrolls.
The parent keeps the right to object to those materials if they are altered after the students’ enrollment.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
Former Gov. Doug Ducey enacted the birth control deregulation that took effect earlier this month, but Gov. Katie Hobbs is taking the credit.
In a press release, Hobbs framed the deregulation as timely on her part considering that “extremists across the country” have been threatening access to contraceptives.
“Reproductive freedom is critical to the individuals and families working hard to create a life for themselves in Arizona,” said Hobbs. “We are building an Arizona for everyone, which means ensuring people across the state have what they need to live a free and healthy life. I will never stop fighting to protect freedoms for Arizonans and standing up to the extremists who threaten access to the basic healthcare our families rely on.”
However, Ducey signed the deregulation into law through SB1082 in 2021. Former State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, a Republican, introduced the legislation.
Considering the highly politically divided environment we live in and grappling with controversial topics like contraceptives, abortion and prescription authority it was no small feat getting this bill passed and signed into law and doing it with broad bipartisan support to boot.… https://t.co/3DkwlLY3Zr
— Michelle Ugenti Rita (@MichelleUgenti) July 1, 2023
It took several years for Arizona’s regulatory agencies to secure final approval for the deregulation, mainly due to delay on the part of the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy (ASBP). SB1082 directed the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy (ASBP) to work with the Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) to adopt procedural rules for pharmacies to distribute the contraceptives.
During ASBP’s final discussion of rulemaking on the deregulation last month, ASBP Executive Director Kam Gandhi explained that they prioritized other issues.
“We’re just now getting to it, but obviously over the last two, three years, we’ve had other challenges and that was more pressing than hormonal contraceptives,” said Gandhi.
The Governor’s Regulatory Review Council (GRRC) issued the final approval.
Under the deregulation, Arizonans over 18 years old no longer need to secure a prescription in order to buy hormonal birth control or contraceptives. Instead, those seeking the contraceptives will need to receive a blood pressure test and annual screening at the pharmacy. Pharmacists retain the right to refuse to dispense contraceptives if they believe the drug would pose a harm to the patient, or if contraceptives violate their religious or moral beliefs.
Pharmacists are also required to tell the patient when and how to use the contraceptive, the risks associated with the contraceptive, and when to seek medical assistance while taking the contraceptive.
As part of the deregulation, ASBP expanded pharmacists’ continuing education requirements to mandate three hours minimum on hormonal contraceptives prior to receiving a license renewal every two years.
The ASBP discussed implementing the legislation during a Task Force Rule Writing Work Group meeting last September that included Lisa Villarroel with AZDHS and Laura Mercer with the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In drafting the procedural rules, ASBP relied on precedent established by the 21 other states that allow pharmacists to distribute birth control without a prescription. Those states are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia (in their documentation, ASBP recognized the District of Columbia as a state, which made their total 22 states).
The ASBP task force again discussed the rulemaking for the deregulation in February, followed by public comment on the proposed procedural rules in May, and final approval last month.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Wednesday, the Arizona House approved a Senate bill to repeal the governor’s current executive powers in public health emergencies.
Instead, SB1009 would ensure governors only have the authority to issue a state of emergency for public health emergencies for 30 days. After that, the governor would be limited to extending that state of emergency for 30 days at a time with a limit of 120 days or about four months. Once that time is exhausted, the state legislature must consent to any new state of emergency.
The governor wouldn’t be able to extend the state of emergency more than once without additional reporting requirements. After 60 days of an emergency, the governor must submit a written report to a joint committee of the Senate and House health committees. That committee will assess the report along with a Arizona Department of Health Services briefing and publish a public review of the extension.
SB1009 also empowers the state legislature to extend the state of an emergency for public health emergencies as well. Those extensions would be limited to 30 days, too.
The bill passed along party lines. It now heads to Governor Doug Ducey for final approval.
Ducey only ended the COVID-19 state of emergency at the end of last month: well over two years after the initial state of emergency was issued.
This legislative session covered other changes to Arizona’s state of emergency protocol. Ducey signed HB2507 on Monday, ensuring that religious services would be considered essential during a state of emergency. Over the last two years, other state governments forced the closure of religious buildings and worship gatherings, punishing those who dared to defy their public health orders in order to exercise their religious freedoms.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
