(The Center Square) - Three conservative politicians are pushing back against a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, claiming it is trying to sway local elections.
Scottsdale Councilmember Barry Graham and two candidates, Bob Littlefield and Michelle Ugenti-Rita,senta letter to the board of directors of Axon Enterprise, a public safety technology company, accusing Axon executives of trying to “influence the outcome of the 2026 Scottsdale City Council election.” The primary election for the council will occur on July 21, and the general election will be on Nov. 3.
The company is attempting to elect candidates who would approve its plans for a new headquarters and apartment complex, according to the letter.
The Center Square reached out to Axon multiple times for comment, but the company did not respond before publication time.
In 2024, the Scottsdale City Council approved Axon to build its new headquarters along with a nearly 2,000-unit apartment complex. After the council approved the measure, Scottsdale residents fought back against the building plans andgathered signaturesto determine the facility's fate in November 2026.
However, the ballot measure was effectively canceled after the state Legislature last year passedSenate Bill 1543, which blocked the citizen referendum from taking place.
In November 2025, Scottsdale and Axon, one of the city’s largest employers,cameto a new agreement that reduced the apartment complex from 1,900 to 1,200.
The letter said Axon political consultant Chris Baker and company spokesman David Leibowitz created the political action committee Arizonans for a Better Future in March 2025. The PACreceiveda $500,000 donation from Axon CEO Rick Smith, a $100,000 donation from Axon president Josh Isner and a $20,000 donation from Axon’s chief legal officer Isaiah Fields. That's according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.
According to the letter, the PAC spent money to support legislators who backed SB 1543 and to attack Graham, one of the two city council members who voted against Axon’s rezoning proposal in 2024.
Last month, the same officers who created the Arizonans for a Better Future PAC started the Better Together PAC, according to the letter.
In their letter, Graham, Ugenti-Rita and Littlefield wrote that the PAC has “launched an aggressive campaign of television advertising, social media advertising and street-level political messaging” against them.
The letter also noted that the Better Together PACstructureditself to prevent people from knowing who is financing it.
Graham, Ugenti-Rita and Littlefield added they value Axon’s presence in the city, but "want a relationship built on partnership and mutual respect.
"That future, however, requires confidence that local elections belong to local voters,” they wrote.
They added that Scottsdale residents “deserve elected leaders who answer to them – not to any corporation, regardless of its size, success or importance to our community.”
Regarding the letter, Graham told The Center Square that they sent it because of the “overwhelming evidence that Axon executives are interfering and spending untold sums to influence the election to elect people who will rubber-stamp their high-density agenda.”
Ugenti-Rita said Axon will “stop at nothing to destroy Scottsdale, intimidate future candidates and destroy the current three conservative candidates that have opposed” their 1,200-apartment complex proposal.
She told The Center Square that the letter's authors supported the company's plan to build its new headquarters but opposed the apartment complex.
The aesthetic of “sky-high apartments” like those seen in New York and Chicago does not fit Scottsdale’s aesthetic, Ugenti-Rita, a former Republican state legislator, said.
Graham added that the apartment complex would increase “congestion [and] density] as well as cause “greater burden demands on infrastructure and depreciation of [the city’s] fixed assets.”
“Axon doesn’t want to talk about their apartment. They just want to destroy people who they believe stand in [its] way of building apartments,” she explained.
Graham told The Center Square that the apartment complex is not currently being built, noting that Axon does not have the permits it needs to proceed.
The council member said he thinks Axon is spending all this money to “install their rubber-stamp loyalists so that they can come back and put a fresh application in” and increase the number of units.
Axon is currently facing a lawsuit from Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions over its plan for its headquarters and apartment complex.
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