It has been 18 years and 141 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.

By May 4, 2016 I had turned in my nominating petitions with far more validated voter signatures than required. It didn’t take long for the opposition to ask for copies of my petitions. I received this email from the City Clerk on May 6, 2016: “I am sending this information to you as part of our neutrality and transparency with candidates.  Mr. Allan Lira requested copies of your nomination petitions.”

This is nothing new. Almost every candidate will ask for copies of his/her opponent’s nominating petitions in the hope that they can prove that there are not enough valid signatures. If successful they can get rid of a potential opponent without ever having to run against him or her. Only occasionally does it prove successful. I’m afraid Mr. Lira won’t have any luck for we validated nearly 700 registered voter signatures before the petitions were submitted to the City Clerk.

We wondered who Mr. Lira is and why would he be asking for copies of my petitions. One of our group found this. Mr. Allan Lira is on Linked In and here is the information he provides:

Allan Lira                                                                                                                       Data analyst at Gallego for Phoenix                                                                    Location: Glendale, Arizona        Industry: Political Organization

  1. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99
  2. Gallego for Arizona
  3. Marquez for Arizona

His listed previous work experience:

Organizer

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99

November 2014 – January 2015 (3 months)

Data Analyst/Team Lead

Gallego for Arizona

September 2014 – November 2014 (3 months)

Campaign Manager

Marquez for Arizona

January 2014 – August 2014 (8 months)

Data Analyst/Field Organizer

Gallego for Phoenix

June 2013 – November 2013 (6 months)

It appears that Mr. Lira currently works for Ruben Gallego as a data analyst at Gallego for Phoenix.  Ruben Gallego assumed office as Arizona’s 7th district U.S. Representative on January 3, 2015.

Thanks to the Arizona Republic we are all keenly aware of Sammy Chavira’s travel on your dime—taxpayer money. One of those infamous trips was for $2,075 to go back to Washington, D.C. to see his good buddy…wait for it… Rueben Gallego sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

Arizona Republic March 4, 2016

Arizona Republic
March 4, 2016

 

It’s interesting to see how the links within Sammy’s web interconnect. Sammy spent your money to see Gallego sworn in. Sammy’s questionable travel expenses were exposed by the Arizona Republic and include the Gallego trip. Here is the link to Paul Giblin’s front page story of March 4, 2016 about Sammy’s travel: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2016/03/04/glendale-councilman-sammy-chavira-charges-24k-trips-3-years-taxpayers/78857734/ .

Sammy is now getting assistance from the very same good buddy, Gallego, in his current run for the Yucca district city council position. Could it be because Sammy is in trouble, politically…and his friend Ruben Gallego is trying to save him?

Special interests have a long history of influencing political outcomes. Union influence is one of those long standing components. The fire union, for years, has been able to manipulate election outcomes in urban areas, notably Phoenix, Glendale and several other cities in the Metro Valley. Do you believe the Food Workers Union should join the fire union in determining your councilmembers in Glendale? Across this country voters in droves are rejecting candidates under the influence of big donor, special interest money. Perhaps Glendale voters will do the same.

Just something for the voters of the Yucca district to consider…

 

© Joyce Clark, 2016

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