AZ Central's Mark Olalde's $10,000 Plus OOOPS!

by Rebecca Jarman
Candidate for Higley School Board

AZ Central’s reporter Mark Olalde’s article, seen here, creates the exact "political spin" which I speak of in my November 10 Rebecca Jarman for Higley Facebook post.

Olalde’s failure to mention the Keeping Higley Strong PAC’s campaign finance report, with its $10,000 plus in donations/expenditures for support of Whitener and Wojtovich, Superintendent Birdwell’s publically declared favorites, has duped the community into the false belief that similar amounts were spent on all four of the candidate’s campaigns for the two open positions on the HUSD Governing Board.

Perhaps Mr. Olalde would like to now reference my Facebook page, which includes 6 of the 20 pages of financial information for the said PAC, now posted for those who do not have the time to research it.

I assumed that an investigative reporter would research and include all information which is pertinent to the community he serves. Perhaps not! The report found on my Facebook page shows the $10,000 plus collected and expended for new mailers and new signage, along with a $300 contribution to each of the "W’s" personal committees. A quick glance at each of their campaign finance reports that Mr. Olalde references in his article makes this information readily available and hard to overlook, yet he managed to ignore it. It’s also an interesting detail, due to the fact that Mr. "W" was adamant that he was not backed by anyone, nor should politics become part of our school district.

When the PAC resources are added to the overall spending in the HUSD Governing Board race, it reveals a large amount of monies spent to campaign for the Superintendent’s favorites, made public by a significant personal donation she made to the Whitener campaign. It also identifies the source of the PAC monies as coming almost entirely from eight individuals living on the west side of Phoenix. Now why would anyone on the west side of Phoenix be interested in the outcome of the Higley Unified School District’s Governing Board race?

A real investigative reporter might want to find the answer to that question! Too bad they don’t exist at AZ Central.