Axon-backed bill to cancel Scottsdale election on HQ complex sparks Republican infighting
Axon brought a mobile tactical simulator to the Arizona Capitol on March 4, 2025, as part of its effort to back legislation that would stop a ballot referendum in Scottsdale brought by residents opposed to the company's plans to build a 74-acre campus near the Loop 101 and Hayden Road. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
Republican lawmakers fought with each other Wednesday over a proposal that would strip away the right of Scottsdale voters to challenge the sprawling headquarters project for law enforcement technology company Axon.
An earlier Axon-backed GOP effort to make it impossible for all Arizonans to let local voters challenge development projects at the ballot box failed to gain traction, so the company's allies in the legislature pivoted instead to a proposal that would disenfranchise just Scottsdale's voters.
The House International Trade Committee signed off on a bill last month that would bar Scottsdale voters from heading to the polls to decide the fate of Axon's planned 74-acre campus near Hayden Road and the Loop 101. In addition to the company's headquarters, the development would also include 1,900 apartments and a luxury hotel.
The Arizona Constitution gives residents the right to refer matters to the ballot.
Local activists, backed by a signature-gathering effort linked to a California labor union, gathered more than 25,000 signatures to send the rezoning decision made by a lame-duck city council — the votes for the project came from councilors who had been voted out of office — to the ballot in a voter referendum, which must happen by November 2026.
The measure that lawmakers advanced on Wednesday would cancel that election. It says that any municipality with between 200,000 and 500,000 residents — Scottsdale had 241,000 residents in the 2020 census — must 'allow hotel use and multifamily residential housing' for land zoned like the Axon parcel 'without requiring any type of application that will require a public hearing' if certain criteria is met.
Rep. Joseph Chaplik, R-Scottsdale, said he and other Scottsdale lawmakers were not brought to the table on the proposed legislation. He unsuccessfully tried to amend the measure, leading to lengthy debate on the House floor.
'Not one Scottsdale representative, all nine of us, was involved in this,' Chaplik said.
Rep. Tony Rivero, R-Peoria, who sponsored the strike-everything amendment at Axon's behest and chaired the committee that heard it, said that he reached out to Chaplik 'several times.' He also claimed that the referendum campaign was orchestrated by 'outside special interest groups,' a line that Axon and its supporters have repeatedly used.
Chaplik has been strongly opposed to the efforts to undermine the Scottsdale election, and has gotten into heated arguments at the Capitol with Axon CEO Patrick Smith about the legislation, something he made note of during floor debate of Senate Bill 1543.
Chaplik claimed he was 'assaulted, accosted and threatened' by Smith at the legislature, and that his colleagues had 'handed over the keys' to Smith and his lobbyists in order to let them sway lawmakers.
Last month, Axon held a large press conference on the House lawn that included a large number of their employees, technology, food and more where lawmakers were seen rubbing elbows with Axon's C-suite and lobbyists.
Rivero claimed that the bill is not specific to Axon but could not name a single other project that it could apply to, and he admitted that Axon brought the legislation to him.
'Yes, I was approached by Axon, but I am approached by many groups,' Rivero said when Rep. Pamela Carter, R-Scottsdale, asked him where the legislation originated. 'I have no history with Axon, I have no history with their leadership. I met them about a month ago.'
Rivero said the reason he sponsored the legislation was because of the economic impact that Axon and similar companies leaving the state would have. Although the bill is in response to Scottsdale's Axon referendum, he said that the issue 'goes beyond Scottsdale.'
That didn't satisfy Chaplik.
'Where is the respect for me and my colleagues in Scottsdale that oppose this bill?' Chaplik asked when explaining one of his several amendments that failed to be added. 'Folks, there is a red button on your desk. I hope that a few of you use it once and a while.'
Chaplik's amendments included requiring that the international campus have its workers work on-site, change the amount of housing meant for workers from 20% to 50% and more.
All were rejected.
The bill cleared floor debate on an informal vote and is now cleared for a formal roll-call vote. If it passes the House, it would go back to the Senate for a final vote.
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