July 16 saw the last meeting of the Fountain Hills Republican Club (FHRC) before the Aug. 2 primary.

Nearly 100 club members and visitors attended the 9 a.m. meeting held at the Community Center to hear keynote speakers Elijah Norton (candidate for AZ CD1 House), Thayer Verschoor (candidate for County Board of Supervisors) and Rachel Mitchell (candidate for County Attorney). Other candidates, including congressional candidate Josh Barnett, State Representative candidate Alex Kolodin and mayoral candidate Joe Arpaio, were present and were given an opportunity to speak.

Notably, this event was the first time that all three congressional candidates in the hotly contested primary race, Norton, Barnett, and incumbent Congressman David Schweikert, were together in the same room.

Town Council candidate Allen Skillicorn called attention to the fact that on the Republican version of the ballot, the Fountain Hills Council race is physically located on the back, while on the Democrat ballot, the council race is on the front. The Mayor's race is on the front on both versions of the ballot.

Skillicorn urged listeners to “remember to turn over the ballot” and vote in the Council race. He stated that forgetting to do so would waive the right to vote and would particularly cost conservative candidates votes.

It was also noted that all three self-described conservative Council candidates, Toth, Skillicorn and Kalivianakis, were rated as the top three Council choices by the recently released 2022 Legislative Report of the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce.

Over the past 10 months, the 275-member club has hosted the majority of all Republican candidates running for offices that geographically include the Town of Fountain Hills. It also held two Town Council forums where candidates squared off and answered random questions designed to elicit their qualifications, abilities and demeanor for town office.

“People need and deserve to know who it is that they are being asked to vote for,” club President Cecil Yates said. “It has been the goal of our club to give every opportunity for Republican candidates to state their positions, listen to the people and answer their questions. Hopefully, we have done our job.”

For further information, contact Christopher J. Enos at 585-944-6957, visit fountainhillsrepublicanclub.com or facebook.com/FountainHillsRepublicanClub.