Chair of the Libertarian National Committee Nicholas Sarwark has declared his candidacy for mayor of Phoenix.
Sarwark joins a race with current council members Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela, and political outsider, Moses Sanchez. He said he was inspired to run in the non-partisan race because he believes the other mayoral candidates will not solve Phoenix’s problems.
While he is nationally known Sarwark has less local note than his other three opponents, who have all served in local governmental bodies.
Sarwark moved to Phoenix from Colorado in 2014, previously practicing law in Colorado as a public defense attorney. He moved to Phoenix to run his family’s car dealership, Sarwark’s Consolidated Auto Sales after his father mentioned wanting to retire.
He grew up moving around the country with his mother and stepfather, but he always returned to Phoenix during the summer to spend time with his father. Some of his earliest exposure to politics was attending libertarian meetings in Phoenix with his father.
“It’s funny; Everything starts in Phoenix and everything comes back to Phoenix,” Sarwark said.
“(Kate Gallego) is a nice person, and (Daniel Valenzuela) is a first responder and a nice person, but there’s no sign that they have any intent of dealing with the actual problems Phoenix has,” Sarwark said.
He pointed to what he felt were problems with current economic procedures in Phoenix. Sarwark spoke against the use of special tax incentives designed to encourage development in Phoenix, such as the controversial Government Property Lease Excise Tax.
He felt it was unnecessarily beneficial to large corporations, which he believes can afford to pay normal property taxes associated with development.
Sarwark also took issue with Phoenix pension debts. Debts to Phoenix first responders are expected to reach at least $50 million. If elected, he hopes to balance Phoenix’s budget without raising taxes. He felt a balanced budget will draw more innovation and business investment to the area.
“Let’s take the Phoenix budget, and across the board tighten it up by a couple pennies. Let’s let the city figure out how to balance its checkbook before we go back to the citizens of Phoenix and say ‘You’ve gotta give us more money,” Sarwark said.
Sarwark has downtown critics of his candidacy.
Wayne Rainey, owner of the MonOrchid art gallery on Roosevelt Row, said in an email he does not believe Sarwark is a suitable candidate.
“First off, I find it a little presumptuous that anyone that just moved here without experience in office would think it appropriate to run for such an enormously important job. He clearly lacks any experience,” Rainey wrote.
Rainey also mentioned a controversial comment Sarwark made in an interview with news website Salon where he compared the treatment of libertarians today to how women were treated before the 1920s and African-Americans were treated before the 1960s.
“That’s just a reprehensible level of tone deafness, and there is no place in Phoenix for that kind of divisive politics,” Rainey wrote.
Sarwark said his wording in that interview didn’t come out right and called his phrasing “awkward.”
“The point that I was trying to make, and probably didn’t resonate the right way, is there’s a structural thing where libertarians are treated as having to reach even higher standards in order to be heard at all,” Sarwark said.
He said he did not intend for the remarks to be offensive.
Contact the reporter at tjtriolo@asu.edu.
Downtown Devil's community section editor. I also write the Downtown Digest, a weekly column with things to do, with experience writing news articles and creating news videos as well. Graduating from ASU in May 2020.
