Maricopa County is Arizona's largest and most populated county (and 4th-most populated in the country), and Republican Chandler City Council member Mark Stewart is running to be one of its supervisors. During an interview with Cactus Politics, Stewart discussed his plans for Maricopa and how he will confront the ongoing border crisis.
Stewart described how Maricopa became Arizona's most populous county because "we made it an easy place to start a business."
"It is why you know the old adage of you can tell how well you are doing as a state or a city on how many people are moving in versus moving out," said Stewart, adding, "We have companies knocking on our door all the time that want to be here because it is safe, right? For the most part, it is. [We] have got great education in this particular part of Arizona, we have got a good workforce because of [Arizona State University] and [the University of Arizona], a well-educated workforce. And the fact of the matter is, most everybody here is from somewhere else, and they are here like pioneers, right? They want to create a better life for themselves."
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However, Stewart acknowledged the toll of the border crisis on Arizona, which he said "has more impact on our lives than you would imagine."
"And also speaking about it from a public works perspective, we do not have the planning or the foresight, or we are not planning for population increases for people that are necessarily undocumented or whatever we are talking about today. We have a plan for normal attrition or normal addition of residents via companies coming on board, via the neighborhoods that are getting built, or the apartments getting built. And we can plan for our water infrastructure. We can plan for our road infrastructure. But when you have this huge influx of folks, we do not have the infrastructure to support that," Stewart continued.
As a result, to deal with the criminal element taking advantage of the border crisis, Stewart said Maricopa County wants to "equip the men and women of our Sheriff's Department with the best technology, the best equipment, and the best training to be able to thwart illegal operations from gang activity or whatever that may be, support the Border Patrol on I-10, and those kinds of things. And then, ultimately, we need to add more bodies."
Stewart told us how the Chief of Chandler Police approached the city council in 2021, asking for 15 new officers. The council responded by hiring 25, and the crime rate dropped dramatically.
"That needs to happen in Maricopa County. They have been woefully underserved, underpaid, and understaffed for years, and it is time to kind of turn the light on from that. And that is something I wholeheartedly believe in because I have seen it in practice," Stewart concluded.
