Chandler will have a new a mayor and at least one new council member in January. It’s costing a bit to get there — and recently-filed campaign finance documents show how much.
The March 31 first-quarter finance report deadline showed some differences in where Chandler mayoral and council candidates are getting money from in the run-up to the July 21 primary.
Two incumbents and four challengers are competing for three council seats in that primary. If not enough of the top three receive a state-specified percentage of the vote in the primary, those candidates would face off against the fourth-place finisher in a Nov. 3 runoff.
Matt Orlando and Jeff Weninger won’t need a runoff. They’re the only two candidates vying to replace Mayor Kevin Hartke, who is term-limited.
Mayor’s race
Orlando, the New Jersey native, longtime U.S. Air Force and National Guard veteran and former Honeywell employee began his sixth overall term on the council in January 2023.
Weninger, a longtime Arizona restaurateur and former Chandler council member, is finishing up his most recent term as a state representative.
Weninger started 2026 with more cash on hand than Orlando, $121,000 to $64,000. He raised about $20,000 more than Orlando in the first quarter of this year, spent slightly more than his opponent and ended with a balance of about $147,000 to Orlando’s $74,000.
Both candidates received dozens of small contributions. Some exceptions, for Weninger, were $6,750 he received from tech consulting firm Keenstack founder and CEO Thiru Thangarathinam, the $6,650 from insurance firm founder Eli Norton and the $5,000 from Chandler manufacturing firm AMT founder Jay Donkersloot.
Weninger also received smaller contributions from fellow Arizona leaders such as Peoria Mayor Jason Beck.
Orlando’s largest contributions this past quarter were $1,000. Two such contributions were from Southwest Gas and from Pinnacle West Capital Corp.
Neither candidate raised much from out-of-state contributions, nor did political action committees play a major role yet in first-quarter donations for the mayor’s race. Orlando did collect $31,000 in PAC donations in 2025, including $13,500 from a Food Workers Union local PAC.
Orlando’s cash on hand, coming into 2026, was due partly to a pair of $2,000 contributions made in May 2025 by New York residents. One of those contributors was Jeff Zygler, the Active Infrastructure CEO and founder whose AI data center plan in south Chandler was rejected in December by Orlando and the rest of the seven-member city council.
City Council race
The top fundraiser among the six candidates in the first quarter of 2026 was incumbent council member Angel Encinas, who, like Jane Poston, was elected in 2022 and is seeking a second term.
Encinas raised dozens of smaller donations, with four $1,000 contributors and $2,000 from a family member being the largest. He raised more than $17,000 in the first quarter to bring his cash on hand, after disbursements, to about $13,000 as of March 31.
Lisa Askey raised dozens of “medium-sized” donations of the $300 to $500 variety. Like Weninger, Askey also received an Eli Norton donation, in her case, for $3,000.
Joe Granado Jr. raised only about $359 in the form of two individual donations. He took out a $40,000 loan this quarter, bringing his campaign’s cash on hand to almost $42,000.
Ron Hardin is self-funding his campaign, at least for the first quarter of 2026. His own $6,000 donation, after operating expenses, left him with $1,000 cash on hand as of March 31.
Cicely Rocha-Miller raised more than $13,000, bringing forward more than $12,000, after disbursements. Like Askey, Rocha-Miller had a smaller number of donations than Encinas, and in the mid- or $150 to $300 range. A family member donated $5,000.
Poston raised more than $4,300 this cycle, nearly all in medium-size donations. Having started the quarter with more than $6,000 on hand, she started April with about $6,800.
Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here