Increases reported in some financial donations at end of Chandler mayor’s race

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

When the third quarter of election campaign finance reporting ended on Sept. 30, the intense heat and intense campaigning of the Chandler mayoral race this summer had been over for a couple of months.

By the time both Matt Orlando and Jeff Weninger had turned in their third-quarter reports by the Oct. 15 deadline, data showed the two candidates got a few late contributions, though not really from surprising sources, and also paid many bills to end up with nearly the same balance.

Orlando, the mayor-elect who won the July 21 primary election by about a 58%-to-42% margin, and Weninger didn’t have much time to garner new contributions after the June 30 second-quarter finance reporting deadline and the election, though much of Weninger’s spending was logged after June 30.

Orlando, the longtime and current councilmember, started the second quarter with only slightly more than half the cash on hand as his opponent and outgoing LD13 state representative, Weninger. Orlando had $74,000 to Weninger’s $147,000 on April 1.

But by June 30, Orlando had about $103,000 on hand, aided by $6,750 from former construction magnate and car collector Ron Pratte of Chandler and $3,500 from political action committees including the Cox AZ employees’ PAC.

In the third quarter, Orlando took in about $32,000 but also spent more than $113,000, leaving the campaign with only about $22,000 by Sept. 30.

Weninger took in $72,000 and spent almost $162,000 in the second quarter, leaving him with $56,000 to spend in July. Then, he took in another $61,000 by the end of his campaign, shelling out about $96,000 to also end September without about $22,000 cash on hand.

The two candidates took in a combined $527,000 and paid out about $480,000 during the entire campaign cycle.

Orlando received more than $20,000 from Arizona individual contributors during the third quarter, including $5,000 from consultant and two-term Council member Martin Sepulveda.

He also received $7,000 from the Realtors of Arizona PAC.

Weninger took in PAC money from the Cox AZ PAC and the Sheet Metal Workers Local Phoenix PAC in the second quarter, as well as substantial individual contributions from prominent Arizona Republicans. His main contributors after July 1 were from Arizona people in the investment and real estate business and nearly $14,000 in a handful of out-of-state individual contributions.

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.

Jason W. Brooks can be reached 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.

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.

Community: He supports animal shelters.