Residents appear to have differing opinions on the question of whether Ben Larrabee is the creepiest candidate in the Town’s history, or the phoniest.

Larrabee is unquestionably creepy. The red-eyed demon he used as his profile picture (before he announced his candidacy) is unquestionably creepy. His job for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action that requires him to share his obsession with transgender children with town councils and school boards is also creepy, as is his need to publicly boast about his toxic masculinity.

But there is also a case to be made that he is the phoniest candidate in the Town’s history: Strutting through the audience at a Republican Club meeting, thumbs in his pockets, wearing a way too big cowboy hat that keeps falling over his eyes,…the way he opens his town council presentations with the phrase, “I rise to…” and of course, there is that goofy red bow tie.

But we should not allow ourselves to get too distracted by Larrabee’s off-putting character traits. This strange man wants to serve on our town council and is riding on Gerry Friedel’s tattered coattails and ROT’s mayhem-first campaign tactics to achieve that goal. At this moment we need to focus on another of Larrabee’s character traits: he is an inveterate and unapologetic liar.

In a recent post, still to be found on his campaign page, Larrabee claimed that “during the years that Democrats ran the council, NOTHING was saved” to replace the lake liner.” Larrabee also claimed that under “new leadership” the Town had saved “nearly $7 million.”

Both claims are outright lies. Registered Democrats controlled the council for a two-year period from 2020 to 2022. It was during this period that the Fountain Hills Town Council recognized the need to earmark funds to be held in the capital reserve for the replacement of the lake liner. As a result, as of today, approximately $6.7 million has been set aside for the replacement of the lake liner. Of this total, $800,000 (less than 12 percent) of the “nearly $7 million” was set aside in budgets approved by the “new leadership.”

Through his lies Larrabee has revealed himself to be another “agent of chaos” who, like his role model, Allen Skillicorn, purports to be a Christian, but foments lies to create ill-will, division, and resentment. Having rid ourselves of one chaos agent. why would we ever elect another?