GOVERNMENT
SMILE WITH CONFIDENCE
Whether he’s at a city council meeting or a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new business, as pictured here, Leon Willis is rarely spotted without his signature camouflage cap.
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Air farce City council candidate plays dress-up as Air Force veteran
BY ELIAS WEISS
$ 19 NEW PATIENT
ITH ASPIRATIONS AS LOFTY AS his title, Maj. Dr. Leon Willis wants your vote for Maricopa City Coun- cil when the polls open July 30. Such a title conveys a remarkable aptitude for leadership. According to the university where he purportedly serves as Dean of Theology and earned his doctorate degree, Willis is a distinguished U.S. Air Force veteran. His academic journey, as depicted, is marked by scholarly achievements, including a master’s degree from a theological institution in Atlanta. But none of this is true, an InMaricopa investigation reveals. His military service, like his master’s degree, is entirely fabricated. And the university where he serves as dean? It doesn’t exist. And when it W
did, its credibility was cloudy at best. So, like Gary Coleman in Different Strokes, we’re left asking this: Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis? Hitting the campaign trail Although he announced he’d run for city council in August 2023, Willis pulled off the feat of gathering all 424 of his election signatures in just four days up to and including the April 1 deadline, according to nomination petitions he filed with the city. Never mind some of those signatures were from people who don’t live in the city, an analysis of the documents revealed. That included voters registered in Ak-Chin Village and Tucson. The same week Willis filed his bid to run last year, the 74-year-old Senita resident slammed
the city council for failing to represent Maricopa’s Black community. He and fellow activist Kent O’Jon, whose wife Chrystal opposes Willis in this election, denigrated the city for employing just “three Blacks.” The real number of Black employees was 36, proportionally comparable to the city’s Black population. Since then, Willis has stayed mostly quiet in the Maricopa political space. A campaign finance statement last quarter shows he hasn’t raised a penny to unseat incumbents Eric Goettl, Amber Liermann and Bob Marsh. The Independent candidate is gunning on a platform of attracting industry and improving the quality of public education, he said in an April 11 interview with InMaricopa . He’s banking his impressive résumé will do the talking for him.
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InMaricopa.com | May 2024
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