Thomas Watch: Our Candidates Talk to You

Democratic Diva and A Democrat's Lament are teaming up to help everyone get to know our County Attorney candidates. I would encourage you to give money and volunteer for one or both of them. In my opinion, this is the most important race in Arizona this year. I listed Tim Nelson first because Gerald Richard is listed first on Democratic Diva.

TIM NELSON COMMENTS:

Hi, this is Tim Nelson, Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Attorney. I want to thank Democratic Divas and A Democrat’s Lament for giving me this opportunity to cross-post on their blogs.

I have been a proud Democrat my entire life. Democratic values — opportunity, justice, and security for everyone willing to work hard and play by the rules – are the core values I was raised with and have embraced throughout my life. I have put those values to work for scores of Democrats at both the state and national level, in both a paid and volunteer capacity.

I have been active in local Democratic politics since the day I arrived in Arizona back in 1994 when my friend, Congressman Sam Coppersmith, was running for the U.S. Senate. Since then I have worked on many Arizona Democratic campaigns.

I am perhaps most proud of my work with Governor Napolitano. I first worked with her in 1987, during a summer internship when I was in law school. When she ran for Attorney General, I was proud to volunteer for her campaign. Two years later, I was honored to join her staff as Special Counsel.

She really epitomizes for me why it is so important to elect Democrats whenever possible. She kept the focus on running the office in a professional manner and working on problems that affect the average citizen trying to pay the bills and raise a family in peace. While I was there, I was responsible for making sure that big tobacco lived up to their promises in the large tobacco settlement of the late 1990s. I sued to force RJ Reynolds remove its Winston brand cigarette advertisements from a racetrack in Arizona. I also held Arthur Andersen accountable for defrauding our senior citizens and secured a settlement of $217 million that recouped much of the money they had lost. Before the Arizona Supreme Court, I won the right for individual citizens to initiate their own antitrust lawsuit, a big victory for consumers.

When Janet Napolitano was elected Governor, she chose me to be her General Counsel and I spent five great years advising her on a wide range of policy and legal issues, writing her veto messages and executive orders.

In February I left that job to take on an important task: defeating Andrew Thomas for Maricopa County Attorney. Andrew Thomas has been a uniquely bad public servant. He has wielded his great powers of issuing subpoenas and convening grand juries in abusive and un-American ways. His office’s attempt to arrest the New Times editors is only the best known example.

He has also corrupted the office by giving millions of dollars in contracts to campaign contributors; using public funds promoting himself; and initiating witch hunts against political opponents like Attorney General Terry Goddard.

The Maricopa County Attorney has several key tasks: issuing legal opinions to guide the actions of county agencies; representing them in court when needed; and most importantly, supervising the prosecution of criminal and civil cases. These are exactly the things I have been doing for the last twenty years at the highest levels of the public and private sectors. I believe that this makes me uniquely qualified to be your next Maricopa County Attorney.

My campaign is off to a tremendous start, I have received a true outpouring of popular support from people throughout the county. I have volunteers phone banking on my behalf, people opening up their homes for fundraisers, citizens telling their family and friends about my campaign.

Again, I thank you for this opportunity to discuss my campaign. You can read more (and contribute to my cause) at www.timnelson2008.com. I hope to have the chance to tell you more about my campaign and my ideas about improving public safety in the months ahead.

GERALD RICHARD COMMENTS:

I don’t need to dwell on the reasons we need to defeat Andrew Thomas this fall. As County Attorney, he has diverted resources away from prosecuting violent criminals to persecuting immigrants charged with “smuggling themselves.” His wiretapping of the Serial Shooter suspects without a court order could jeopardize the expected convictions in the case. Thomas has cut training for his staff attorneys by 90-percent, creating the need to spend 11-million dollars hiring outside law firms (that coincidentally helped pay for his election campaign in 2004). He has spent more than two-million dollars on billboards, booklets and TV ads that primarily promote himself. And he has signed off on the arrest of newspaper publishers and invading the privacy of their readers.

So the only question is, who is best qualified Democrat to succeed Thomas?

I have 22 years experience as an attorney in law enforcement. I have prosecuted violent felony criminals before a jury. In my 19 years with Phoenix Police, I have been at the crime scenes at 2:30 in the morning. I have been a credible link between the department and the community. My experience is relevant to the job I am seeking.

The County Attorney’s Office is a multi-million dollar organization with nearly one-thousand employees. With Phoenix Police, I supervised four departmental units with budgets totaling 67-million dollars. I administered federal, state and local grants of another 62-million. Again, my experience is relevant to the job I am seeking.

I ask for your support, your monetary contributions and your vote in the September 2nd Democratic Primary. My name is Gerald Richard, candidate for Maricopa County Attorney.

Gerald’s website is: www.richardforcountyattorney.com.