Andrew Thomas

Gerald Richard: Campaign photoGerald Richard ended the 2nd quarter with just over $40,000 on hand, lagging far behind his primary rival Tim Nelson and incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

However, Thomas had the weakest quarter of the three. He managed a relatively slim $39,750.03 for the period from April 1 through June 30, while Richard pulled in $60,004.75. Despite his poorer showing, Thomas is still the leader in the field. He came into the reporting period with over $200k, and has $213,599.12 on hand to start 3Q.

The big winner this quarter was Tim Nelson, who pulled in nearly $207k from April to the end of June. With no money to start with, he has now come within $37k of Thomas's total, finishing 2Q with $177,463.03.

If Barack Obama were to beat John McCain, there is a very good chance Governor Janet Napolitano could be offered a job in the administration.  While it is very unlikely she would be offered the VEEP spot, there is a strong possibility her early loyalty would be rewarded with a cabinet position.

If Napolitano were to move on to Washington, Arizona’s political landscape would be tossed on its head overnight.  Look into the Inside Edge crystal ball as we predict what that week’s Winners and Losers would look like.  

If Barack Obama were to beat John McCain, there is a very good chance Governor Janet Napolitano could be offered a job in the administration.  While it is very unlikely she would be offered the VEEP spot, there is a strong possibility her early loyalty would be rewarded with a cabinet position.

If Napolitano were to move on to Washington, Arizona’s political landscape would be tossed on its head overnight.  Look into the Inside Edge crystal ball as we predict what that week’s Winners and Losers would look like.  

Winners

Jan Brewer
Not only would the secretary of state become Governor Jan Brewer overnight, she would then be in office as a sitting incumbent come 2010.

Dennis Burke
The governor’s Chief of Staff would almost certainly end up as the Chief of Staff to the U.S. Attorney General or Department of Homeland Security and would be on his way to D.C. 

Leezie Kim
Kim, who recently moved from private practice to become the governor’s general counsel, would be on a short list for a U.S. Attorney spot.

Pro-life movement
With Napolitano out of the way the pro-life community could start moving legislation forward with hope of it being signed by the governor. 

State Republican Party
If the party holds both the Senate and the House in November, the party would have total control over state government and could use it to their advantage in fundraising. 

Losers

Gubernatorial hopefuls on the Republican side
Mary Peters, Andrew Thomas and any other prospective candidates would now be facing an incumbent from their own party.  While someone may still step up to the plate and challenge Brewer, their job becomes a whole lot harder.

Randy Pullen
With Brewer in charge and gearing up for re-election she would more than likely want someone she trusts completely running the office that will be out to protect her and prevent a primary.

Terry Goddard
The Attorney General would become the highest elected Democratic official in the state, but assuming he is the nominee in 2010 he now has to challenge a sitting governor.  He would be trying to do something that hasn’t been done since 1966, unseat a sitting governor in an election.  And it should be noted that governor who lost re-election was Samuel Goddard, Terry’s father.

LGBT community
They lose the strongest advocate they have had in Arizona and would likely be facing a rollback of Napolitano’s executive order banning discrimination in state government based on sexual orientation.

Jim Weiers
It may seem weird to place a Republican Speaker of the House as a loser when a Republican takes over the governor’s office, but it’s true.  Right now Weiers gains his power as the leader of the opposition party.  With a Republican governor Weiers would lose that power and for the most part would need to follow the governor’s lead.

More Inside Edge

Gerald Richard is filing his signatures today to qualify for a place on the primary ballot against Democratic rival Tim Nelson. The Richard campaign said that while he will turn in over 5,000 signatures - more than twice the amount necessary to qualify - his fundraising so far does not stack up well against Nelson's.

"We haven't finished counting, but we expect to report between $60,000 and $70,000," said Doug Ramsey, spokesman for the Richard campaign. Yesterday, the Nelson campaign announced they will report over $200,000 for the same period.

Today a group of 15 Arizona legislators hurled the latest volley in the battle between Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and the Arizona Bar Association, writing a letter in support of Thomas and calling for sanctions against the Bar.

"Obviously it is time to curtail the powers and duties of the State Bar," read the letter, which was signed by a group of Republican members of the Arizona House and Senate. The lawmakers said the ABA "is violating the principles of the separation of powers" by attempting disciplinary action against Thomas. Thomas claims that the ethics complaints that have been lodged against him through the Bar are "retaliation" for trying to enforce Proposition 100, which was passed by a large majority of voters in 2006 and denies bail to illegal immigrants.

Thomas filed a complaint against the Arizona Bar Association with the state Supreme Court, which has oversight of the ABA. In the letter, the legislators applauded his move and recommended the Bar's oversight powers be "shifted to the Court or to an independent agency."

Bolstered by a big-money fundraiser over the weekend, Tim Nelson, who is running in the Democratic primary for Maricopa County Attorney, has announced he will report over $200,000 in contributions for the beginning of the year.

Nelson faces former Phoenix Police Department operations chief Gerald Richard in the primary battle to take on Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas in the general election. So far, Richard has not released his fundraising numbers.

As everyone has read today, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to stop the State Bar of Arizona from investigating him and attorneys associated with his office for ethical violations.  Three of the 10 complaints have been dropped and Thomas wants the other seven dropped now too.

In the Arizona Republican story Thomas worries the bar investigation threatens the integrity of “attorney-client privilege.”

On Friday May 9th a DUI billboard with Andrew Thomas’ name showed up outside Democratic County Attorney candidate Tim Nelson’s office.  We asked at the time, could this be just a coincidence?  Well, if it was, it was a short lived one.  Just one week later the sign is gone and replaced with a tire company sign.  Maybe the RICO funds could only pay for a week?

When Maricopa County Sheriff candidate Dan Saban submitted his qualifying signatures today, turning in over three times as many as he needed to get on the ballot, he did so without the backing of the Buckeye Police Association, which represents the officers of the police department he headed until a week ago.

Yet Saban doesn't believe BPA's endorsement of his rival, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, or for that matter the endorsement of Arpaio by the Phoenix Law Enforcement Agency, is that great a liability. For Saban, it’s a slew of other endorsements he's garnered that are far more important to his campaign, and he says he has the 8,000-plus signatures to prove it.  

Today Tim Nelson formally launched his campaign to take on Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. In his announcement used statistics from the County Public Defender's office to show that conviction rates in jury trials have fallen significantly in the last few years, from over 80% in the last year of Rick Romley's tenure to 70% last year. Governor Janet Napolitano introduced Nelson at his announcement.

Nelson also kicked off a small donor challenge in which he is challenging supporters to make a small donation ($50 or less). His goal is to get 100 small donations before Monday night at midnight.

Independent congressional candidate Annie Loyd: Politicker PhotoAnnie Loyd, independent candidate for Congress in CD3, appeared today at a meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to decry Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's sweeps aimed at rounding up illegal immigrants. After making the case that county monies shouldn't go toward enforcing immigration policy, Loyd appeared at the head of a group of community activists and civil libertarians to demand accountability for what they claimed were tactics that "divided the community" and could possibly "lead to violence."