Barnett Lotstein

The Arizona Democratic Party and Scott Palumbo, an attorney who headed Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement, have one more day to respond to a complaint filed by the re-election campaign of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, according to the independent counsel handling the complaint.

Jeffrey Messing, the independent counsel hired to look into the matter, told PolitickerAZ.com that he sent an information request to both Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director Maria Weeg and Scott Palumbo. The responses are due Friday.

The election lawyer who will be reviewing a complaint against the Arizona Democratic Party from the re-election campaign of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has yet to see the letter, he told PolitickerAZ.com Friday.

Jeffrey Messing is the outside counsel to whom the complaint, filed with Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne on Wednesday, has been referred. Messing, however, is yet to see it.

"I'd like to talk about it, but I haven't received it yet," said Messing. He said he was told he'd be handling the case but the documents haven't arrived.

The campaign of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is calling for Arizona elections director Karen Osborne to investigate the connection between the Arizona Democratic Party, a group known as Arizona Wins and Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement, which produced a radio spot against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who is running for re-election against Democrat Tim Nelson.

"The Arizona Democratic Party has engaged in an apparent scheme intended to hide their involvement in the funding of a so-called independent expenditure by an organization named 'Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement,'" read the letter from Barnett Lotstein, writing on behalf of Thomas, to Osborne.

"It has come to our attention that the Arizona Democratic Party transferred campaign funds to an organization called 'Arizona Wins,' which in turn transferred campaign funds to 'Arizonans for Responsible Law Enforcement,' which produced a campaign commercial containing false and scurrilous accusations against County Attorney Thomas," continued Lotstein. "This commercial, which is presently being broadcast on numerous radio stations, does not reveal that the original source of the funding is the Arizona Democratic Party."

Maricopa County attorney candidate Tim Nelson kept up his call for the release of records related to the arrest of New Times publishers Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin, holding a press conference at Arizona Democratic Party headquarters Thursday to demand the office of incumbent county attorney Andrew Thomas reveal the records.

The county attorney's office has said that Dennis Wilenchik, who was hired to handle the case, was the authority in the investigation and arrest, and that the arrest was conducted on the authority of a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy, Dave Hendershott, without consultation with the county attorney's office.

Barnett Lotstein of the county attorney's office referred to an affidavit from Henderschott, where the deputy claims to have been solely responsible for signing the arrest warrant.

That explanation wasn't good enough for Nelson. Referring to the affidavit, Nelson said at the event, "After years of standing with the Sheriff’s Office on a host of abusive investigations, Andrew Thomas has belatedly thrown them under the bus to try to deflect criticism against himself just one week before the election," according to remarks released by the campaign.

CLARIFICATION INCLUDED

Mark Manoil, chairman of the Maricopa County Democratic Party, called on Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and the county Board of Supervisors Wednesday to investigate donations to the state Republican Party by a Mesa group, SCA, and to release a report by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care on the state of prisoner care in Maricopa County jails.

“Why must we wait until after the election to find out who in the GOP financed the Sheriff’s attack ads?” asked Manoil of the SCA funds, which Democrats allege were specifically directed toward ads against Maricopa County sheriff candidate Dan Saban and county attorney candidate Tim Nelson. “Why won’t the County Attorney investigate the so-called Sheriff’s Command Association that paid for these ads? And since the contributors haven’t been identified, how do we know that state Republicans’ assurance that the money has been returned isn’t simply a money-laundering scheme?”

Manoil made the remarks at a press conference outside the auditorium where the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors holds its hearings.

He also called on the Board to end "stonewalling" and release a report on the conditions of Maricopa County jails, and conduct an audit of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, headed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The office of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas will tell the lawyer for the Tim Nelson campaign that it has no records of any communications between anyone in it and SCA, the anonymous Mesa group whose contributions to the Arizona Republican Party allegedly went toward funding an ad attacking Nelson.

On Tuesday, the campaign of Tim Nelson, who is running to unseat Thomas, says it sent a public records request to the offices of Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio regarding the ad. The campaign quoted a section from the request that read: 

It appears that your campaign for re-election is engaged in massive campaign violations that undermine the integrity of this election. Not only has your party…hidden and funneled several campaign contributions, but we believe you and your agents knew about it, participated in it, encouraged it and benefitted from it. While Arizonans for Public Safety purports to be an independent expenditure committee…It is hard to believe Mr. Pullen and Mr. McCaffrey have not discussed with you or your campaign’s agents your re-election campaign.

The Nelson campaign asked for a response to that request within 48 hours.

Thursday, Barnett Lotstein, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, told PolitickerAZ.com that the response would be an unequivocal disavowal of any communications between SCA or Arizonans for Public Safety, which produced the ad.

PHOENIX -- Tim Nelson, Democratic candidate for Maricopa County attorney, announced his intention to create a court devoted to domestic violence cases if elected, and ripped into incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas for not putting more effort into dealing with domestic violence.

"Unlike the incumbent, who has sought to downgrade certain domestic violence cases by moving them to city courts, I believe these cases need a higher priority and better attention," said Nelson, appearing before press and supporters Monday.

His proposal calls for the creation of a court that would hear all domestic violence felony cases, to be presided over by a judge who is specially trained in the field and prosecuted by attorneys who are similarly expert in domestic violence matters.