Tim Nelson

This weeks Winners & Losers is a day early because we know you won't want to leave on vacation until you have read it.

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.

Tim Nelson and Gerald Richard, the two Democrats contending to face Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on the November ballot, have agreed to square off at a series of four events throughout July.

The campaigns of Nelson and Richard confirm that their first meeting will occur at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on July 8. That will be followed by an appearance on the Channel 8 show Horizon on July 14, a League of Women Voters-sponsored debate on July 29 - likely at Phoneix College - and an event hosted by the Foothills Democrats on July 31.

Joshua Kilroy has run a great campaign early for Tim Nelson.  Find out why this week he is a winner and why Susan Bitter Smith makes the losers list. This week's Winners and Losers.

Maricopa County attorney candidates Tim Nelson and Gerald Richard are trading barbs over which one of them is more averse to debating the other in the Democratic primary. Both Richard and Nelson hope to face sitting MCA Andrew Thomas, and both sides agree debates would be a terrific way for Democrats to decide which would be better against Thomas on the ballot. The trouble is, they haven't set any up.

Ask Richard's camp, and they'll say Tim Nelson has been ducking debates with them consistently.

"I've been trying to get on the same state with Tim to debate him for months now," said Richard, a former top-ranking Phoenix police official. "I'm sure Tim has a campaign to run and he's real busy, but still."

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.

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.

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?