Thread: AZ-Candidate vows to put public safety first

Candidate vows to put public safety first
by Yvonne Wingett - Aug. 7, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Tim Nelson is dialing for dollars.

On a hot afternoon he sits at the desk in his north-central Phoenix home office. The button-down, sandy-haired attorney picks up the phone, punches in the digits and gives the pitch for money.

As a Democratic candidate for Maricopa County attorney, the top prosecutor job, he's going to need a lot of it - more than the $206,000-plus he has already raised from a massive donor base that crosses traditional party lines and leanings, according to a review of the most-recent financial disclosure forms filed with the county.
Nelson tells donors and voters he will improve conviction rates, go after violent criminals involved in illegal immigration and other crimes, and reform the office to improve job satisfaction and keep good lawyers.

Nelson has spent about $30,000 trying to set himself apart from Gerald Richard, an attorney and former Phoenix police administrator whom he faces in the Sept. 2 primary election.

The winner confronts Republican incumbent Andrew Thomas in the Nov. 4 general election. Whoever advances is in for a tough fight, pollsters and political experts say. Thomas has raised more than $240,000 and has the name identification and reputation as a tough guy on illegal immigration. A Democrat hasn't won this position since voters chose Charles Hyder in the late 1970s.

But Nelson spies an opening. He says he believes he is the only guy who has the political and financial support to attack Thomas' base on a broad scale.

Thomas has based his political career on fighting illegal immigration. Nelson claims he has done so at the expense of other tasks in his office and "has left behind a long trail of blunders and misdeeds." The list includes abuse of power, out-of-control spending for private attorneys and a go-at-it-alone-attitude that has isolated judges, attorneys and top officials inside the county's criminal justice system.

"I have what it takes to make things better," Nelson said. "It's public safety first, you need to make every decision about allocating our resources - money, personnel - based on whether or not you're improving public safety. If you start focusing on political ideology the way Thomas has, you're not serving the people well."


The resume

Nelson has practiced law for 20 years and says he has more trial, appellate and big-case experience than any candidate in the race.

After more than seven years in the public sector, he stepped down in February to run for county attorney, his first shot at elected office.

For the past five years, Nelson served as general counsel to Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, where he advised her on legal issues and policy matters.

He drafted the executive order to send the National Guard to the Arizona border, and the first executive order requiring the state and its contractors to comply with federal employment-verification laws and to use E-verify, before the state employer-sanctions bill was passed.

Nelson also helped lead the development of the Arizona CoppeRx Card, one of the largest prescription-drug discount-card programs in the nation. It has saved Arizonans more than $18 million dollars, the governor said.

On the Ninth Floor, Nelson also oversaw several hundred lawyers who work for state agencies, strengthening his foundation to become essentially the CEO of the second-largest law firm in Arizona. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has 966 employees; of those, 357 are attorneys, mostly in the criminal division.

Asked why he is the right person to lead that office, Napolitano responded, "Tim fundamentally believes that the most important role for a county attorney is to lead serious law-enforcement efforts to make the public safer. He has the professionalism and dedication required to focus on serious criminals."

With the Governor's Office, Nelson made new relationships with law-enforcement officials and strengthened old ones he developed in the Attorney General's Office, he said.

He played a key role in getting the state Department of Corrections to talk with corrections peace officers about labor issues. The officers walked away knowing they would have regular input into how the department operates, said John Stair, vice president of Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs Local 7077.

Nelson scored big points - and an endorsement - with the group, the largest coalition of law-enforcement groups in the state. Among those it represents are 81 law organizations that include 8,000 sheriff's deputies, probation and parole officers.

"He was critical to getting that whole process rolling to make sure the management's rights were preserved and at the same time to allow the officers to come down and sit at the table," Stair said. "That kind of leadership is really important when it comes to the long-term success of the county or the long-term success in a criminal justice field. Nelson put his money where his mouth is and helped us out on that. That took a lot of political guts."

Before his time in the executive tower, Nelson was recruited by Napolitano to work for her when she was the state attorney general. As special counsel, he oversaw the work of hundreds of assistant attorney generals and ran the office's antitrust unit. He created the tobacco-enforcement unit and served as chief tobacco counsel, where he enforced the state's settlement with big tobacco companies.

Nelson was the state's lead negotiator on the final $217 million settlement with the former auditor Arthur Andersen in the blockbuster case of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona investment scandal. Thousands of mostly elderly Baptist victims lost more than $550 million in the scheme.

Recovering that kind of money for victims was immensely rewarding, Nelson says, and motivates him to put his tenacity to work for Maricopa County. "When we know there are victims of crimes, we are going to do everything we can to fight for justice," he said.

Nelson was in private practice for 12 years before jumping to the public sector. Before that, he was a partner in the Phoenix firm Brown & Bain P.A., where he specialized in commercial litigation and antitrust law and managed the firm's pro bono efforts.


A vision

Nelson is taking his message to the streets, speaking to Rotary clubs, women's organizations and Latino groups. He is shaking hands at farmers markets and walking door to door with campaign volunteers to introduce himself, and his ideas, to voters.

Voter by voter, Nelson says he will improve conviction rates through smart, aggressive prosecutions. He describes himself as a moderate who favors strong, practical punishments. He says he would reform the office, bring back full training for attorneys and recruit, hire and retain the best prosecutors.

Nelson also explains his concerns with the current leadership.

As county attorney, Nelson says he would have three priorities, starting with public safety.

He understands the public-safety impact illegal immigration has on the Valley and says he would use the state's human-smuggling law to aggressively go after violent criminals, such as coyotes, gang members and kidnappers.

"I believe we can more effectively reduce illegal immigration in the long run by breaking up the organized crime rings that systematically facilitate illegal crossings than by arresting what is actually just a miniscule percentage of the folks who have already crossed," he says.

Nelson would put funds seized in racketeering cases under the state's RICO statute to better use and go after organized crime to investigate and prosecute kidnappers, murderers and coyotes, he says: "The biggest group of racketeers we have in this county right now are these coyotes."

Nelson also would use the money for science-based substance-abuse prevention programs or gang-prevention programs for at-risk kids. Asked whether he ever would spend the money on ads or public-service announcements that include his name and picture, he responded, "I can't imagine any circumstances where that could be an effective use of our money."

He promises to cut spending on private attorneys and says he will create an independent committee to evaluate each firm on expertise to make sure "only the best" are hired. Nelson says he would reach out to strengthen relationships with law-enforcement officials, judges and the legal community.

Nelson says he would work to restore office morale, meeting one-on-one with attorneys and improve training to strengthen skills so attorneys can more effectively prosecute cases.

"Public lawyers aren't in the business for the big paycheck," he says. "They're there because they want to do the right thing. They want to use their law degrees to pursue justice."



http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... e0807.html

Public safety= Putting into effect Congressman Millers Leave Act (HR 6789)....where do these candidates stand in regard to this bill? Will they promise to vote for this bill? I doubt they will both agree. The candidate that does not vote for HR 6789 must not be voted into office because it will prove that that candidate is going to serve the public good and safety of Mexico not the US! Vote wisely it is one of the tools that we the people still have to get our country back from illegals and their advocate traitors