Doug Ramsey

The campaigns of Tim Nelson and Gerald Richard, the two candidates running for the Democratic nomination in the Maricopa County attorney's race, continue the barrage of accusations, refutations and counter-accusations they've been hurling at each other.

The latest round of elbow throwing comes amidst charges by the Nelson campaign that Richard "inflated his resume" in saying he was "Director of the Phoenix Police Department" in a press release.  

“That, in fact, was my official title for the last 15 years at the Phoenix P.D.,” said Richard in a press release. “I was the one and only Director, a civilian position at the level of Assistant Chief. In that position I oversaw various divisions of the Department on a rotating basis, just as an Assistant Chief would do.”

It is the relationship between the titles "assistant chief" and "director" that the Nelson campaign contends is the source of their criticism.

"When he uses the phrase 'the director' it implies he had more responsibility than he did," said Joshua Kilroy, Nelson's campaign manager. "There were a number of people, department heads, he was on the same level as. The others have the title 'assistant chief,' though. It's misleading."

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.

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."