Maricopa County Attorney

County Attorney candidate Gerald Richard appears to be having his second "endorsement" problem of the campaign.  A few months back Richard had a quote on the news section of his website that said "Saban Endorses Gerald Richard for Maricopa County AG."  Problem was, it was misleading.  When you clicked on the link, it brought you to a blog that made the statement.  While Richard's campaign themselves never said Saban endorsed them, the link with that title implied it.  The blog was later updated to make the correction. 

Now Scott Wong is reporting Richard's campaign is claiming the endorsement of two state Representatives, Ed Ableser and Steve Gallardo, who actually support his opponent Tim Nelson.  Either the candidate or the campaign need to start being a little more careful when it comes implying endorsements

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?

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.

Tim Nelson, former legal counsel to Janet Napolitano, left his post in January to prepare to take on Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Since then Nelson has raised over $140k and over the past week has hired a campaign manager and launched a website.

Nelson has hired Josh Kilroy as his campaign manager. Kilroy is new to the Arizona desert, but not to campaigns. Kilroy has worked on campaigns since the early 90’s. Kilroy, who was born in Rhode Island and worked on campaigns in the Chicago area including County Attorney races.

Nelson has also launched a new website which you can see here.

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