Arizona held its breath this past week, waiting for the final results of the Republican Primary Election. Andrew Thomas and Tom Horne were tied in the race to become the Republican nominee for Attorney General until Thomas conceded yesterday.
So breathe easy, Arizona. You deserve it. Be glad those 900-something votes didn’t go the other way. Now seems like a good time to review some of Thomas’ accomplishments during his time as the Maricopa County Attorney.
In 2008, Thomas indicted Don Stapley, a Maricopa County Supervisor, with 118 counts of criminal charges for “failure to disclose to the public his involvement in a wide variety of land dealings,” according to a Maricopa County press release.
Thomas clearly had a conflict of interest in investigating the Board of Supervisors, and transferred the case to the Yavapai County Attorney's office. But after several months of investigating the case, it was dismissed of all the charges.
This prompted Sheila Polk, Yavapai County Attorney, to write an article for the Arizona Republic, in which she wrote, “Maricopa County is not my jurisdiction, but I can no longer sit by quietly and watch from a distance the abuses of power by Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas. I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes.”
Then, disregarding any conflicts of interest, Thomas charged Stapley again, with another county supervisor, Mary Rose Wilcox. Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe, who initially ruled on Thomas’ conflict of interest with the Board of Supervisors, was also charged with three felony counts, including bribery. Thomas never provided any evidence to support Donahoe’s bribery charge.
Pima County Judge John Leonardo dismissed the charges on the Wilcox case, citing Thomas’ conflict of interest “to gain political advantage by prosecuting those who oppose him politically” and forming a “political alliance” with Arpaio, “who misused the power of his office” by going after members of the county Board of Supervisors for criminal investigations. Everything Thomas has done appears to be a form of political deviance.
Just a few weeks ago, a Grand Jury transcript revealed that Thomas attempted to get a Grand Jury to indict the Maricopa Board of Supervisors and Judge Donahoe again. But given the weak case, the Grand Jury ended the investigation. Grand Jury inquiries are run completely by the prosecutor, without any representation of a defense, so this type of action is incredibly rare. The power of this scenario means that they almost always choose to indict, or at the very least, vote – not so for Thomas.
Instead of ending the investigation, Thomas referred it to the Department of Justice; they dismissed it.
The State Bar of Arizona is currently investigating him for unethical conduct — potentially resulting in his disbarment. This means that if Thomas had been elected, we could have had an Attorney General who was not actually an attorney.
He is also under investigation by the FBI for criminal abuses of power.
The county attorney is the only person on the conveyer belt of justice with the power of discretion. He or she has the privilege and responsibility to uphold justice by not only determining if the County Attorney’s Office can prosecute someone, but if it should. Andrew Thomas doesn’t do something because it’s right but because his position gives him the power to.
Increasing that power to the level of Attorney General would have been a colossal mistake.
Thomas has repeatedly failed to live up to the standards of his elected office and the citizens of Maricopa County. The question isn’t why Thomas didn’t win the primary: it’s why he was even in contention. Are the people of Arizona really this ignorant, or do they actually prefer to elect incompetent and unscrupulous political figures?
Contact this voter at djoconn1@asu.edu
