subota, 20. studenoga 2010.

Attorney - general race awash in acrimony

The state's top lawyer will either be someone who has been banned for life from securities trading, or someone who has taken just two cases through jury trial during decades of legal work.
Those are the key details each of the two contestants wants you to know about the other in the highly acrimonious campaign.


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The race to be Arizona's attorney general is between Republican Tom Horne, whose second term as superintendent of public instruction has nearly expired and who has worked as an attorney for 30 years; and Democrat Felecia Rotellini, a former civil and criminal deputy attorney general who was director of the state's Department of Financial Institutions.
Horne's top priority is to fight illegal immigration by vigorously enforcing Arizona's laws. He also would use the office to "create a legal environment that is conducive to business growth."
In addition to running his own law firm for 22 years, Horne has been a judge pro tem in Maricopa County Superior Court and the state Court of Appeals.
Rotellini's first priority is border security, but she also has focused her campaign on consumer protection and fighting financial fraud.
After working for 13 years as a deputy attorney general in the civil and criminal divisions, Rotellini left to work for a private law firm. In 2006, she became the head of the state Department of Financial Institutions. While in that position, she focused on mortgage fraud.
Both candidates are raising their own campaign money.
Horne has brought in almost $670,000 and had spent nearly all of it, with $575 left at the last reporting deadline. Rotellini had raised $419,000 but had more than $35,000 left.
They've both looked to capitalize on skeletons in each other's closets.
Rotellini has said she doesn't think SB 1070 went far enough, and it doesn't secure the border. She said during the primary campaign that she opposes the law.
Horne seized on that to point out why he - a 1070 supporter - would be better for the office.
"If you were hiring a lawyer to represent you, you wouldn't want a lawyer who opposed your position and said they would be in a pickle to have to defend you," he said. Her "pickle" comment was about Attorney General Terry Goddard having to defend the state's new immigration-enforcement law, she said. She has said since the primary campaign that she'd defend the law if elected.
She told Horne in a televised debate, "You know that when I take my oath as attorney general I will uphold the laws on the books and records, and that will include SB 1070."
Horne has also said he has a more substantial litigation background than Rotellini.
He's been an attorney for 30 years and has questioned Rotellini's self-characterization as a career prosecutor.
She has brought only two cases to jury trial in her 17-year legal career, he said.
"By claiming to be a veteran prosecutor, she's really defrauding the public," he said.
Rotellini points to six cases she tried with another lawyer when she was a private attorney, plus two jury trials she conducted on her own. She also cites 12 years of experience arguing bench trials, in which a judge, not a jury, decides the case.
Horne has said her explanation supports his argument.
Rotellini shoots back with her own analysis of Horne's preparedness for the job.
She highlights a settlement between Horne and the Securities and Exchange Commission 40 years ago, in which he agreed not to engage in securities trading. She says this lifetime ban is evidence he shouldn't be the state's top lawyer, and she released a video asking voters whether an attorney general candidate should be on the same list of banned traders as Bernie Madoff.
Horne says bringing up something so old is "a sign of desperation."
"There was no fraud involved," he said. "I tried to be entrepreneurial when I was in school. I was in over my head. I didn't have adequate books and records."
Rotellini also says she'd be better at keeping the office free of political partisanship and has accused Horne of being a career politician who can't work across the aisle.
Horne says that while he has served in the state House of Representatives and on a school board, his current education position is his first full-time public office.
"I have a strong record of bipartisanship," he said.
When he was in the Legislature, he worked with Democrats and faced criticism from the Republican party that he was a RINO - a Republican in name only. He said he supported former Gov. Janet Napolitano's plan to institute full-day kindergarten for all students.
Rotellini calls herself a political outsider because this is her first run for public office.
"I'm in this to be the attorney general and to make sure that office stays out of politics," she said.
One thing the office can't avoid, however, is the deteriorating condition of the state budget. With an $825 million deficit this year, it is likely more cuts will be made when the next AG is in office.
Felecia Rotellini
Party: Democrat
Age: 53
Occupation: Attorney
Education: Notre Dame College of Law: juris doctor, 1986; Rocky Mountain College: bachelor of science history and political science, 1981
Past elected public offices: None
Civic activities: Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix Foundation (1990-2000), president (1996-2000); Rancho Feliz charitable organization (1992-2002), volunteer and fundraiser
Top endorsements: Grant Woods, former Arizona attorney general; Dennis DeConcini, former U.S. senator; Clarence Dupnik, sheriff of Pima County
Top priority: Keeping Arizonans safe by securing the border and protecting consumers.
Web address: www.feleciaforarizona.com
Tom Horne
Party: Republican
Age: 65
Occupation: Arizona superintendent of public instruction
Past elected public offices: Paradise Valley Unified School District Governing Board; Arizona House of Representatives; superintendent of public instruction
Civic activities: Phoenix Symphony; Phoenix Library Advisory Board; State Pollution Control Hearing Board
Top endorsements: Arizona Highway Patrol Association; Arizona Police Association; Phoenix Law Enforcement Association
Top priority: Fighting illegal immigration. Federal government has not done its duty.



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