Gunnigle 2020/Allister Adel for County Attorney
County attorney candidates Democrat Julie Gunnigle, left, and Republican Allister Adel
After a summer of protests, police brutality, mass incarceration, and the failed war on drugs moved to center stage in the race for top prosecutor in Maricopa County, Arizona. The contest between the incumbent Republican Allister Adel and the Democrat Julie Gunnigle is a microcosm of the debate on policing and race that is playing out in communities across the country this election season.
Arizona’s largest county has a checkered history of police misconduct and brutality, much of it steered by the controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Bill Montgomery, both Republicans. In many ways, the 2020 election is a referendum on the role of the county attorney and whether the victor can finally overcome that painful legacy.
Adel got off to a rocky start after her appointment as county attorney in 2019: In two high-profile cases, she decided not to press charges against police officers who shot and killed young men of color. In January 2019, Tempe police officer Joseph Jaen shot and killed Antonio Arce, a 14-year-old Latino youth carrying a replica 1911 airsoft gun. According to a police statement, Jaen responded to a suspicious vehicle and saw Arce stealing from a car. Jaen killed Arce in the ensuing foot chase after Arce exited the vehicle. Roughly a year later, Adel announced that no criminal charges would be brought against Jaen.
On the same day that George Floyd was murdered, George Cervantes, an Arizona state trooper, killed Dion Johnson, a 28-year-old Black man who was reportedly intoxicated and sleeping in his car. No charges were brought against Cervantes. Following that decision, Adel urged the state legislature to mandate body cameras for police. Gunnigle called her opponent’s move a “political stunt that contradicts [Adel’s] previous stances during her appointed tenure,” and noted a number of times during her tenure that Adel had been silent on the issue.
Analise Ortiz, a campaign strategist at the ACLU of Arizona, argues that Adel’s response illustrates her unwillingness to implement important changes to hold police accountable. “The call for more body cameras is not going to go far enough, because we have seen that other police departments do have body cameras,” she says, adding that one officer’s body camera recorded the death of the 14-year-old. “It was awful to watch—and Adel still did not bring charges against this officer.”
Adel has also come up short in other areas, according to Ortiz. To increase transparency within the office, Adel launched a data dashboard that documents arrests and prosecutions. But Ortiz notes that this dashboard does not include important details such as the bail amounts requested by prosecutors and plea deals that they make.
After Adel decided not to press charges, Gunnigle pledged not to rely on prosecutors who have close working relationships with police, calling the relationship between police and prosecutors a clear conflict of interest. “When cases involving officer use-of-force arrive at the office, when I’m elected, they will have a transparent process, it will be community-involved and it will be independent from the line prosecutors who handle street crime cases day-in and day-out,” Gunnigle told the Arizona Mirror.
A recent poll conducted by Data for Progress and the Justice Collaborative Institute showed that Maricopa County voters are more likely to elect a county attorney whose slate of reforms includes an independent investigations unit to handle police violence against residents and bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants.
Gunnigle has called Adel’s campaign “a continuation of the shameful legacy of Joe Arpaio and Bill Montgomery.” As a way to counteract that legacy, Gunnigle has called for a 26 percent reduction in the state’s prison population, a figure which would bring Maricopa in line with the national average; the dismissal of every pending low-level marijuana case; and a redirection of the office’s resources from prosecuting nonviolent crimes to social services.
Under Montgomery and Arpaio, over 60 percent of all people incarcerated in the state were prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s office. The county sought the death penalty more often than 99.5 percent of counties in the United States. Arizona is the only state that brings felony charges against individuals charged with possessing any amount of marijuana, and Montgomery remains a leading opponent of cannabis reform. Both men’s tenures in office were also marred by accusations of ethical violations. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Montgomery for failing to comply with a public-records request. (Adel succeeded Montgomery when Gov. Doug Ducey named him to the state Supreme Court in late 2019.)
Maricopa County sought the death penalty more often than 99.5 percent of counties in the United States.
Defeated in his 2016 quest for re-election after two decades as sheriff, Arpaio was accused of misusing police funds, abusing his power, and racial profiling. He was found guilty of contempt in 2017 after his office failed to comply with a court order to halt its racial-profiling practices. Before being pardoned by Donald Trump, Arpaio lost a primary race to win back his old seat in 2020.
“Joe Arpaio used the County Attorney’s office and weaponized it against political opponents,” says Edder Diaz-Martinez, communications manager for the Maricopa County Democratic Party. “So we’ve had a culture of corruption and scandal within this office.”
If Gunnigle wins, she would be the first Democratic county attorney in 40 years. Still, the race is shaping up to be a competitive one. Progressive activists are optimistic for a number of reasons. The demographics of the county are shifting. (The percentages of Latinos and Blacks living in the county have increased by almost 2 percent, respectively, in the last decade. The percentages of Asians and Native Americans have also increased slightly; whites have decreased by 4 percent.) Maricopa County voters cast ballots in historic numbers during the August primary election. In this battleground state, Joe Biden and Democratic Senate nominee Mark Kelly both have strong leads in Phoenix, the county seat, and are competitive in the rest of Maricopa County, which could help nudge Gunnigle over the finish line.
