Why do Rachel Mitchell and Tamika Wooten want to be Maricopa County attorney?
ARIZONA ELECTION 2024
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Incumbent Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, and judge pro tem Tamika Wooten, a Democrat, are running to lead the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Mitchell beat Gina Godbehere, a former Maricopa County Attorney's Office bureau chief and trial attorney, in the Republican primary. Wooten was unopposed in the primary.
The county attorney heads the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, one of the nation's largest prosecutorial agencies.
The office reviews and determines charges for felonies in the county and misdemeanors in unincorporated areas. The office also provides legal services for the Board of Supervisors and county departments and agencies.
The Arizona Republic asked each candidate to answer seven questions about the county attorney's role and their priorities should they win in November. Here's what they had to say, in alphabetical order.
Why do you want this job?
Rachel Mitchell: Having worked at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for the last 32 years, I have seen the good that the office can do for our community. We protect society and walk alongside those whose lives have been devastated.
We have the greatest job description: to do justice. When I first took over the office in 2022 for the remainder of my predecessor’s term, we were suffering from staff shortages, low morale, large backlogs, and damage to our reputation.
We have turned every one of these issues around. Now I want a full term to move forward and continue to address the crime trends that we are seeing: fentanyl pouring over our border and saturating our communities, teen violence and organized retail crime.
We need to continue disrupting the infrastructure that supports these criminals.
Tamika Wooten: My goal as the Maricopa County attorney (would be) to restore faith in our criminal justice system. I am committed to enforcing fair and equitable justice; ensuring the safety of our communities; treating mental illness and addiction as health issues; and not prosecuting a woman or her healthcare provider for her reproductive health care decisions.
What philosophy would guide your decision-making in criminal prosecutions?
Mitchell: We review every case using the same standard: whether there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction. Once a decision to charge has been made, we look at all relevant factors to make sure we reach the appropriate disposition with the impact that the crime has had on the victim being at the forefront.
Wooten: As County Attorney, I will seek justice rather than simply seeking convictions. My office will do the right thing, for the right reasons, instead of making decisions for political reasons.
What is the biggest challenge facing the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and how would you address it?
Mitchell: The biggest challenges facing MCAO are the same challenges facing the entire criminal justice system: a shortage of police officers and the impact of progressive policies in other jurisdictions.
Police need to be well-staffed and trained. Police shortages have impacted their ability to respond to and investigate criminal activity. Progressive policies have taught criminals in other jurisdictions that they will not be held accountable. When they get to Maricopa County, they quickly unlearn that.
Wooten: The biggest challenge facing the Maricopa County's Office is politicization. The current county attorney has demonstrated that she makes decisions for political reasons rather than seeking true justice.
Would you prosecute someone for their involvement in an abortion? If so, under what circumstances and why? If not, why not?
Mitchell: No abortion-related cases have been sent to any prosecutor’s office in Arizona. Arizona law allows abortions up to 15 weeks. Abortions can occur past then if the mother’s life is in danger. Women cannot be prosecuted for getting an abortion. In the unlikely event a case is submitted, it will be reviewed in the same way every other case is reviewed.
Wooten: As Maricopa County Attorney, I will not prosecute a woman, her health care provider, nor pharmacists in assisting women in exercising their reproductive healthcare choices.
The decision of how and when to begin a family is an extremely personal decision that legislators and politicians should not be involved in.
Do you support using the death penalty? Why or why not?
Mitchell: I personally think that the death penalty is appropriate in some cases. But the real question for the county attorney is whether the law calls for the imposition of the death penalty because my job is to enforce the law — not decide what the law should be.
Deciding whether we should ask for the death penalty is the most serious thing I do. It should be done after a careful, thorough, and thoughtful consideration of all of the evidence and the strength of evidence. It should be reserved for the worst of the worst.
As someone who reviews all first-degree murder cases committed by adults in this jurisdiction, I have a strong sense of what the worst of the worst looks like. Without question, there are cases that call for the imposition of the ultimate sentence.
Wooten: Reluctantly. The death penalty has disproportionately been imposed on poor people and people of color.
It is extremely expensive to impose the death penalty; it does not deter crime; and there have been several botched executions.
With that said, there may be a rare circumstance where the heinous nature of the crime and the desire of the victim warrant the request of the death penalty.
How should the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office work to address the fentanyl epidemic?
Mitchell: The Biden administration has failed to secure our borders. This failure has led to an epidemic unlike any we have seen — one that is taking the lives of five Arizonans each day.
A severe lack of resources has left local and state officials to fend for themselves. To overcome this scourge, we must use a multitude of approaches. We must educate the community, provide opportunities for those in the throes of addiction to recover and rejoin society, and hold those who would bring this poison into our community accountable by imposing substantial prison sentences.
We also need to work with law enforcement agencies to disrupt the criminal syndicates that are behind the fentanyl epidemic.
Wooten: When elected as County Attorney, I will divert fentanyl users to rehabilitative programs that address and mitigate addiction issues.
However, I will prosecute those who sell and manufacture fentanyl to the fullest extent of the law.
What lessons should the Maricopa County Attorney's Office take away from its past wrongful prosecution of protesters?
Mitchell: It is important for the community to understand that the handling of those cases does not reflect MCAO. I was one of the attorneys in the office who became aware of the inappropriate actions of the prosecutor assigned to the cases.
We brought those actions to the attention of our supervisors which led to cases being dismissed. When I became county attorney, I fired the attorney responsible for these prosecutions and testified against her in her State Bar disciplinary hearing.
My opponent has said that she wants to bring that attorney back in some capacity. That will never happen on my watch. We must operate with absolute integrity and uphold the rule of law. If evidence of a crime is not there, we must not proceed.
Wooten: The MCAO should learn from the DOJ's report and the dismissal of the protester prosecutions that racial profiling is unconstitutional and will not be tolerated.
When elected as County Attorney, in cases that involve racial profiling and where it is demonstrated that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion for the stop or probable cause for the arrest, I will be vigilant in ensuring that those cases are dismissed.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rachel Mitchell vs. Tamika Wooten: Where the candidates stand
