The Daily Agenda: Pima County Attorney race heats up
Mike Jette throws his hat in the ring … Not happy with Conover … TUSD won’t close schools.
The Tucson area has a bevy of important local races this year. We plan to interview as many candidates as we can so voters get a sense of who’s on the ballot. One of the highest-profile races will be for Pima County Attorney, where first-term incumbent Laura Conover is seeking re-election. Last week, Curt sat down with Mike Jette, her sole challenger (as of now), to talk about his decision to run, his priorities, and where he stands on important issues.
You might not recognize Mike Jette’s name, but you’ve probably heard about some of the cases he’s handled: the Rio Nuevo probe years ago, theft at the Tucson Museum of Art, cattle rustling at the Marana Stockyards and Livestock Market, and the Super Bowl pornography hack.
Jette, 51, has been a prosecutor for the past 16 years at the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office. He’s prosecuted a wide array of cases, from homicide to public corruption to fraud. He also spent more than two years training prosecutors in Pakistan, as well as the Philippines and Bangladesh, on cases involving U.S. citizens, terrorism and money-laundering as part of a Department of Justice program.
He’s been a Tucson resident for 22 years. He just resigned as a federal prosecutor so he could run for Pima County Attorney.
Why he’s running for Pima County Attorney
When he came back from Pakistan last year, what he found in Pima County was “alarming,” he said.
“Safety was down, crime was up, the morale of law enforcement was at an all-time low. And all you kept hearing from the county attorney was, in my opinion, a bunch of misleading narratives about the successes of the office,” he said.
Pima County is now the most dangerous county in Arizona, in terms of crimes per capita, he said, citing a recent Arizona Republic story.
“This job requires a prosecutor. We’ve had three years of a defense attorney who’s been in the position and we’ve seen what happens,” he said.
Laura Conover has “rampant ethical issues, has problems with keeping talented people in office, has a problem with prosecuting cases and dealing justly with people who are in the system,” he said.
He pointed to potential conflicts of interest in the Louis Taylor case and indecision in the Remington case, which has been “hanging over this young officer for over two years now.” He also pointed to a “mass exodus of talented people,” referring to dozens of employees who left the County Attorney’s Office in the months after Conover took office.
In what Jette called “hypocrisy,” when Conover was campaigning she said she would get rid of the cash bail system, but county prosecutors still argue in favor of cash bail in some cases. In fact, the county attorney doesn’t even have the power to get rid of cash bail.
Although this is Jette’s first time officially running for office, he did explore the idea for a few months in 2012. His house was burglarized and the county attorney declined to prosecute the case, which left him with a “devastating feeling.”
At the time, Barbara LaWall was a “strong, competent” Democrat, so he considered running as a Republican, even though he had been an independent or Democrat all his life. He ended up deciding not to run, and switched back to being an independent. He is running as a Democrat this year.
Top priorities
If elected, Jette’s immediate priorities would include targeting violent crime.
“The only people I want in prison are people who break into my home, people who assault me and my wife, people who are stealing my money,” he said. “Those are the people I want in prison, not the person who is addicted to drugs, who has mental health issues.”
He also has specific programs he’d like to launch:
Create an elder crime unit to go after confidence scams.
Establish a program of “combat counselors,” or trained professionals who can de-escalate situations with people who have substance abuse problems.
Assure law enforcement officers that any legitimate case they bring to the County Attorney’s Office will be prosecuted.
Create a “Halo” initiative to make sure everything is done to avoid sending people, particularly those with substance abuse problems, to prison.
Emphasize recruiting and training to get staffing at the County Attorney’s Office back to where it needs to be. “We’re behind the eight-ball here,” he said.
High-profile issues
Abortion: Jette didn’t mince words when he discussed how he would handle abortion prosecutions, should Arizona law end up requiring them.
“There’s absolutely no way I’m going to ever use county resources to prosecute a woman, a doctor, the nurses, the husband or boyfriend who drives them there. I’m not prosecuting a single individual for abortion. Now if they want to vote me out or impeach me from office, go right ahead.”
Fentanyl: If a person purposely spikes drugs with fentanyl to make it more addictive, and that causes a death, they should face a homicide charge, he said.
Death penalty: He opposes the death penalty because it’s too costly and it’s not used fairly.
“It’s arbitrary in how it’s meted out. I’m against the death penalty. I’m not going to seek the death penalty in any case.”
The primary election is Aug. 6. So far, Jette and Conover are the only two candidates in the race.
Yesterday, we invited Conover to chat with us about her run for reelection, which she agreed to do soon. She also sent along a comment.
"As Pima County Attorney, I am on the frontlines of the legal battle for safe and fair elections,” Conover said. “There is nothing more democratic than having an opponent enter the race, and we will welcome him to the debate, and to the Democratic Party."
What do you think our next county attorney should focus on? Let us know in a letter to the editor. Email Curt at curt@tucsonagenda.com.
We’re planning to interview a ton of candidates in local races this year. Upgrading to a paid subscription would help make sure we’re still around to do it!
No school left behind: Tucson Unified School District has no plans to close schools, despite enrollment drops of more than 20% at 12 campuses during the pandemic, the Arizona Daily Star’s Jessica Votipka writes. Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo said there have been no recommendations or conversations about closing any schools, despite the recent enrollment report by nonprofit education news outlet The 74. The projected average daily enrollment loss of nearly 1,094 students between fiscal years 2023 and 2024 could result in a loss of more than $5 million in state funding.
Hanging up his hat: Tucson City Manager Mike Ortega is set to retire from the position after more than eight years when the next budget is set, the Tucson Sentinel’s Dylan Smith reports. Ortega, the longest-serving city manager in decades, will be the second-longest ever after former manager Joel Valdez. And unlike most former city managers in recent years, he’ll be leaving on his own terms.
"It's just time," Ortega said Friday. "I did some soul-searching with my family over the holidays... (the city's) in a really good spot."
On the market: The Green Valley Hospital was listed for sale in early January, two months after the building’s owner called the hospital a distraction to its 800-property portfolio, the Green Valley News’ Dan Shearer writes. The shuttered Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital is owned by New York-based real estate investment trust Broadstone, whose CEO previously hinted at a potential sale during a call with investors. A spokesman for the group that attempted to reopen the hospital in 2023 said Friday that efforts continue to reopen it.
Cartel chaos: A new report from the Migration Policy Institute found that Mexican cartels are moving migrants through the Tucson Sector because of Border Patrol’s limited resources in the area, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara reports. An institute representative said that cartels direct migrants to where border officials are most overwhelmed. The cartels also mislead migrants to believe that if they cross as a family, they’re more likely to get through, contributing to the rise in family arrivals and diversity of nationalities.
New system in effect: Street releases of asylum-seeking migrants are set to end in Nogales, the Nogales International’s Angela Gervasi reports. Street releases had decreased significantly in recent weeks, with city officials discussing the change in protocol during last Wednesday’s city council meeting. Local officials worked with the Border Patrol to coordinate a system that will bus migrants directly from the federal processing center in Nogales to Tucson.
More water for Marana: The Arizona Department of Water Resources is likely to approve Marana’s application to modify its existing assured water supply designation, despite the objections of a local conservation group, the Star’s Tony Davis reports. Marana is seeking a continuation of the state’s designation that it has an assured, 100-year water supply, which was first granted to the town in the 1990s. The approval would allow for continued, rapid subdivision development that mostly relies on groundwater pumping for another 10 years, allowing the population to more than double to about 72,000 people within Marana’s water service area.
65: The number of homicides recorded in Pima County as of Dec. 2, 2023, according to the Pima County Attorney’s Office Year 3 Review. That’s a nearly 36% reduction from 2021, when there were 102 homicides.