Maricopa County attorney candidates Mitchell, Wooten face off in TV debate (2025)

Jimmy JenkinsArizona Republic

Maricopa County attorney candidates Mitchell, Wooten face off in TV debate (1)

Maricopa County attorney candidates Mitchell, Wooten face off in TV debate (2)

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(This story was updated to add new information, a new photo gallery and a new promo photo.)

Incumbent Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, and challenger judge pro tem Tamika Wooten, a Democrat, faced-off Tuesday in the only debate of the Maricopa County attorney race.

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.

Mitchell was firstappointed county attorney in 2022, afterthe resignation of Allister Adel. Mitchell won an election later that year to serve the rest of Adel's term, defeating Democrat Julie Gunnigle.

Before taking the helm, Mitchell's time at the County Attorney's Office included serving as the head of the sex crimes bureau. That experience led her to be hired by the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to question Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh during Kavanaugh's U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing in 2018. Ford had accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teens; he denied it.

Wooten has also previously run for county attorney. She announced her candidacy for the 2020 election but failed to get enough signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Wooten has been an attorney for more than 30 years. She has practiced criminal defense law, served as a chief prosecutor in Glendale and a municipal judge in multiple jurisdictions.

On Tuesday, during the debate, Mitchell presented herself as a career felony prosecutor who has spent 32 years working in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

"The bulk of that has been spent protecting women and children from sex crimes, physical abuse, domestic violence," she said.

Mitchell said when she inherited the office, "it was a mess."

"There were backlogs of cases that had not been reviewed," she said. "There were relationships with police officers that had suffered, and those things needed to be cleaned up."

Mitchell said she had cleaned things up and was in the process of moving the department forward.

She talked about her focus on organized retail crime, gun violence and fentanyl-related prosecutions and asked voters to give her a full term to continue working on those issues.

Wooten pitched herself as a candidate with broader experience, citing her work as a prosecutor, defense lawyer and judge.

"So I have the global experience over the criminal law arena that my opponent does not have," Wooten said, labeling Mitchell a "career prosecutor."

Wooten said that her work experience prepared her to tackle recidivism, addiction and mental health issues, as well as the prosecution of violent crimes.

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.

Wooten accuses Mitchell of making 'sweetheart deals'

Mitchell said the biggest issue facing the County Attorney's Office was a shortage of police officers.

"The way that affects the County Attorney's Office is how quickly investigations can be done, how thoroughly they can be done," she said.

Mitchell said it was important for the county attorney to support law enforcement.

"Not a blanket support where people are not held responsible," she said, "but a support that shows that we are going to stand by them as partners, support their efforts, understand their jobs and walk along beside them to make sure that wrongdoers are held accountable."

Wooten said restoring public trust was the biggest issue facing the agency. She accused Mitchell of making "sweetheart deals," offering diversion programs to the accused and demonstrating "a pattern and practice of leniency."

"The role of the prosecutor's office is not to simply get convictions," Wooten said, "but also to do justice, and do justice for the right reasons."

Mitchell defended her choices relating to alternatives to prosecution, citing a "robust" program that addresses substance abuse and mental health issues "so that those people are diverted from the criminal justice system, and they're not saddled with a permanent felony."

In response to the sweetheart deal allegation, Mitchell brought up the case of former Arizona prisons director Charles Ryan. Ryan engaged Tempe Police in a drunken, hours-long standoff at his home, during which he pointed a gun at officers. Mitchell offered a plea deal of disorderly conduct that kept Ryan out of prison. The event caused two of the Tempe police officers to submit letters to the judge asking for Ryan to be held accountable; one said he thought prison time was appropriate.

In the debate, Mitchell said she spoke with Tempe police leaders and that they agreed with her assessment it would not be possible to prosecute Ryan for the more serious crime of aggravated assault. Tempe police did not respond to an inquiry from The Arizona Republic on Wednesday about Mitchell's assertion. Mitchell has previously cited Ryan's severe intoxication as a reason she chose not to pursue a higher charge and repeated that argument Tuesday.

"They chose not to arrest him that night because they saw it for what it was," Mitchell said of the Tempe police decision not to book Ryan into jail. "We saw it for what it was as well, and we gave him an appropriate offer."

Wooten said Mitchell should have listened to the Tempe police officers who were Ryan's victims, not the leadership of the police department.

Restoring public trust after the arrest of protesters

Moderator Ted Simons asked the candidates how they would restore public trust in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office after the agency under Adel filed gang charges against protesters arrested by Phoenix police. All the charges were eventually dismissed.

Mitchell said she had sounded the alarm to her superiors about the cases, telling them they had been overcharged. When she became county attorney, Mitchell said, she prioritized an investigation into the prosecutor heading up the gang charges, fired her and testified against her at a State Bar hearing.

Wooten said she disagreed that Mitchell had been able to turn the agency around. She pledged to increase morale by giving staff the training they need to prosecute with confidence, which would, in turn, increase public confidence in the office.

Mitchell countered that morale and hiring were up, cited as support the elimination of a backlog of unreviewed cases.

Where do the candidates stand on abortion-related prosecutions?

Neither candidate would make a blanket commitment on how they would respond if they were presented with a case about an abortion later than 15 weeks, the limit in current Arizona law.

Wooten indicated that such prosecutions would not be a priority for her office.

"I believe that we need to keep our communities safe and focus on broader community safety, rather than policing a woman's womb," Wooten said.

Mitchell said no abortion-related cases have been submitted to any county attorneys in Arizona since Roe v. Wade was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion access will be on the ballot in November, Mitchell said, and it will be the job of the voters, not the county attorney, to decide what the law should be.

"It's the job of the county attorney to honor what the will of the voters is," Mitchell said. "So if a case came in that violated whatever law is chosen by the voters ... I would review that, like any other case."

Wooten said she would not have the authority to prosecute abortion cases because Gov. Katie Hobbs gave that responsibility to Attorney General Kris Mayes. Mitchell said Hobbs had overstepped her authority in doing so.

Simons asked Mitchell what she would do if she were presented with an abortion case before the abortion rights ballot initiative was voted on that involved a 16- or 17-week abortion by someone who was the victim of rape or incest.

"Well, in that situation — and I have made this very clear — I spent 25 years of my career prosecuting sexual assaults, molestations, that I would not prosecute based on that situation," Mitchell said. "That is not in the interest of the community or victims in that situation, but I would still look at anything submitted to our office."

Wooten said she agreed with Mitchell's response.

Wooten attacks Mitchell over 'Gilbert Goons' prosecutions

Wooten said she did not think Mitchell had handled teen violence appropriately, specifically the prosecution of the so-called "Gilbert Goons." Wooten said she thought the prosecutions were affected by the higher socioeconomic status of the families involved.

"The county attorney's office knew the players that were involved in that, and they had plenty people coming forward, they chose to wait on that case," Wooten said. "If this had been the South Mountain Goons, I believe that justice would have been served a lot sooner."Mitchell said the prosecution of teen violence, especially the Preston Lord case, was extremely complex and, therefore, took more time to investigate and prosecute.

The debate aired on Arizona PBS and is available on the channel's website, azpbs.org, and YouTube channel.

Have a news tip? Reach the reporter at jjenkins@arizonarepublic.com or 812-243-5582. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JimmyJenkins.

Maricopa County attorney candidates Mitchell, Wooten face off in TV debate (2025)
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