Arizona attorney-general candidate Felicia Rotellini wants apology from Tom Horne
by Mary Jo Pitzl
Attorney-general candidate Felecia Rotellini on Tuesday demanded that her opponent apologize for claiming she has never been to trial, a request he promptly rejected.
"What we're dealing with here today is a character and integrity issue," Rotellini, a Democrat, said of Republican nominee Tom Horne. "He simply has a problem telling the truth."
At a news conference, she distributed records that show she has been involved in civil jury trials. Her goal was to refute Horne's claim that "she has never tried a case in her entire life."
Those trials date to earlier in her career, when she was in private practice, as well as a case she handled as an assistant attorney general that ended up in federal court.
Rotellini said that many of the cases she worked on during her 17 years in the public sector went to settlement, rather than to a trial. She was an assistant attorney general for 13 years before leaving to head the Department of Financial Institutions.
For the past week, Horne and Rotellini have been feuding over trial experience as each tries to convince voters of being the better candidate.
Horne rebuffed Rotellini's demand for an apology, saying, "It took her three weeks to figure out her resume."
He was referring to their televised debate, at which he questioned her claim to being an experienced prosecutor.
The debate was Sept. 8, two weeks ago, not three.
Horne said his claim that she had never tried a case was based on a list of cases that her campaign released to The Arizona Republic, as well as his own research in legal databases.
On Tuesday, he acknowledged that Rotellini has argued cases before juries, but belittled the experience. Horne pointed out that Rotellini served as lead attorney on two of the jury cases she provided the media.
"Two is a lot closer to zero than (it is) to anything significant," he said.
The back-and-forth has revealed that neither candidate has criminal-trial experience, even as each has emphasized the value of taking a case before a jury.
Still, at her news conference, Rotellini said the debate is obscuring the main job of the attorney general: running what amounts to the largest legal practice in the state. Much of that job is administrative, and many cases end up in settlement rather than going to trial, she said.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/09/22/20100922arizona-attorney-general-candidate-felecia-rotellini-apology-tom-horne.html#ixzz10yffWPqw
