The Arizona 2022 Primary Election Is Underway – Who Should Our Next Attorney General Be?

The 2022 Republican primary for Attorney General is underway. The winner of the August 2nd primary will face the Democrat choice in the general election on November 8th. The outcome of the general election for Arizona’s next Attorney General will impact every citizen in our state.

There is a crisis in American law and order that is getting worse throughout the nation. A fundamental responsibility of federal, state, county and local governments across the United States is protecting the safety of its citizens and the foundational premise of ‘equality before the law’.

The ideologic perversion of citizens’ rights and the role of the protective services at every level of government by the radical left and increasingly most of the Democrat party are profound and proximal threats to the well-being of every American. Ergo, the outcome of our Attorney General 8/2 primary and 11/8 general elections is critical to the welfare, the safety and the rights of all Arizonans. Our glorious state cannot and must not hand over the reigns of Attorney General to a Democrat, especially in these tumultuous and threatening times.

Given the importance of this vital office and position, what should voters look for and expect in the candidate most qualified to be the next Attorney General of Arizona? What history, professional experience, and personal characteristics are most likely to be successful in the core mission to protect the citizens of Arizona, i.e., to be ‘the people’s lawyer’? Please consider the following:

• The Attorney General, as stated, is the ‘people’s lawyer’. Yes, the Attorney General’s office is a very large and diverse law practice, the most important in Arizona. To manage an office of this size and importance, the candidate’s experience is vital for success. What has the candidate achieved in his or her career? What have they managed? How have they demonstrated their commitment to the ‘Rule of Law”? What is their record?
• The Attorney General is the ‘Prosecutor-in-Chief’. There are 465 prosecutors in the Attorney General’s office. They are engaged in complex prosecution involving litigation at trials and the arduous work of accurate discovery for criminal cases and civil cases for the state of Arizona. These 465 prosecutors report to the Attorney General. The Attorney General is their boss – an individual who must command their respect. The Attorney General is the quality control person for the AG office who assesses and evaluates the work of every prosecutor employed for the state in this office. The candidate for this important office and role must have the experience and reputation justifying this very important and elevated position.
• What is the AG candidate’s experience as a prosecutor and a litigator? What is his or her trial experience? Will that individual, Arizona’s chief legal officer, command the respect and loyalty of the prosecutors serving under the Attorney General?
• Arizona and all of America are experiencing invasion by millions of illegal migrants because of the dangerous open-border policy of the Biden administration. Issues of growing cartel strength, fentanyl deaths, human and sex-trafficking, crime and violence, etc., are in front of all Arizonans every day. Does the most qualified candidate for the AG office have experience with border issues and what is now a border catastrophe for Arizona? This is a key question for voters to ask.
• A subtle but significant question for voters to ask about the next AG is that relating to judges. In both criminal law and  civil law, a judge is partially influenced by the respect that judge has for the attorneys on both sides in a trial. The cases brought by an experienced prosecutor, especially one with a substantial history and knowledge (and possibly experience) of the judicial side of trials are influenced by this qualification. Inexperience is a disadvantage as it is in all professional arenas and should be a factor in the decision to pick the next Attorney General.
• Be assured that the Democrat party and its Attorney General candidate for the general election will utilize the charge of ‘inexperience’ ruthlessly if the Republican primary result on August 2nd is that of a candidate with little or inadequate prosecutorial history. Please factor this in to your decision when you vote in this primary.

There are three candidates considered to be competitive for the Arizona AG August 2nd Primary election. They are Andrew Gould, Abraham Hamadeh and Rodney Glassman.  Making your choice based on the qualifications above for the best and most qualified candidate to be the next Attorney General for the state of Arizona will be clear.

Andrew Gould is a long-time Arizona resident and constitutional conservative. He is a recognized expert in constitutional law. He graduated from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1990. Andrew Gould has many years of experience in trial law and as a prosecutor, serving the state of Arizona for most of his career. Mr. Gould spent the first four years of his legal career in private practice as a civil litigator in Phoenix. He then served as a deputy county attorney prosecuting major criminal cases for Yuma and Maricopa Counties. He has served as chief civil deputy for the Yuma County Attorney’s Office. He served as the state prosecutor in Yuma for five years and had extensive experience with border crime and cartel prosecution. He experienced death threats to himself and his family while serving in this role. He also has long and respected experience as a judge, appointed to the Yuma County Superior Court in 2001 and serving as an associate presiding judge until he was named presiding judge in 2006 through 2011. He was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2012 and then to the Arizona Supreme Court in 2016. He is endorsed by former Arizona Attorney General Bob Corbin, former Senator Jon Kyl, former Congressman John Shadegg and Governor Doug Ducey.

Abraham Hamadeh is a graduate of the University of Arizona College of Law. He passed the Bar Exam in 2017 and has two years of service as a prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. He prosecuted twelve trials during his time at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. He then went on to serve as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He deployed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 14 months involved with the training and security cooperation needs for two Saudi security ministries. Thereafter, he returned to the United States and declared his candidacy for Arizona Attorney General. Donald Trump has endorsed Mr. Hamadeh in this race.

Rodney Glassman is a graduate of the University of Arizona College of Law. He was a Democrat until late 2015. He served as a legislative aide for Raul Grijalva. He served as a Democrat member on the Tucson City Council from 2008 to 2010. He resigned in his third year on the Council to run for the U.S. Senate against John McCain, pledging to bring back a “progressive Democrat to Washington, DC”. During his years as a Democrat activist, he was on record supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants. Mr. Glassman changed his party affiliation in late 2015 to Republican after running and losing the race for Arizona Democrat Chair twice. Mr. Glassman has some prosecutorial experience, serving as a military JAG attorney in the United States Air Force Reserve for more than a decade. He describes his prosecutorial experience as having “prosecuted complex financial cases” in his position as a JAG attorney when serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.