Gunnigle, Adel in tight race for post
The race between Julie Gunnigle and Allister Adel to become the first woman ever elected as Maricopa County attorney is close as ballots continue to be counted on Wednesday.
Gunnigle held a slight lead over Adel, but the race was tightening as more returns were posted.
Adel, a Republican and the current county attorney, is hoping to win a full term. She was appointed in October 2019 by the Board of Supervisors after Bill Montgomery was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Gunnigle, a private attorney with prosecutorial experience in Indiana and Illinois, has criticized Adel throughout the heated campaign.
Shortly after the second round of results were released, it was announced that Adel had been admitted to the hospital for a medical emergency. The county attorney underwent emergency surgery for bleeding to her brain.
Jennifer Liewer, the County Attorney's Office spokesperson, said Adel is in serious but stable condition.
"Her family is grateful for the outpouring of support and asks for continued prayers for Allister," Liewer said.
Earlier Tuesday, Adel’s campaign told The Arizona Republic that she was waiting for the first round of results at home with her family.
More than 1.5 million ballots have been counted. Results from early ballots dropped off at the polls on Tuesday and from provisional ballots will be reported over the next few days.
Gunnigle's campaign has pulled ads and stopped social media posts to be respectful to Adel as she recovers.
Both candidates created websites that debate who is a "reformer" vs. who is a "radical." The candidates claim the other one lies, creates political stunts and isn't transparent.
Adel alleges her opponent doesn't support law enforcement or the rights of victims.
Lorna Romero, spokeswoman for Adel’s campaign, told The Republic that she has worked hard each day over the past year.
“For the last 13 months, Allister has worked hard each day to share her record of accomplishments and vision for our criminal justice system with voters,” Romero said. “We are confident Maricopa County voters have determined that Allister is the best choice for county attorney.”
Gunnigle has accused Adel of "mom shaming" and contends she doesn't care about a woman's right to choose.
Why is this race important?
The race has caught the attention of many outside the state, including singer John Legend.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona spent $850,000 to make voters aware of the race and educate them on the issues. The organization doesn't support or endorse candidates, but Analise Ortiz, campaign strategist for the ACLU, said the organization believes much is at stake.
The person elected will help determine charging decisions and influence how many people go to prison.
In July, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report stating people of color were disproportionately prosecuted by the office under Montgomery's leadership.
Maricopa County is responsible for most of the convictions of inmates in Arizona's prisons. Arizona consistently ranks in the top 10 states in the country for mass incarceration, according to research organizations.
The County Attorney's Office is the third largest prosecutorial office in the country. Its 360 prosecutors work in the nation's fourth largest trial court, the Maricopa County Superior Court. According to research by The Republic, 84% of the prosecutors in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office identify as white.
Allister Adel
Adel, a graduate of the University of Arizona and Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law at Arizona State University, grew up in Dallas.
She has worked in multiple areas of Arizona's legal system and governmental agencies. Before going to law school, she worked at Maricopa County Superior Court in criminal court administration.
Adel said she decided to go to law school to become a prosecutor. She was a deputy county attorney at MCSO from 2004 to 2011. She worked in the vehicular crimes, gang and drug enforcement bureaus.
The Republican said she learned how to talk to victims and their families during her first few years as a prosecutor. She realized it may be the first time many people come in contact with the
criminal justice system, at a time they are grieving for a loved one.
She left the County Attorney's Office to become the chief administrative law judge for the Arizona Department of Transportation. She later worked for the Arizona Department of Child Safety and the Maricopa County Bar Association.
Adel beat out three supervising attorneys from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and a section chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to become the Board of Supervisors' pick as Montgomery's replacement.
She immediately was immersed in a number of high-profile cases involving police use of deadly force. She fired Juan Martinez, the office's storied death penalty prosecutor who was accused of sexual harassment and misconduct.
“Any inappropriate behavior, any harassment, workplace, sexual or otherwise will absolutely not be tolerated,” Adel said after Martinez was disbarred in July. “The women in the office need to feel safe where they work. They need to know we are taking care of them, protecting them and empowering them.”
The office has seen numerous changes in one year, including the revamping of a diversion program and the creation of a prosecution integrity unit.
"What I have learned over the past year is this job is difficult yet rewarding," Adel told The Republic. "This position requires unwavering leadership and consistent communication to balance supporting our staff, engaging the community and administering the needs of the office."
Julie Gunnigle
Gunnigle, who was raised in Phoenix, graduated from Northern Arizona University and University of Notre Dame Law School.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was one of Gunnigle’s professors and the commencement speaker at her graduation in 2006.
After graduating from law school,
Gunnigle worked as a prosecutor in Elkhart County, Indiana, from 2006 to 2007 before becoming a solo practitioner.
Gunnigle said she gained a lot of experience at the small prosecutor's office. She was able to work on homicide, juvenile, domestic violence and sexual abuse cases.
The Democrat said she realized she had the skills to talk to domestic violence victims in a way that didn't traumatize them and to listen to children explain what happened in cases concerning sexual abuse.
Gunnigle was a prosecutor in the Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Office from 2009 to 2011. The candidate said she worked on financial crimes and public corruption cases and assisted other prosecutors on a variety of cases, including cold cases and fraud.
When she returned to Arizona, she started her own law firm focusing on birth law and advocating for individualized education programs for students.
Gunnigle said her 12-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum and profoundly gifted, has affected her career. Her son now is a student at Paradise Valley Community College. Before he started community college, multiple schools politely asked that the child leave or expelled him.
"I saw how many children were slipping through the cracks. I saw that untapped talent, and I want to make sure that no other family or parent has to face challenges that we have to go through," Gunnigle said.
Gunnigle also was a professor at the now-closed Arizona Summit Law School.
Throughout her campaign, Gunnigle has stated she is an advocate for criminal justice reform. She has accused Adel of continuing the hard-line legacy of Montgomery and Andrew Thomas, who had the position before Montgomery.
The Democrat has been critical of the office's diversion programs, Adel's choice of leadership for the prosecution integrity unit and her investigations of police use of force.
"This campaign has been about having our priorities straight and making sure this office's priorities, as they should be, are crimes of violence; crimes that target women, children and our seniors; human trafficking; and public corruption," she said.