We're hearing that ambitious County Attorney Andrew Thomas ... is thinking about resigning from office in the next several months (we heard April) to free himself up to run for Arizona Attorney General in the 2010 Republican primary.
Rubin cited an anonymous source from within the County Attorney's office.
I'm not sure about this one - if Thomas truly is going to run for state AG, sooner or later he will have to resign sooner or later because of AZ's "resign to run" law, but there isn't much reason for him to do it so soon. The reason for the early entry into the race for Thomas, at least the one given in Rubin's piece, is that he doesn't want to give his presumed opponent for the Republican nomination, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a head start, but that doesn't make a lot of sense - if Horne officially announces his candidacy before next January, he has to resign too. While there are ways to campaign for an office without "campaigning" and running afoul of the resign-to-run law, the Horne (or whoever runs for the AG's office) campaign won't get fully up to speed until January at the earliest.
Don't misunderstand me - it would be great for the County if Thomas left sooner than later, especially because his departure would remove one of Joe Arpaio's political shields.
However, I just don't see it happening before late 2009.
Unless, of course, the Stapley indictment or something else blows up in Thomas' face, then he just might get out while the getting's good (aka - while he can save a little face). :))
1 comment:
I can say something nice about Thomas in regard to this story. At least he isn't pulling the "exploratory campaign" garbage in order to hold onto his current job while running. good for him in at least being honest about his intentions and resigning. That said, he would do a service to us all if he resigned.
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