Green Party candidate challenges longtime Pima County attorney

After defeating a challenger in the Democratic primary election, longtime Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall is facing a Green Party candidate in the Nov. 8 general election.

Environmental lawyer Cyndi Tuell said she’s been working hard over the past several months to get to know people in the community and make sure the public is aware there’s a civil side to the County Attorney’s Office.

LaWall, who was elected Pima County attorney in 1996, is seeking her sixth term.

Tuell decided to pursue the position in May, after recently becoming more active in Tucson’s Green Party community.

“The group initially suggested I run because I’m an attorney,” she said. “After I thought about it for a moment, I realized how important this position is for the environment.”

Within the County Attorney’s Office civil division is a land-use and environmental unit, which allows the office to bring legal action for violations, such as those involving water or air quality, Tuell said.

“The Pima County attorney could have engaged more fully in the whole Rosemont (copper mine) process and could have done more,” she said.

A large portion of the county attorney’s budget is dedicated to the environment, and there are enough financial resources to make some improvements, Tuell said, such as making sure everyone is well-versed in the National Environmental Policy Act.

The candidates differed in their stance on Proposition 205, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol.

LaWall is opposed to the law, saying that she believes the societal costs will be significant.

“Legalizing the pot market (in Colorado) has not caused illegal drug dealing to disappear,” she said, also mentioning the increase in marijuana-related hospitalizations and traffic fatalities since the legalization.

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To the contrary, Tuell believes that Proposition 205 is a good start, but doesn’t go far enough.

“I support the legalization of marijuana and an end to the war on drugs because of the catastrophic impacts the militarization of our police and the militarization of our borders has had on our communities on both sides of the U.S./Mexican border,” she said.

During her campaign, LaWall has touted her success in creating unique and innovative public safety and justice-related programs, and says she still has several ideas she’d like to implement.

“My highest priority is to develop a crimes strategies unit,” she said. “This approach will help use our limited prosecutorial resources more efficiently by using technology to gather and deploy intelligence on (county-wide) crime patterns and our most serious priority offenders.”

Tuell, an avid bicyclist who doesn’t own a car, listed bike and pedestrian safety as a priority she’d like to address if she takes over the office.

“The current county attorney isn’t adequately prosecuting people who hit bicyclists and pedestrians,” she said. “I want those people to have equal protection of the County Attorney’s Office when it comes to injury or death.”

With the County Attorney’s Office currently understaffed, LaWall said she is committed to increasing those numbers and creating a “true community prosecution approach,” which she lacks the resources to do.

“I believe that prosecutors have a responsibility not only to prosecute offenders, but also to work with the community to solve public safety problems, prevent crime and improve confidence in the justice system,” she said.

Tuell said that one of the first things she’d like to do is look at the data and statistics regarding who the County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting and convicting, to see if there are any racial, socioeconomic or gender discrepancies.

“Barbara LaWall said all the right people are in jail, but I absolutely disagree,”she said. “Every day in this country, people are wrongfully charged, arrested and convicted. The data will show if there’s a bias.”