It now appears that there is a time and place for calling out a candidate for governor on a lie, and it isn’t in front of the Arizona Republic Editorial Board.
When the Republican candidates for Governor were asked by the Arizona Republic Editorial Board about the death penalty and the execution of Joseph Wood on Wednesday afternoon, Christine Jones, who never misses an opportunity to turn a simple question into an emotional rollercoaster, did just that.
Jones, who has been caught before by the Doug Ducey campaign, telling half-truths, white lies, or exaggerations about her role in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, appeared to fudge the truth again.
An emotional Jones told the Board that she sat as Second Chair for a death penalty prosecution while clerking at the DA’s office while attending law school. According to the Arizona Republic, as a law clerk, she was allowed to prosecute cases under the direction or with the permission of a supervising attorney.
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However, according to gubernatorial candidate Frank Riggs and other rival campaigns, Jones was never admitted to the California Bar and was never hired by the District Attorney’s Office.
So, when Christine Jones broke down when asked about the execution, and cited her experience as a prosecutor, and got emotional in front of the editorial board at the Arizona Republic, fellow candidate Frank Riggs challenged her credentials as a prosecutor.
Secretary of State Ken Bennett told Riggs, “This is not the time.” Former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith told Riggs his comments were “tacky.”
Later Riggs told Tucson radio talk show host James T. Harris, of 104.1 KQTH, that his rivals looked at him like “the skunk at a garden party,” but he “couldn’t let her get away with her lies any more. I wasn’t going to let her get away with that. She’s pretty convincing; she teared up, and she got very emotional. She was being very specific about she had done. I couldn’t let it pass.”
Riggs explained that he had looked into the matter, and learned that Jones did not sit Second Chair in the case.
Jones’ characterization of her time with the District Attorney’s Office has been highlighted by an outside group, the pro-Ducey Conservative Leadership for Arizona, which ran TV ads questioning Jones’ integrity.
Now the question becomes; is anyone who questions Jones’s claims “tacky?”