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Arizona Attorney General Candidates Debate Qualifications

Candidates for Arizona Attorney General argued about their opponent's lack of qualifications for the office in Tuesday night’s debate. 

Republican nominee Mark Brnovich beat incumbent Tom Horne in the August primary. He said his experience prosecuting criminals is a necessity for the office.

“There’s a reason my opponent doesn’t want to talk about her resume and complete lack of criminal trial experience and complete lack of handling any violent felons. I will leave it to the viewers to decide when we’re going toe to toe with the cartels that are smuggling drugs and people into this country do you want someone who needs on the job training?” Brnovich said. 

Brnovich said part of the Attorney General's job is to keep violent felons in prison. Democratic nominee Felicia Rotellini said the position is about civil cases and financial fraud. 

“Going after dangerous criminals is the job of the county attorneys who have original jurisdiction for that. He’s never prosecuted financial fraud, he’s never returned monies to victims of fraud, he’s never shut down scammers,” Rotellini said. 

Each candidate questioned the other’s involvement with private prisons. Rotellini has accepted campaign contributions from people in the system and Brnovich worked for a private prison firm.

One thing both candidates agreed on is that the Attorney General’s role is to enforce the law of the land, whether or not they personally agree.

Alexandra Olgin was a Senior Field Correspondent at KJZZ from 2013 to 2016.