Democratic Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is under fire this week for placing his Republican opponent and employee Heather Lappin on administrative leave just weeks before Election Day.
Nanos says she violated internal policies. But, his opponents accuse him of corruption and favoritism, and are warning that if he is reelected, there will be a mass exodus of deputies from the department.
Now, one Pima County Supervisor is calling on Nanos to drop out of the race — and receive a censure for his actions.
Caitlin Schmidt, cofounder of the nonprofit newsroom, Tucson Spotlight joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Thanks for coming on The Show, Caitlin.
CAITLIN SCHMIDT: Thanks, Lauren.
GILGER: OK. So this race has gotten so contentious. There were deputies out protesting your outlet covered. They were sort of in disguise. They didn't want to reveal their identities, they had signs that said, you know, deputies don't want Nanos. What does the message look like from opponents like these?
SCHMIDT: Yeah, it seems like there's quite a bit of discord in the department. In addition to suspending Heather Lappin, Nanos also placed a sergeant on administrative leave a few weeks ago. One of the union leaders and that was for allegedly campaigning in what appeared to be a uniform. So that was kind of the reason behind the costumes.
But this sergeant told my reporter on Friday that he's spoken to at least 16 deputies who say that they will leave their jobs if Nanos is re-elected and they really are fearing that mass exodus that you mentioned, yeah.
GILGER: What did they say is behind that? Like, why, why are they so critical of him?
SCHMIDT: You know, they say that it's just been kind of some good old boy politics since he's taken office. And this has been dating back to 2015 when he was appointed by longtime sheriff, or when he replaced longtime sheriff Clarence Dupnik. He was appointed by Pima County supervisors at Dupnik's suggestion. And what we were told happened in the department was that, you know, Nanos has a quick temper. We've seen that. And he would promote people that were loyal to him and kind of retaliate against people that were not.
And it's created a culture where people are afraid to speak up to make suggestions about improvements. And there have been some actions that they're really unhappy with. There is a lawsuit involving a sergeant who is accused of sexually consulting his deputy. That sergeant is still working at the department. There's been some controversies involving a corrections officer that was actually arrested for shoplifting and kept his job. So the, the cops out there that are just trying to keep their head down and do their job don't feel like they can under this culture.
GILGER: Very interesting. Tell us more about why Heather Lappin was placed on administrative leave here. It has to do with the campaign, right?
SCHMIDT: Kind of. Yeah, it's always interesting when the news becomes the news. So Nano said in his letter about her leave that she was suspended for allegedly colluding with a local reporter to facilitate payment to an inmate in the Pima County jail. The outlet in question, the Arizona Luminaria has since bonded and said that what their reporter did was actually reimburse an inmate for a phone call in the jail. This was part of a yearslong investigation.
Luminaria and other outlets have repeatedly reported on how hard it is to communicate with people in the jail, how expensive it is, so this was really just kind of a routine part of John Washington doing his job. Nanos told the Luminaria and some other outlets that the FBI and the state Attorney General's Office had agreed to help in his investigation of Lappin in this situation. But the AG’s office said last week that they had not agreed to this.
GILGER: Has she responded to any of this, Heather Lappin?
SCHMIDT: Not so much. Both she and the other sergeants say that they've been placed on a gag order. She has not filed a lawsuit of her own. But the attorney representing Sergeant Cross has said that at this point, really, nothing is out of the question.
GILGER: What about Nanos? What's he saying about why he's doing this, the timing of it all and the criticism he's receiving, especially from, as we mentioned, Pima County supervisor Matt Heinz, who's now calling for him to drop out of the election to be censured.
SCHMIDT: Yes. So Nanos is basically saying that other people are turning this into a political issue and that he's just trying to follow department guidelines and, you know, police his own police. He sent a four-page letter to several outlets defending himself and really isn't touching on the timing. He's saying, you know, this just all came to his attention. But this is not the first time that he has suspended a political rival leading up to an election.
He did this back in 2016. A sergeant then announced his candidacy and was promptly suspended with Nano citing a county rule at the time that allowed for an employee to be suspended if campaigning interfered with their job performance. But that rule was changed last year.
GILGER: Very interesting. Let me ask you lastly in the last minute or so here, Caitlin, about the broader picture on this race. Where is the polling look? What does fundraising look like? Do we know who might win?
SCHMIDT: It's, it's really tough to say. You know, unfortunately a lot of people have turned in their ballots already and had before this news came out. Fundraising is really interesting. Heather Lappin has out-raised Nanos four times in individual contributions. She's brought in a total of $113,000 this cycle to his about $30,000 and most of his came from personal loans whereas hers were individual donations.
This last cycle that just ended, September 30, he brought in $550 and she brought in almost 30,000. So if we're looking at where the money is, it seems like she has the support. But again, you know, Pima County is largely Democratic voter base and we saw Nanos win in 2020 because he replaced a Republican. So her party might be what's difficult for her.
