Two screenshots prove that candidate Mike Jette for Pima County Attorney originally supported “maternal choice” for pregnant women – and not abortion access.
This screenshot (below) of Jette’s website as of March 7, 2024, shows he called for “maternal choice.” It was retrieved from the public Internet Archive see https://web.archive.org/web/20240307080633/https://mikejette.com/
“Maternal choice” was removed on April 26, 2024, and replaced with “pro-choice.”
Maternal care and abortion are not the same. Maternal care is the medical care provided to a woman during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. It includes prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum care – but not abortion. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy.
Arizona NOW has endorsed Jette, but they may have to reconsider when they discover his weasel-worded support for “maternal care.”
Incumbent County Attorney Laura Conover first pointed this out at the public Democrats of Oro Valley meeting on June 10:
“Today, Jette says on his website that he “is pro-choice and will always defend abortion rights,” Conover said. “When my opponent launched his campaign, he put up a website, and he said he wanted to promote ‘maternal choice.’ And for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a very deceptive way of saying that when a woman has made her choice, she then comes into a provider, and then they tell her about all her other choices because the choice she made is the worst. Think crisis pregnancy center.”
See Pima County Attorney Laura Conover Nails Her Primary Opponent as a Fake Democrat.
Conover has said repeatedly that her office will not prosecute women who seek an abortion or any doctor who provides one. Conover, who is a lifelong Democrat, says on her website: ‘Challenges To Meet: Fighting for Reproductive Rights. Fought to protect safe, legal abortion access when Republicans tried to reinstate an 1864 abortion ban and won; continue fighting to protect our rights to reproductive freedom.
The facts show that Jette is indeed a fake Democrat:
- He ran as a Republican for County Attorney earlier.
- He lives in Legislative District 20. But the Democratic District Chair says Jette has not canvassed, written a postcard, held a fundraiser, or made calls for Democrats. He came to an LD20 meeting in March but not after that. He is not even a precinct committee person.
- The right-wing Goldwater Institute supports Jette.
- Jette appeared on four different programs on right-wing talk radio, KVOI, including the shows of Bruce Ash — the former national Committeeman of the Republican Party of Arizona — and pro-MAGA announcer Chris DeSimone. Their audience is Republicans because Democrats do not listen to right-wing talk radio.
At the DOV meeting, Conover said:
- “He changed his registration and is running in our Democratic primary. It’s not how we should be doing things.”
- Jette got a “massive donation” from Republican villain and anti-abortion advocate David Mehl. Mehl sat on the Independent Redistricting Commission in 2021 and gerrymandered the entire state to favor Republicans. “In November, Mehl spent $20,000 of his own money to defeat the Arizona Abortion Initiative. Three months later, he made a massive donation to my opponent,” Conover said.
- “We have to believe my opponent the first time he tells us where he stands on the major issues while he raises an absolute fortune in Republican Trump MAGA money.”
- At a separate meeting, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said, “What the Republicans are doing in Pima County by running one of their own in a Democratic primary is unprecedented and, frankly, something that we are not taking lightly.”
The race for County Attorney will be determined in the July 30 Democratic Primary because there is no openly-Republican candidate. Early ballots will be mailed July 3 and early voting will begin.
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Former Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall wrote recent op-ed piece in Tucson Sentinel about Conover: https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/061724_lawall_conover_op/lawall-county-attorney-laura-conover-factually-unhinged/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email.
and former deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay’s guest opinion: https://arizonadailystar-az.newsmemory.com/?publink=127d95e20_134d30e
and former D 3 Supervisor Sharon Bronson’s guest opinion: https://arizonadailystar-az.newsmemory.com/?publink=0b9a0799d_134d300
These former County officials are all Democrats.
I truly pity any Democrat who’s been deceived by Jette and LaWall’s campaign of misinformation and smears, all financed by some of the biggest GOP donors in AZ. ONLY one Democrat is running for Pima County Attorney – and it’s NOT Mike Jette!
I’m shocked and disgusted by LaWall’s complicity in attempting to weasel her way back into influence by backing a Republican in such a deceptive and fact-free manner. I’ve never had a high opinion for her administration of the office – outside of victim services, in which she and her team were pioneers – but I never thought she would be so desperate as to betray “her” party.
These are among the reasons that genuinely progressive Democrats across Pima County -like myself and Larry – who are paying close attention to this race, including Ruben Gallego, Raul Grijalva, Regina Romero, Adrian Fontes, our entire LD18 delegation of Sundareshan, Gutierrez and Mathis, and Ron Barber have all endorsed Laura Conover. Indeed, even relatively conservative Dems like Kris Mayes, Terry Goddard, and the DeConcinis are endorsing Conover.
Among those backing Jette one name matters above all others – Jim Click. If you want Click’s candidate, you will certainly get what Click is paying for with a vote for Jette. And what is it that Click hopes to purchase? Another administration that will neglect consumer fraud and white-collar criminality while wasting resources on performative prosecutorial policies that sound tough, but don’t deliver for the economic and physical security of our community.
Conover is a true progressive trying to make data-driven, positive changes in the way our Pima County justice system works to enhance public safety – AND SUCCEEDING! – which is why Republicans have conspired to attack her at the Primary instead of an honest contest in the General. Instead of just juking the stats with costly and counter-productive policies to impress voters but neglecting real justice – as LaWall did, and Neely did before her – Conover is taking on the difficult and often electorally unrewarding task of implementing policies that measurably enhance public safety while also enhancing the quality of justice in our community.
The opposition KNOW they can’t win honestly in Pima County in a high-turnout polarized General Election with a Republican running as a Republican. So they are lying to you about who Jette really is – he’s not a ‘law-and-order’ Democrat, he’s a stalking horse of a beaten and morally bankrupt GOP, who are willing to stoop to any deceit to regain some of their waning influence in Pima County.
What we are getting from Jette and LaWall is exactly what I would expect from a Republican campaign – misleading and deceitful personal attacks on Conover’s character and fitness – not a peep of truth about what Conover has already achieving in real gains in public safety for Pima County. Instead they blatantly lie that crime is getting worse in our community, despite the clear evidence to the contrary. They make VERY much about a very minor mistake made while campaigning, and lie and insinuate about all sorts of inside baseball that amounts to merely office politics and gosip from disguntleds who preferred the LaWall/Neely playbook in which prosecutors were encouraged to abuse their power to juke the office’s stats.
Back the REAL Democrat in this race, not a Republican trying to dupe low-information voters as to his true allegiences and loyalties.