PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday appointed Rachel Mitchell, a longtime county prosecutor, as the county attorney through the November election.
Mitchell's appointment comes less than a month after former County Attorney Allister Adel resigned. Mitchell was one of five top prosecutors who called on Adel to step down in February.
Mitchell was sworn in at noon Wednesday by Judge Joseph Welty, presiding judge of Maricopa County Superior Court.
Two hours earlier, the five-member County Board agreed to appoint Mitchell from among a field of three candidates, all of them running in the Republican primary for county attorney.
Under state law, the board had to appoint a member of the former county attorney's party. Adel is a Republican.
The other contenders were Anni Foster, general counsel to Gov. Doug Ducey, and Gina Godbehere, prosecutor for the City of Surprise.
After Mitchell's appointment, Foster tweeted that she would reveal her "future plans in the coming days."
Godbehere, a former Maricopa County prosecutor, said she would retire from her job in Surprise and continue her campaign.
Foster raised $143,000 from a who's who of Republican donors in the 10 days after Adel announced she would resign. Godbehere raised $24,000 from a handful of donors. Mitchell's only fund-raising was her $25,000 donation to the campaign.
Julie Gunnigle is the only Democrat running for county attorney. She lost a close race to Adel in 2020.
The winner of the special election in November will serve out the remaining two years of Adel's term.
Mitchell briefly served as interim county attorney in 2019 before Adel was appointed later that year. Mitchell was a Republican counsel during U.S. Senate hearings on the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Adel resigned last month amid criticism of her performance, including the dismissal of 180 misdemeanor cases because charges were not filed before the statute of limitations expired. She also was facing scrutiny over whether an admitted alcohol abuse problem was affecting her ability to do the job.
Mitchell joined the county attorney's office 30 years ago, straight of law school at Arizona State University. She made her name as a sex-crimes prosecutor but has held other high-profile positions in the nation's third-largest prosecutorial office.
Mitchell currently oversees the prosecution of death-penalty, homicide and gang cases. She investigated the county attorney's now-dismissed prosecutions of Black Lives Matter protesters.
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