Sheila Polk was elected as Yavapai County Attorney in 2000, having previously served as a Deputy Attorney in the county, and before that, working for the Arizona Attorney General’s office. In that first election, Polk faced off against David Mackey, now a judge in Yavapai County Superior Court. That was the last time Polk faced a challenge for the position.She won re- election unopposed in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
This year, for the first time in two decades, Polk faces an opponent, as former Arizona State Rep. David Stringer faces off against Polk in the Aug. 4 Republican Primary.
“After 20 years with the same county attorney, change is overdue. It is unhealthy for elected officials to stay in office too long,” Stringer wrote in response to questions via email. “In Ms. Polk’s case, she has become resistant to change. She seems to feel personally threatened that someone is challenging her with new ideas and might take her place.”
Stringer argues that Polk has become overzealous in her pursuit of tough-on-crime policies and pointed to an Arizona Supreme Court ruling finding that Polk had abused due process rights in a campaign finance case she brought against former Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.
“My opponent has fallen in love with the perks of power and has become a servant of her own interests instead of a servant of the people,” Stringer wrote. “She brags about her tough-on-crime policies. The result has been over incarceration and higher taxes for the citizens of Yavapai County.”
Polk counters that she has been eagerly reform- minded in her time as Yavapai County Attorney. She describes herself as a “collaborator” and points to work alongside MATForce to combat drug addiction in the county through medication assisted therapy more than incarceration as one of her greatest achievements.
“MATForce we started back in 2006, and that was probably when I really became aware of how effective it can be to say, ‘Look, I don’t know the answers, but I want to invite all of you to be part of the solution,” Polk said. “We have at least 300 very active members. We have multiple entities and everyone is involved. What I love about MATForce is that it involves the prosecution, defense attorneys, judges, probation, law enforcement, the schools, the medical community, the recovery community, the faith-based community.”
In an unusual twist for an elected prosecutor race, both candidates are running not on a promise to be tough on crime and lock more people up, but to find alternatives to incarceration. In addition to MATForce, Polk touted the Reach Out initiative that the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office has embarked on in partnership with other social services in the area, seeking to screen inmates in county jail for mental health and substance issues and focus on ways to allow them to re-enter society without falling back into recidivism.
“We are in my opinion one of the most progressive counties in the state, if not in the nation, and I think our progressiveness comes from our collective recognition that the people who commit criminal offenses at some point are going to be back in our communities,” Polk said. She sees the work with MATForce in drug prevention as a key way to stop people from committing crimes in the first place, since many offenses are linked to drug addiction. “For people who do commit offenses, what can we give them — the criminal justice system — that will help them rehabilitate and choose a crime-free lifestyle… I think that every touch with the criminal justice system needs to be meaningful. If we are going to have officers on the street, if we are having individuals who are arresting people, and then the case makes it to my office, let’s make sure that how we handle that case is meaningful and is an opportunity to appropriately punish or an opportunity to rehabilitate by bringing to the table behavioral health services.”
Stringer expressed support for programs like Reach Out but complained that the county had taken too long to start getting involved in trying to reduce incarceration. In his view, the county’s efforts are only the result of the unpopularity of its planned jail expansion.
“There are alternatives to incarceration, for low level, non-violent offenders,” Stringer wrote. “I would expand problem-solving courts such as Veteran’s Court, Domestic Violence Court and Mental Health Court. I would divert more low level, non-violent cases from the criminal justice system, especially first offenders and the young. Current policies overuse the county jail, which is the most expensive and least effective means of deterring recidivism.”
Stringer comes with his own controversies as he runs for office. He resigned from the Arizona House in March 2019 after ethics investigations were initiated over remarks he made saying that non-white immigrants could not integrate into the U.S. and black people “don’t blend in,” as well as revelations by the Phoenix New Times that Stringer had been charged with five sex offenses, including involving children, in Baltimore in 1983. The House Ethics Committee demanded he hand over documents related to that case; he resigned before the deadline to do so.
Stringer insists that he resigned due to the unfair controversy at the time, not the allegations themselves, and points to the records on his arrests having been expunged in 1999.
“In 1983, while living in Baltimore, I was falsely accused of a crime,” Stringer wrote. “The matter was resolved without a guilty plea and without a criminal conviction. The matter was fully investigated by the D.C. Bar in 1984 and I was cleared of any wrongdoing. The matter was later expunged by the Maryland Judiciary. The Maryland and Arizona Bar Associations reached the same conclusion when they licensed me as an attorney. My 40-year career as a lawyer in multiple jurisdictions is unblemished.
“I did not resign from the House of Representatives because of revelations of false allegations of sexual misconduct. I resigned because the publicity surrounding the false allegations were used by political opponents to undermine my standing in the legislature.
“I think voters under- stand the dishonesty and political motivations behind the false allegations against me. I am continuing my political work because there is so much work to be done restoring integrity and public confidence in our political institutions.”
