Six candidates running for Santa Cruz County Sheriff participated in a two-hour forum hosted by the PRT at the Tin Shed Theatre on June 29.
Five Democrats, Jose Agosttini, a Navy veteran with 35 years experience working for Customs and Border Protection; Rafael Corrales, who served in the sheriff’s department for 24 years, retiring as a sergeant in 2018; incumbent David Hathaway, who has served one term as County Sheriff; Andrew Ibarra, who described himself as a problem solver; and Mario Morales, who served as Hathaway’s Chief Deputy, as well as working for the Nogales Police Dept., will face off in the July 30 primary election.
The winner of that contest will be on the general election ballot running against Independent candidate Travis Arnold—an Army veteran who has worked for the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Dept., and runs his own business—who also participated in the June 29 forum.
After the candidates introduced themselves, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Tom Fink, who served as moderator for the forum, asked the candidates to speak about the use of sheriff department personnel to enforce immigration laws, the increase in violent crime in the county, their individual administrative and management experience, school safety, their comments on the George Kelly case and their biggest concerns about the future.
Fink’s questions served to reveal differences between the candidates. His question about county sheriffs enforcing federal immigration laws, for instance, drew a range of responses. Morales, Arnold, Ibarra and Corrales agreed that they would enforce immigration laws if AZ bill HCR2060 (“Protecting Arizona Against Illegal Immigration Act”), coming up for ratification by the voters in November, is passed.
Agosttini, however, stated that, “The fact that a law is passed does not mean that the sheriff is going to put priority on it. The priority is the safety of the citizens of this county.”
Hathaway voiced his concerns about the bill. “HCR2060 is very problematic,” he said. “It basically turns local officers into Border Patrol agents. 95% of the population in Nogales is Hispanic. “Why in the world would I have my deputies check documents for everybody, 95% of the people in Nogales?”
Fink’s question about the candidates’ reactions to the George Kelly case, at which Fink was the presiding judge, also drew mixed responses. Morales said the Sheriff’s Dept. should have brought in an outside agency with more investigative experience.
Arnold blamed Hathaway’s administration and that the handling of the case demonstrated an “Absolute lack of leadership. From the get-go, the investigation was not handled properly,” he said.
Ibarra agreed, saying, “Sheriff Hathaway dropped the ball.”
Hathaway responded by saying “the main takeaway for me, I’m going to do a little bit of a hit on the county attorney’s office. There was a parallel investigation with the county attorney’s office using county attorney investigators that were not following the leadership of the lead detective in the sheriff’s office.”
Fink’s last question to the candidates, “What concerns you about things that might happen in the future?” also elicited some very differing answers. Hathaway responded that he worries about civil unrest and inflation, as well as “a tendency to a militant attitude in this country, and hostile rhetoric.”
Agosttini worried about shootings and the mental health crisis.
Morales said, “My biggest fear is the direction that our whole country is going into. We need to be united. There couldn’t be a worse time in America to be a police officer.”
Arnold focused on what he felt are positive trends in the county, saying “ We’ve got some tremendous things coming in the future, from Patagonia and the potential of the growth that could happen here as well as in Nogales.”
Corrales did not answer the question directly, saying, “My main concern getting elected is to work on today, not to work on the future.”
73 people attended the forum in person. The event was streamed live on the PRT Facebook page. We Love Nogales partnered with the PRT to stream the forum, as well.
