Romley, Montgomery trade shots over secret tape, election complaint

Rick Romley (left), Bill Montgomery (right)

Complaints, threats and secret recordings have become the latest weapons of choice in the battle to become Maricopa County attorney.

Interim County Attorney Rick Romley is fending off a formal complaint that he broke campaign laws by using county resources for his campaign.

And Romley’s GOP opponent in the Aug. 24 primary, Bill Montgomery, is dealing with criticism about a secretly recorded conversation in which he questions whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s mental abilities are declining and that Montgomery seems to take a softer stance on illegal immigration than he has taken publicly during his run for office.

A 1-minute, 19-second video was posted on YouTube Aug. 10 featuring the recorded conversation . It questions why Montgomery is so proud of Arpaio’s endorsement if he “thinks so lowly” of the sheriff. According to the video’s end credit, Romley’s campaign committee paid for it.

The recording was made by County Supervisor Don Stapley’s assistant, Susan Schuerman, during a March 18 interview with Montgomery, who was vying for the interim county attorney job at the time, Schuerman said.

Romley said in a radio interview Aug. 5 that the recording shows Montgomery took one stance when he was seeking the county attorney appointment and took another for the election, which reveals his lack of honesty and integrity.

Romley was asked during a radio appearance whether the public was going to hear the recording.

“It’s going to get out, trust me,” Romley said.

Montgomery said he believes it is illegal for Romley’s campaign to use the recording because it was made by a public employee in her official capacity.

“If he wants to set himself up for an election violation he can go ahead and do that,” Montgomery said.

The YouTube video shows photos of Montgomery as his words from the recording are audible and displayed in text. It features comments he made about Arpaio in which he likened him to a nursing-home resident, disavowed Arpaio’s immigration policies and questioned his mental capacities.

Schuerman said the audio recording was not done in her capacity as a public employee, but was done on her personal recorder to protect herself and Stapley.

Montgomery worked at the time for Andrew Thomas, who resigned as county attorney to run for attorney general.

Thomas has brought two indictments against Stapley since December 2008 that were both eventually dismissed, and Schuerman said she had been told in a letter from Thomas that she was under investigation, and that her office had been raided by the Sheriff’s Office. The letter informed her that she was being denied county legal representation.

Schuerman said the tape recorder was on the table, but obstructed by a planter from Montgomery’s sight.

She said she believed it was important to make the recording public to inform voters.

“Having listened to the tape and been present in the conversation, I just felt what I heard there was completely different than what I saw and heard after that,” Schuerman said.

Schuerman said the tape is unedited and complete except for the greetings at the beginning of the meeting, while Montgomery contends the interview was actually about 20 minutes longer than the recording.

In a copy of the recording, obtained by the ~Arizona Capitol Times~, Montgomery recalled how during a meeting with Arpaio an aide came to hustle him out as the sheriff was telling stories about his family.

“I don’t want to disparage him, but it was sort of like someone coming into the nursing home and saying visiting hours are over now,” Montgomery said of Arpaio, who is one of Montgomery’s most ardent supporters.

He also said he wondered how the sheriff would hold up mentally if he ran for governor because he no longer seemed as sharp as he used to be.

Montgomery said he saw Arpaio give a 20-minute speech in which he repeated the first five minutes at the end.

Stapley and Schuerman both commented on tape that that seemed like signs of dementia.

Montgomery said on Aug. 11 that he was shocked by what he perceived as glee in the voices of Schuerman and Stapley during their comments about dementia.

Montgomery said his remarks about Arpaio were his way of calming their hatred for Arpaio and acknowledging their concerns.

“I was trying to talk them off the ledge,” Montgomery said.

Romley has seized on Montgomery’s apparent change in his illegal-immigration stance.

Montgomery told Stapley that it was self-serving to run for office on the sole issue of illegal immigration and that the rhetoric created by the issue “is harmful to the community as a whole.”

Montgomery has taken a hard line on illegal immigration on the campaign trail by associating with Arpaio and saying he would continue the enforcement policies of Thomas.

Montgomery said he has hardened his stance on illegal immigration since the passage of SB1070, which hadn’t become a national issue at the time of his interview with Stapley, but his message has remained the same.

He said he doesn’t plan to be the “illegal immigration” county attorney, but he does believe the impact of illegal immigration is significant and the county attorney must address it.

Montgomery has taken Romley to task for his criticisms of SB1070 and dismantling and restructuring Thomas’ illegal immigration policies.

Jaime Brennan, a special assistant to Romley, declined to say whether the recording would be used by the campaign and that Romley’s radio comment about the recording getting out to the public was alluding to rumors he heard that several people have asked Stapley for copies of the Montgomery interview. Brennan helps Romley’s campaign during her off hours, and she said she was talking on her personal cell phone at lunch.

A Montgomery campaign volunteer on Aug. 6 also accused Romley in a complaint filed with the Maricopa County Elections Department of using resources from his office for his campaign.

Steven Czop, of Gilbert, who Montgomery said was a volunteer for his campaign, alleges in a letter that Romley violated a law prohibiting public resources to be used in a political campaign by using photos, videos and press releases for his campaign that were originally published on the County Attorney’s Office website.

“Those are usually in the public domain,” said Karen Osborne, Elections Department director. “I’ve never seen one of those be a gotcha.”

Osborne forwarded the complaint to Jeffrey Messing, a private elections law attorney, because Romley would usually handle such a matter and has a conflict of interest.

Messing has sent a letter to Romley asking him to respond to the allegations by Aug. 16.