Conover looks to seek reelection as Pima County attorney

Saying "I know the work isn't done," Pima County Attorney Laura Conover told interviewers Friday that she's inclined to seek another term as the top local prosecutor in 2024.

Conover didn't formally announce her bid for a second term, but said "yes, yes, yes" when pressed on the question of whether she's leaning toward another run by radio host Bill Buckmaster.

The Democrat, who was first elected in 2020, said that her office is still making changes to systems built up over four decades under the previous two more conservative Democratic county attorneys.

The prosecutor was interviewed on the Bill Buckmaster Show by the host and Sentinel Editor Dylan Smith on Friday.

Conover declined to give detailed answers regarding the Louis Taylor case — in which the man convicted in the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire is seeking exoneration and compensation for what his attorneys say was a wrongful prosecution — and the Ryan Remington case — in which her office attempted to indict a Tucson police officer who shot and killed a shoplifter with a knife who was riding an electric scooter.

She cited ongoing court cases regarding each, saying she was unable to provide details because she is likely to be deposed.

Conover was at first reluctant to clearly say she will run again, but when nudged responded affirmatively several times.

"Yes, yes, yes," she said, and told interviewers that some of her former campaign team had already begun drafting plans for her run in the upcoming election without asking her, acting on the presumption that she would seek to hang on to her office.

Conover later clarified her statement, telling the Sentinel that her repeated "yes" wasn't a full-bore announcement of a run.

"On the political side, I am focused on supporting really critical city races. But if and when the time is right to decide to run again, I know we'll be more than ready," she told the Sentinel.

Conover has been a progressive county attorney, seeking to expand restorative justice programs, divert mentally ill and drug-addicted people away from criminal prosecutions, and has invested her office in the expungement of marijuana convictions.

"I know we aren't done with the work we came here to do. We're not even close to done," she said in a written statement to the Sentinel on Friday afternoon. "And, I will share that the extraordinarily successful team that produced our surprise victory in 2020 started meeting again late last year to explore a run for re-election without even telling me. And that's one of the sweeter things to happen in my life."

"For now, professionally, I am going to stay laser-focused on my 350-plus employees and the beautiful community they serve," she wrote.