Paul Petersen cruised into his job as Maricopa County assessor.

It’s time someone cruised him right out of it.

Petersen doesn’t seem interested in resigning his position, despite facing 62 charges in three states related to an illegal adoption scheme, including allegations that he misused Arizona's Medicaid program to pay birth mothers’ medical bills.

By the time anyone mounted a recall campaign to force him out of the job, he’d be up for re-election.

So, it’s up to us voters in 2020 to boot him.

But that also means he needs some opposition.

Petersen, a Republican, was basically gifted the job in 2013. The county board of supervisors, which appointed him, only spent about 10 minutes discussing the deal, choosing Petersen over 10 other applicants.

Petersen had been a spokesperson for former assessor Keith Russell, who resigned to take a justice of the peace job. Petersen said then that he planned to continue working as an adoption lawyer in addition to overseeing the office, which sets property values for 1.8 million parcels valued at more than $553 billion in 2019.

Supervisors said at the time that they were OK with that, because they wanted consistency in the office.

1 Democrat is challenging him so far

In a 2014 special election for the important but often overlooked seat, Petersen faced no opposition in the Republican primary and easily beat a write-in candidate in the general election. He faced no opposition in 2016.

So far, one candidate is challenging Petersen in 2020 – Aaron Connor of Phoenix, who has 15 years’ experience in the mortgage industry. The Democratic candidate says his goals are to improve technology, fairly assess property values and “enhance accountability and transparency to the office,” according to his website.

Though Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has said Petersen should resign, no other GOP candidates besides Petersen have filed paperwork noting their interest to run.

Unless the party wants him to be their standard bearer for the office next year, it might want to get on that.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. On Twitter: @joannaallhands.

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