Her name was Clarice Koebbe. She was born in 1919, the second oldest daughter in a large German Catholic family from Hardin, Montana. Her family farmed wheat and other grains. In 1940, she married my dad, Anselmo “Sam” Rotellini. Dad called her “Chops,” short for “Lamb Chops” – most definitely a term of endearment.
My mother raised five kids – four girls and a baby boy – while managing our family business, a State Farm Insurance Agency, out of our home on Main Street in Sheridan, Wyoming. I am the fourth girl. Like my siblings, I worked in the office and observed my mother’s business acumen. While my dad was the very successful salesman out in the community, my mom was the brains behind the operation. She hired and fired employees, calculated payroll taxes by hand, and organized the office.
My mom also handled the hard stuff. If a customer needed a construction bond or some kind of unique insurance policy, I watched my mom pull the manuals off the shelf and figure out how to calculate the premium and explain the coverage. Her business day rarely ended at 5 o’clock. Even so, once work was over, my mother went upstairs and cooked dinner. This was the 1960s, a time when few women owned and operated a business. From watching my mom, I knew that women were smart and could run a business. She was my role model. 
You can imagine how painful it was to watch this intelligent, vibrant woman and community volunteer slowly develop Alzheimer’s disease. One day, she just stopped going “into the office.” All too soon, she couldn’t remember who I was. It was gut wrenching. When my dad retired after 50 years in the insurance business, my mom slipped away quickly. Thank God he was there to take care of her for the next couple years, until she died of pneumonia – a common complication.
I have experienced firsthand the challenges many Arizona residents face as they and their parents age and encounter health, social and economic complications. I’ve seen how criminals exploit seniors when they are most vulnerable. As Arizona’s Attorney General, the care and protection of seniors will be a top priority for me. We will aggressively prosecute financial fraud, exploitation and abuse. We will have a robust community outreach program where we bring the Attorney General’s Office to our retirement communities to help with all aspects of senior living, from avoiding fraudsters to handling end-of-life issues. We will maintain the many satellite offices around the state manned by our volunteer “senior sleuths” and “fraud fighters.”
When I am Arizona’s Attorney General, I will send a clear message to the many scam artists who prey on our elderly and most vulnerable:
“Not on my watch! Not for a minute!”
Check out our press release about some of my proposals to combat crime and abuse.
As a community, we must respect our elders, cherish their wisdom and honor their many contributions to our lives. This we can do by making sure their later years are safe and comfortable. There is much to be done.
Protecting and serving our senior citizens represents a key reason why I’m running for Attorney General of Arizona. I hope I can count on your vote and on your support.
Thank you,