photo by: Contributed

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, from left, Wyandotte County Assistant District Attorney Tonda Hill, and Douglas County Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald.

Two people have filed as Democrats to run for Douglas County district attorney, including current DA Suzanne Valdez, while one of her senior prosecutors has filed to run for office in Johnson County.

Valdez filed to run for reelection on Jan. 12, according to the Kansas secretary of state’s website. Valdez told the Journal-World in December that she would run again for the office — amid a disciplinary hearing where six Douglas County District Court judges testified that the court and the DA’s office had a strained relationship after Valdez had called Chief Judge James McCabria a liar and a sexist just months after she took office in 2021, as the Journal-World reported. The state disciplinary panel has yet to rule whether she will face any disciplinary action for the alleged misconduct. The special prosecutor in the case has requested that Valdez’s law license be suspended for a year.

“While I am proud of the many accomplishments and strides my office has made during my first term, I know that the work has just begun,” Valdez said in an announcement for her campaign on social media.

In opposition is a Wyandotte County prosecutor, Tonda Hill, of Lawrence, who filed for the office on Jan. 25. According to Hill’s campaign website, she currently prosecutes sex assault cases, has worked as a public defender and is a 2013 graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law. Hill, a Democrat, previously applied for a position as a district judge in Douglas County in 2022, as the Journal-World reported.

Meanwhile, Douglas County Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald, of Overland Park, filed on Jan. 23 to run as a Republican for the Office of District Attorney in Johnson County, according to the secretary of state’s website.

He has been serving in Douglas County since 2021, handling violent crime and drug distribution cases. Greenwald recently secured a guilty verdict in an armed robbery case where a man took drugs and money from a woman at gunpoint in a residential robbery, as the Journal-World reported.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Hill was not nominated for a judgeship in 2023. She applied for a judgeship in 2022, but her name was not forwarded to the governor.