A question commenters sometimes ask whenever a Sheriff Joe Apraio diary pops up is, “Why do you keep electing him?” Often the language is a bit more colorful, but that’s the gist of the inquiry. There’s a winger email that’s been going around for a long time – my dad even sent it to me – that says Joe must be a very popular guy in Arizona’s Maricopa County, since in the last election he received 87 percent of the vote. Wow, that would be a popular fellow – if it were true.
Sure, there are a lot of Arpaio fans here: old white folks in places like Sun City who think he’s protecting their way of life from an “invasion” of brown people (don’t jump on me, I know there are old white liberals there too). Not to mention the virulently racist types who would reopen Arizona’s two internment camps if they could – only this time the occupants would be Hispanic. And then you have the typical “law and order” crowd who thinks because Arpaio walks tall like Bufford Pusser and talks tough, he’s actually doing something about crime.
The 2004 & 2008 Elections
As I said in my email to dad, however, that 87 percent figure is hogwash. Even we’re not that crazy! Joe won the elections in 2004 and 2008 with roughly 55 percent of the vote. A three-way race in 2004 partially explains that result, and if not for a last-minute sleazeball tactic in 2008, he might’ve lost to Democrat Dan Saban, the Sheriff in the town of Buckeye, who would’ve restored some sanity to the County Sheriff’s Office.
In that election Arpaio borrowed a dirty trick right out of Karl Rove’s South Carolina playbook for the 2000 primary. Bush had trounced McCain in the first few battles of that campaign, but McCain’s Straight Talk Express was starting to gain converts, especially among the press, and he won the New Hampshire primary 49-30, two weeks before South Carolina. Right before the SC vote, so there was no time for McCain to respond, Rove’s team sent around flyers and spread rumors hinting that McCain was gay, his wife Cindy was a drug addict, and the Senator had fathered a black child. McCain’s bid for the nomination ended there.
In the 2008 Maricopa County Sheriff election, Dan Saban, like McCain, was gaining in the polls. A month before the election, then, the GOP pushed its own smear through flyers and TV, alleging that Saban had raped his mother as a young man – an ad so vile some TV stations refused to air it, and others pulled it after a day because of viewer complaints. The rape story was a lie, but it’s even sicker than that. It turns out Saban was himself abused as a child, but Arpaio turned the tragedy around, suggesting it was Saban who was guilty, and the rumor stuck. There you have it: despicable lying commercials, personal attacks, harassing lawsuits, arresting journalists – just Standard Operating Procedure for Joe Arpaio.
The 2010 or 2012 Election?
So, given this guy’s campaign history, not to mention his disgusting enforcement practices, I couldn’t help but be skeptical when last week I saw a TV ad for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s next election. Why is Arpaio running a commercial now, when he’s not up for election until 2012? Why did the Sheriff’s campaign buy more than $30,000 in air time to run the spot a full two years before the election? Take a look at the 30-second ad, and it becomes clear.
If you don’t have video capability, here’s the narrative:
Joe Arpaio has been our sheriff for 17 years, and led the fight against illegal immigration. Now he’s running for a 6th term, but he needs your help. Special interest groups and politicians like Rick Romley oppose Sheriff Joe’s policies on enforcing our illegal immigration laws, and desperately want Sheriff Arpaio out of office. Romley even demanded that our Governor veto SB 1070. Rick Romley: just wrong. Support and vote for Sheriff Joe Arpaio to enforce our laws.
The first line brags up Arpaio and the last line encourages people to vote for him, so it is his campaign commercial. The rest of the text is a smear of Rick Romley, and if you didn’t know the players you’d think Arpaio was running against Romley. In a sense, he is. Romley is Maricopa County Attorney, a position he also held from 1989 until 2005. A Republican, Romley is generally regarded as a fair and competent attorney, which is why he was asked to return to the County Attorney’s position, on an interim basis, when Andrew Thomas resigned in order to run for Attorney General. So why is Arpaio attacking a fellow Republican?
As Maricopa County Attorney from 2004 until he stepped down this year, Andrew Thomas was Arpaio’s right-hand man, providing legal cover for the Sheriff’s sweeps and other borderline constitutional tactics. The two of them were a tag team – Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in the war on immigration. Because of his close association with Arpaio, Thomas was also named in some of the lawsuits filed against the Sheriff’s Office for illegal arrests, inhumane treatment, financial coverups, and harassing judges and elected officials. For that reason lawyers in Thomas’s office were approached by the federal grand jury that is investigating Arpaio’s abuse of powers. Of course, Arpaio attempted to block Thomas’s remaining staff from cooperating, writing in a letter to them:
"Be advised that should you disclose any information that could harm any pending criminal investigations, I will consider charging you with violations of applicable statutes."
Rick Romley is no go-along patsy like Thomas. Immediately after Arpaio threatened the County lawyers, Romley fired off his own letter to Arpaio telling him to butt out. He also let Arpaio know he would not sanction or condone some of the Sheriff’s most egregious activities. For example, he pulled $700,000 from a fund Arpaio had set up to raid businesses, to search for undocumented immigrants. And, unlike most Republicans, Romley wasn’t a cheerleader for SB 1070, mostly on constitutional grounds. Ever since, Arpaio and Romley have engaged in a high-profile pissing match conducted in the local media.
Romley is running for County Attorney again this fall, but first he must win the August 24 primary. One of his GOP opponents is Bill Montgomery, who does not have the war chest Arpaio does, which is estimated at $1.8 million. So, hey, maybe Joe can help. On Montgomery’s website under the “Endorsements” banner, a fellow named Joe Arpaio appears. If you scan the public events Montgomery has scheduled, you’ll notice a town hall with Sheriff Joe. Clearly, Arpaio has found his man, another Andrew Thomas clone who will not erect legal barricades on the road to Arpaio’s police state.
The Maricopa County Republican Committee, a gung-ho SB 1070 crowd, agrees with the Sheriff, something that weak-kneed bunch always does. The moderate Romley will find few fans among that gaggle of nutjobs, and because he had the nerve to stand up to their hero Arpaio, the Committee dissed the incumbent Republican Romley and endorsed Montgomery.
Sure, Sheriff Joe can support whomever he wants in the County Attorney race; but his current ad, like everything else he does or says, is a misleading, unethical attempt to trash someone else. In last Sunday’s Arizona Republic, Doug MacEachern, certainly no lefty conspirator, provides more background and explains what the Arpaio TV ad is really about:
Without ever mentioning Bill Montgomery, the GOP primary candidate that Arpaio supports as a replacement for his ally, Andrew Thomas, the ad slashes at Romley for his stated concerns about SB 1070.
There is one piece of good news in this. All of the Arpaio wannabe candidates that Sheriff Joe supported in recent primaries lost. Let’s hope that trend continues – and carries over to 2012 (or until a federal grand jury indicts him, hopefully soon).