When you’re a lawman whose most recent years of service include these highlights, it’s hard to brag about your record in media spots:
So, yes, with a history like that, it’s hard for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to “run on his record.” The only weapon in Arpaio’s arsenal is fear and smear, which he and his team are quite good at, having perfected the art over the last six elections.
Old-timers may remember the ad targeting Dan Saban, Arpaio’s challenger in 2004. In a TV commercial that scraped the absolute bottom of the deepest political barrel, Arpaio’s GOP cronies accused the respected small-town sheriff of raping his foster mother and jerking off on the job. That’s right, Arpaio’s team wasn’t beneath lying about incest and masturbation—an ad so vile it ran only one day.
Building on this success, in 2012 Arpaio aired another tasteless spot that accused opponent Paul Penzone of being a wife-beater, based on a 2003 marital dispute that even Penzone’s former wife says was a simple argument, the kind many couples have:
Penzone’s ex-wife swore out a statement this summer, denying that Penzone was physically aggressive and [said] that a similar Arpaio ad in 2012 was “dishonest”.
After the 2003 incident it was Paul Penzone, a Phoenix cop himself, who called the police and requested a restraining order against his wife, who had assaulted him with a hockey stick. But you’d never know that from Arpaio’s new ad, which casts Penzone as the aggressor, ending ominously with: “Paul Penzone, Too Dangerous.”
It doesn’t matter that the ad is a lie. Arpaio aired the smear in 2012 and eventually beat Penzone by a few points, his narrowest victory. Given the long list of Arpaio crimes and other screw-ups this term, he is trailing Penzone in the polls and certainly can’t run on his stellar record. The only thing left is the smear, but Penzone said earlier if Arpaio runs the same misleading ad about spousal abuse he will sue the sheriff.
To no one’s surprise, Arpaio ran the wife-beater ad this week, and today Paul Penzone sued Arpaio:
Paul Penzone filed a defamation lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday over an attack ad that alleges Penzone assaulted his ex-wife.
“There has never been a time in my life where I have ever hurt or harmed anybody, including my ex-wife,” Penzone said during a press conference to announce the lawsuit.
Arpaio has a huge multi-million-dollar war chest, but most of that money comes from nativists, bigots and birthers outside Arizona. How ‘bout some out-of-state support for his challenger? Penzone for Sheriff