Opponents of “America’s Toughest Sheriff” would have us think this is the year voters will boot out Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
This claim, however, is the wispy echo of a chant that has followed the notorious lawman’s five successful bids to keep his office ever since he started stirring up controversy. Arpaio’s lead was a “mere” 12 percent over Democratic challenger Dan Saban in 2008, an election fraught with scandal over Republican-funded ads that made false claims as to Saban’s relationship with his adoptive mother.
Racial profiling, immigration raids, videos of children crying for their parents to be kept in the U.S. – these have become the issues and images that opponents of Arpaio's immigration practices are rallying behind. But over the sometimes-roaring hubbub of chanting and loudspeakers that follow this famous sheriff, the question of whether Arizonans really all have a problem with Arpaio is sometimes taken for granted.
The state’s residents don’t all consider Tent City, the outdoor jail where inmates are required to wear pink underwear, an inhumane place for criminals to go. And if an illegal immigrant is arrested in the process of committing a crime, then many would say it stands to reason that the suspect is arrested and immigration action taken.
Americans agree, largely, that there is a problem with the current immigration system and much like the health care system, have no idea how to fix it. Is it the job of a sheriff or of the federal government to come up with the solution?
The answer to that question may decide whom Arizona voters cast their ballots for in November, a race that has two Democrats pitted against each other for an August 28 primary, and one Independent candidate.
Each of Arpaio’s opponents has extensive law enforcement experience, and has vowed to remove the politics from the sheriff’s office in an attempt to increase public safety and save money within the department.
Once the primary decides the Democratic candidate, there will be three names on the November ballot to choose from. In some previous elections, the votes a third candidate siphons off from opponents have helped Arpaio scoop up a majority.
If Arpaio’s opponents really want to see him out of office, a dedicated effort must be coordinated behind one candidate. The idiom that anyone else will do, the apathetic mantra of disillusioned immigration activists, must stop.
Arpaio is a fundraising machine with allies across the state and the country who know how to attract the media. For all the complaining and hating, it doesn’t seem like past or present opponents have been willing, ready or capable to run a serious campaign with the money behind it to win.
Until then, welcome to a sixth term, Sheriff.
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