A Sheriff Joe Campaign Finance Gambit

I don't normally deal with purely campaign finance issues, but this gambit is too good (or too bad) to pass by. The perpetrator of the gambit is our old friend Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ.

You see, he's not running for sheriff again until 2012, but he doesn't like one of the guys who's running for county attorney in 2010, and he's got lots of money left over from the last election.

It's silly to hold on to all that money for two years, especially when it will be so easy to get more of the same. So why not blow it in 2010 on television commercials that are, on their face, for the 2012 election (see one on You Tube) but that are actually for the sole purpose of dissing the county attorney candidate who's running now?

In the ad, he doesn't even tell you the bad guy's running for county attorney, and the ad is only asking you to vote for Joe Arpaio. What's wrong with that? And what's wrong with starting the election season early or saying nothing about yourself or anyone running against you?

What are rules for other than to find clever ways around them? The hell with the spirit of the law! Ethics is soft stuff for coastal sissies.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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