Thread: Sheriff Arpaio Political Ad Under Investigation

Sheriff Arpaio Political Ad Under Investigation
County Attorney: Ad Violates State Law
Jason Barry
Reporter, KPHO.com

POSTED: 4:50 pm MST August 3, 2010
UPDATED: 5:35 pm MST August 3, 2010

PHOENIX -- A new campaign ad from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is creating a lot of confusion.

The ad shows Arpaio touting his 17 years of experience.

A few seconds later, there is a black and white picture of County Attorney Rick Romley, a man Arpaio will never run against.

The ad states, "Rick Romley is just wrong. Support Arpaio."

"It's politics at a low level that I haven't seen in a long time," Romley said.

According to Romley, the purpose of the ad is pretty clear: to try and get him out of office. Romley said the sheriff is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to sway voters.

"What it is, he's using his money to try to influence another race, when legally, that's not permissible," said Romley. "It is illegal to use your campaign money to promote another candidate to win their race."

A few days ago, Romley filed a formal complaint with the county Elections Department, claiming that the TV ad was false and misleading and violates Arizona law.

County Elections Director Karen Osborne told CBS-5 that the department's attorneys are investigating whether any campaign finance laws were broken.

"This is the first time I've ever seen it," said Osborne. "You have an ad against someone not in the race you are in and not in the year that you are running, that becomes the concern."

CBS-5 caught up with the sheriff a few days ago and asked him about his controversial ad, but he did not want to discuss it.

"I'm not going to get into that; my campaign is handling that," said Arpaio. "Other than the fact he(Romley) doesn't like to enforce illegal immigration laws."

According to Osborne, if Arpaio's ad is in violation of state law, he would likely be asked to remove the ad and could be subjected to a fine.

http://www.kpho.com/news/24503664/detail.html

The connection might just be the message each man stands for.