Group seeking Arpaio recall election out of cash
The Republic | azcentral.com Thu May 16, 2013 5:01 PM
The group attempting to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced it is out of money to pay signature gatherers and is instead relying on volunteers to collect the remainder of the 335,000 registered-voter signatures required to force an election.
The group, known as Respect Arizona, has previously denied reports that the campaign is out of money, but an email sent to media outlets on Thursday confirmed there were no more funds for professional petitioners.
“Unfortunately, donors who had initially lined up to fund the final push have changed their mind,” said Lilia Alvarez, a recall campaign organizer. “The absence of a viable candidate to defeat Sheriff Arpaio caused them to hesitate and reconsider.”
Recall organizers have said in the past that collecting the required number of signatures would be impossible without the help of paid gatherers.
Late last month, the recall campaign claimed to have collected more than 200,000 valid signatures.
Arpaio’s campaign manager, Chad Willems, countered with an offer for an independent auditor to review the signatures, saying the sheriff’s campaign would pick up the tab for the audit if Respect Arizona’s numbers were accurate.
Arpaio was elected in November to his sixth consecutive term in office in one of the closest races he has faced. Arpaio received nearly 680,000 votes to best his closest opponent, former Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone, who finished with nearly 600,000 votes. A third candidate, former Scottsdale police Lt. Mike Stauffer, received about 62,000 votes.
Willems said the Arpaio campaign was pleased with the news.
“Common sense has prevailed here because voters in all parties saw this as a misguided, wrongheaded abuse of the process,” Willems said. “The sheriff is grateful for the continuing support of the voters of Maricopa County.”
The group has until May 30 to turn in 335,000 valid signatures to county elections officials to force a recall election.
Alvarez said the group plans to continue circulating recall petitions until 4:45 p.m. that afternoon.
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