Sheriff race is likely to dominate Maricopa County election picture
Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 16, 2008 12:00 AM

The rematch between Joe Arpaio and Dan Saban for the title of Maricopa County sheriff is going to be one of the county's hottest races, and it's already warming up.

All of Maricopa County's line officers are up for re-election in November, including all five supervisors, the assessor, treasurer, superintendent of schools and county attorney.

But the replay between Arpaio, a Republican, and Saban, a Democrat, is the talk of the town.

Each side has until 5 p.m. June 4 to turn in enough valid signatures, according to their political party requirements, to the county Elections Department to qualify for the race. Arpaio must collect at least 3,165; Saban needs at least 2,338. Each said he expects to gather and turn in 10,000.

The pair's last go-around, in 2004, got super nasty. Saban claimed he was defamed when the Sheriff's Office opened a criminal investigation on a decades-old rape accusation against him, and then tipped off the media.

Saban sued the county, but a jury last year decided that Arpaio and his chief deputy did not defame Saban. The case ended up costing taxpayers at least $808,270 to defend the Sheriff's Office, according to the figures obtained last week by The Republic through a public-records request.

Arpaio, typically talkative and brash, is mum on the election until his nemesis officially makes the ballot: "I'm not going to talk about the race, other than the fact that he's not a candidate yet."

Arpaio has been sheriff for 15 years and was first elected in 1992. Since then, he has become a national political figure, often a controversial one.

During his latest term, he's had some triumphs and some troubles.

His office's enforcement of immigration laws is one of his biggest achievements, he said. In the past year, deputies trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have arrested at least 780 undocumented immigrants.

Arpaio also points to several political-corruption investigations he is spearheading as highlights of his term. So far, those investigations into the Maricopa Community Colleges, the attorney general, and county Schools Superintendent Sandra Dowling, have gone nowhere.

However, the involvement of the Sheriff's Office in the arrests of two New Times newspaper executives last fall ignited a firestorm of criticism. He caught heat earlier this year by overspending his overtime budget by millions of dollars.

Saban is the police chief of Buckeye but will step down Aug. 1 to run for sheriff full time. Two years ago, he changed his party affiliation to Democrat after losing the Republican nomination to Arpaio in 2004. The Maricopa County Deputies Association is among six law-enforcement associations that have endorsed Saban's bid.

He said his first project, if elected, would be a comprehensive audit of the Sheriff's Office finances. Saban said he would work to bring down the day-to-day costs of patrols, jails and overtime, as well as the number of Sheriff's Office-related lawsuits and settlements. He would reopen satellite jails and expand the posse program, already the largest in the nation.

"Protecting the community throughout Maricopa County has been clouded with the need to have headlines," said Saban, 51. "There's been a mystique built around being the sheriff, like he's a deity. I think the pendulum has swung over to where the public wants law enforcement rather than shameless self-promotion."

Maybe not. A Cronkite/Eight Poll released in November of last year shows that Arpaio is still a rock star with county voters: the poll said that 35 percent of Maricopa County voters with an opinion of Arpaio rated their opinion as "very positive," while 30 percent rated it "generally positive."

By the bank account barometer, Arpaio has a distinct advantage. Arpaio has more than $300,000 in his campaign coffers, Saban has $35,000.

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