While Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney attempts to distance himself from the scandalous fallout over the hijinks of his former Arizona co-chair Sheriff Paul Babeau, the tireless Citizens for a Better Arizona group plans to remind TV viewers of the Republican debate in Mesa tonight of another disgraced law enforcement titan that needs to resign: Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The ad, scheduled for various TV outlets, pulls no punches:"He's not tough. He's terrible. He needs to resign."
While Arpaio's campaign stomp for Gov. Rick Perry's disastrous campaign in New Hampshire brought more headlines than votes, Republican candidates like Rick Santorum still made courtesy calls this week, despite the mounting calls for the increasingly reckless Sheriff to hand in his badge.
Two months after the Department of Justice released its report that Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's office led a "chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations" and carried out the "most egregious racial profiling in the United States," the ad by the Citizens group, which led the successful recall of former Senate President Russell Pearce, comes as part of a growing bipartisan effort to hold the controversial sheriff accountable for gross mismanagement of his department, civil rights violations and the bungling of criminal investigations, including child sex crimes.
Along with the unanimous vote of the Phoenix Human Relations Commission, an unusually diverse and unprecedented number of Arizona state legislators, county supervisors, Phoenix-area city council members, school board members, religious leaders, and members of the U.S. Congress have joined numerous civil rights organizations calling for Arpaio's immediate resignation.
"The issues we are focusing on are not partisan. We are talking about increases in violent crime, over 400 uninvestigated sex crimes and over $50 million in legal pay outs to settle hundreds of lawsuits -- all of which occurred during Sheriff Arpaio's reign of incompetence," stated Mary Lou Boettcher, founder of the Mesa Women's Republican Caucus and Board Member of CBA. "We believe it is important to inform and educate thousands of Republicans about Sheriff Arpaio's dismal record when it comes to issues we care most about."
Here's a preview of the ad, courtesy of the Citizens for a Better Arizona: