Is Sheriff Joe Arpaio driving Arizona voters to the Democrats?
The race-baiting right-winger could go down, and bring top Republicans down with him
BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD
Arizona has earned its reputation as a sort of conservative laboratory where right-wing fetishes too kooky for other parts of the country can be brought to life. Among other experiments, there’s been SB-1070, the infamous immigration measure, and a law to allow people to carry concealed weapons without permits or background checks. Oh, and the state has seen plenty of flirtation with birtherism. It’s fitting Arizona has its very own time zone, a Democratic flack joked to me recently.
But you reap what you sow, as they say, and the nativist fervor state officials have been whipping up for years may be turning on them. Former state Senate president Russell Pearce, the author of SB-1070, has already been deposed. And on Nov. 6, the state’s even more famous immigrant-fighter, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, could be next. Despite a massive war chest, Arpaio is now clinging to a mere 4-point lead, according to the latest poll. The most likely reason? Arpaio’s racially charged antics have politicized and mobilized Latinos
Arpaio’s opponent, Paul Penzone, is the immediate beneficiary, but the Arpaio effect could help Democrats up and down the ticket, and that includes Richard Carmona, candidate for U.S. Senate, and President Barack Obama. “The sheriff has done so much damage to our community that people have had enough,” Penzone told Salon. ”The sheriff’s race is the most emotional, it’s the most polarizing, and it’s the one where, if we can inspire voters to get to the polls, in a lot of ways it will benefit other candidates.”
A third-party candidate could spoil the election for the Democrat, but regardless of the outcome of his race, the mere presence of Arpaio’s name on the ballot could prove to be a huge boon for Democrats statewide up-ballot. After Arpaio’s five terms in office harassing the county’s brown people in what the Department of Justice alleges to be systematic racial profiling, many Latinos are eager for a chance to boot him out and the chance to do so could bring thousands of new Democratic voters to the polls.
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http://www.salon.com/2012/10/16/is_sheriff_joe_arpaio_driving_arizona_voters_to_the_democrats/
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Maybe Sheriff Joe can influence the national picture too. Wouldn't it be something if Arizona went blue. Stranger things have happened.
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