Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Group fails in bid to recall Ariz. sheriff

Go, Joe.

GTC

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/group-fails-bid-recall-ariz-sheriff-231548035.html



PHOENIX (AP) � A campaign to force a recall election against the polarizing sheriff of metropolitan Phoenix has failed.

Recall organizers said Thursday that they couldn't collect enough voter signatures to bring Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to the ballot again.

Organizers of the recall effort needed to turn in more than 335,000 valid voter signatures by 5 p.m. Thursday to force a recall election.

"It is a sad day," recall campaign manager Lilia Alvarez said. "It is a disappointment."

Recall organizers won't reveal the number of signatures they gathered. In their last update, given five weeks ago, organizers said they had gathered 200,000 signatures.

"The count at this point doesn't matter," Alvarez said in deciding not to reveal the number of signatures gathered.

Arpaio issued a statement suggesting that recall organizers aren't revealing the number of signatures they gathered because they are embarrassed by the level of their failure. "This effort failed because the good people of Maricopa County, whom I'm honored to serve, rejected the wrong-headed idea of overturning an election," Arpaio said.

Arpaio supporters say the sheriff won re-election in November fair and square and that recall organizers shouldn't have been allowed to contest the election simply because they didn't like the outcome.

The recall effort began just weeks after the 80-year-old Republican sheriff started his sixth term in January. His November re-election race marked the second closest contest in his 20-year political career. He beat the closest candidate by 6 percentage points.

Joshua Spivak, a recall expert and senior fellow at Wagner College in New York, said the Arpaio recall effort suffered from too little fundraising, having to collect an unusually high number of voter signatures for a county race and not having an alternative candidate lined up to run against Arpaio. "They are running against Joe Arpaio," Spivak said. "But who are they electing?"

Arpaio critics had argued that the sheriff should be booted because his office has failed to adequately investigate more than 400 sex-crimes cases, has cost the county $25 million in legal settlements over treatment in county jails and his office was found by a federal judge to have systematically racially profiled Latinos in his signature immigration patrols. Critics say the sheriff is more focused on getting publicity for himself than protecting the people.

Recall organizers had hoped that last week's racial profiling ruling would pump new life into their cause. Supporters were camped outside a county building for more than four days in their final push.

"I wish from the bottom of my heart that this ruling would have come out a month earlier. Had this ruling come out a month earlier, who knows how many signatures we would have gotten," Democratic state Rep. Martin Quezada of Avondale, a supporter of the Arpaio recall effort, said.

In the hours before the recall petitions were due, a trickle of people dropped by three tents set up by recall organizers outside the county building to sign petitions. Clipboard-wielding volunteers hit up people walking on the sidewalk for signatures and wore T-shirts that said, "Petition Posse," a play on Arpaio's posses whose volunteer members assist sheriff's deputies in some of their duties.

In the past, the sheriff has apologized for the bungled sex-crimes investigations and said his office has moved to clear up the cases and taken steps to prevent a repeat of the problem. He also has vigorously denied allegations that his deputies racially profiled people in traffic patrols targeting immigrants who aren't authorized to be in the country.

Recall organizers were trying to build on the success of a 2011 recall effort that ousted then-Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, an Arpaio ally who was the driving force behind the state's contentious 2010 immigration law. But the scale of the Arpaio recall was more daunting.

Only 7,700 valid signatures were needed to trigger the Pearce recall election.

Good for Joe

YESSS!!!

A defeat for the libs is always good news.

Their problem was that they had to find valid voters to agree with them.

where's full metal jacket???

I thought he would be on this like a tug on a prick

The Pearce "Recall" was Gerrymandered, and HEAVILY suspect in terms of voter legitimacy, or what you're terming "Valid", Phil.

GTC

Good for ole Joe!

The good guys win one. I like Joe, He's a tough mutha.

X2!!

Does this mean that he can now serve out his term without any further recall hassles!??

I live in the county and MCSO has always treated me well when my neighbors call in complaints on my Rodenator(subterranean injected propane/oxygen mixture) usage and sheriff deputy(s) show up. As they see it there are no fireworks or firearm discharge so 'no harm, no foul' . I KNOW I've rattled some of the neighbors windows when the subterranean pressure spike has escaped as sound energy.

I don't know, XPLRN.

That Rodenator of yours for hire, perchance ?

GTC

Go Joe!

The liberals are to the point of being pathetic. Poor souls.

Good deal, Thanks for the post Cross, kick the mortal [bleep] outta them Sheriff Joe.

Gunner

I hope they will get off his back and let him continue to enforce the laws.

How does that old saying go......."Have gun(Rodenator) will travel" !???

We might be able to figure something out! PM me......pretty sure I've got the only remote control unit in the state.

Pictures of it in action please!

Your name doesn't happen to be Carl Spackler does it?

Excellent news.

+1

Good news for Joe. He's getting a little old . Is there anyone to fill his shoes. Hasbeen

Now that was a funny and appropriate reference!! IF there had been a Rodenator available ol' Carl Spackler would have been out of a job/movie opportunity!!

Would some video clips suffice instead of pictures!??

Just click on the picture(s) below to play the video! In the first video there is a bit of the explosive concussive force that escapes as sound and fire. You never really know how it's going to blow due to not knowing how close the varmit tunnels are to the surface.



What's really fun is when other people are exposed to the Rodenator operation. I'd not noticed that a couple was out walking down the road beside where I was getting ready to fire the hit in the video below. I almost shut it down but since I was out of oxygen I decided to go ahead and blow it. Listen real close and you'll hear the dude in the background getting all pumped. I did speak incorrectly when addressing them as I was working on moles not gophers.




This video shows how the subterranean concussive force explosion paths in whatever direction the tunnel(s) are!