By DeeDee Garcia Blase

Why does it seem like FOX news in Phoenix is supporting the weakest candidate for Sheriff Joe Arpaio to beat in the Arizona Maricopa County Race? Perhaps a boycott of FOX News is going to have to be in order and it will be easy for Latinos to do just that. Every self-respecting Chicano/Hispanic/Latino knows how FOX news is typically swayed towards conservative Republican reporting. Hell, FOX News enjoys giving Arpaio the microphoneevery chance they get like when they wanted him to chime in with regard to Arpaio’s endorsement of Mitt Romney. Joe Arpaio has been on FOX News and FOX News 10 numerous times and everyone in Arizona knows that. I have also talked about how I believe FOX may be supporting a sham candidate here.
Damn the fringe groups on both sides of the political spectrum who are trying to minimize the Independent 2nd largest party in the State of Arizona. Independent voters in the State of Arizona DO have a voice and we are hell bent in making that statement in 2012. Arizona independent voters are going to rise up and take our power back as we go towards supporting an open primary in Arizona.
Mike Stauffer (independent candidate) received 5x the endorsements of Maricopa County voters when he received 30,000 signatures which is 5x more than any other candidate involved in this race. In fact, Mike Stauffer was the first official candidate who was the first to announce his candidacy against Joe Arpaio, and Mike was also the first to submit his signatures. He submitted his signatures before Joe Arpaio.

Question: Why is it that Joe Arpaio mentions only his democratic opponents?
Answer: Because Joe Arpaio knows darn well his Democratic opponents are the easiest to beat here in Arizona — specifically in Maricopa County. Care to guess how many Republican precinct committeemen there are in Maricopa County and how their grassroots organizers operate under the AZ GOP Vice Chair Russell Pearce? There is a reason why it took aRepublican Moderate like Jerry Lewis to beat extremist Republican Russell Pearce. Notice how the Democratic Party ensured a democratic candidate did NOT run against Pearce in Mesa? They know the Mormons in this state swing conservatively and Pearce’s district is near the Mormon Temple. The Arizona Democratic Party knew damn well a Democratic candidate could not beat Pearce — and that explains the unity behind Jerry Lewis.
The Arizona Democratic Party is going to participate in screwing up the Maricopa County Sheriff’s race because just like the Russell Pearce Special elections — the Sheriff’s race is not yet ready for a Democratic candidate … specifically a Democratic candidate who has no command leadership experience to run the 3rd largest county in our Country. FOX is giving Democratic candidate Penzone who has no leadership more exposure than the Democratic candidate John Rowan who has command experience. Why is that? When everyone knows Arpaio is going to attack Penzone on his lack of leadership skills.
It is no wonder Joe Arpaio wants to go up against the Democratic candidate who has no command experience. Furthermore, the Arizona Democratic Party had 20 years to try and oust Joe Arpaio to NO AVAIL. Again: Mike Stauffer has already received 5x the endorsements from regular voters in Maricopa County than anybody else. Joe Arpaio also knows the independent candidate (Mike Stauffer) has received massive broad bipartisan support from Republicans, Libertarians, Independents and Democratic Blue Dog Voters and this is why Arpaio is running scared.
Indeed the Arizona Republican Party is so afraid of the Independents and independent voters in our state that we see Russell Pearce and Joe Arpaio supporters wanting to take away Independent voter power away because they do NOT support an open primary election. The open primary would restore sanity to our state and give independent voters (2nd largest party in Arizona) more power toward moderate and centrist views.
I wrote about it here:
The “2nd largest Party” in Arizona, and Russell Pearce and Joe Arpaio supporters don’t want Independents to have an “open primary”
Indeed the Sheriff’s race IS crowded, and we all know that Joe Arpaio is giving signals that he wants to run against his democratic opponents over the strongest Independent candidate that can actually beat him because Joe knows that Mike has already received 5x the endorsements than any other candidate in this crowded race.
Make no mistake, the moderate Independents in the State of Arizona which is the 2nd largest Party in our state (and swings conservatively) … is keeping track of both the Arizona Republican Party as well as the Arizona Democratic Party. Woe to the Arizona Democratic Party on November 6, 2012, when they discover the final count in the Sheriff’s race. Independents already know how extreme the AZ GOP has become, but if the Democratic candidate spoils the vote the same way Olivia Cortes was used as a pawn in the Russell Pearce elections … we will remind everyone how the Arizona Democratic Party did not take a lesson from the Pearce Special elections race. Several disgruntled Independents, Republicans, Libertarians and Blue Dogs will get on the band wagon and spank them for falling into the FOX News pawn game.