Sheriff Joe Arpaio Won't Enter Ariz. Gov. Race

Portuguese soccer legend Eusebio watches the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group B match between Denmark and Portugal in Lviv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) / Armando Franca

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the lawman known for bringing back chain gangs and pushing the bounds of local immigration enforcement, says he has decided against running for governor.

This marks the fourth gubernatorial election cycle since 1998 where Arpaio has flirted with - but ultimately decided against - running for governor.

If Arpaio decided to run for governor, Arizona law would have required him to resign immediately because he isn't in the final year of his current term as sheriff.

The 77-year-old Republican has served five terms as sheriff.

Arpaio's campaign says he has raised $2 million for his re-election bid over the last year.

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[phlasmith]

IT IS ABOUT TIME THAT OUR COUNTRY STANDS UP TO THIS GROWING PROBLEM!!!

They aren't just in arizona creating trouble, taking jobs, dragging our county down as dead weight they are everywhere I live on the east coast they are in every little "pretty city" Scola 2 or every little "pretty town" in this country. They are here illegaly taking advantage of everything that our citezens have built in the last couple hundred years. Our country needs to grow a back bone and put a stop to this madness before it is too late.

[JohnBryansFontaine01]

Neo-Nazis and Extreme Right-Wingers Love Joe Arpaio, and There?s Evidence that the MCSO Keeps Them Close
By Stephen Lemons
Phoenixnewtimes

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/content/printVersion/1290860

[KeithDrippingSprings]

Darn the bad luck, actually we should all have governors who are xenophobic, racist, abusive law and order types. Let us just suspend the remaining personal rights that the Patriot Act didn't take from us.

Let's just all get microchips implanted so we can be less inconvenienced when we go about our business while the Gestapo checks our credentials.

Let us give the police instruments of torture to use against us while they arrest us so we confess our crimes faster. Oh! I forgot they already have those. Well, it could be worse don't you think?

[pr_boxer]

One day, this guys past will catch up with him. Shame he's so old and won't be alive to spend the amount of prison time he deserves. Defend him if you will, you're just showing that he suckered you too!

[whosaid1]

ok....so tell us...what do you "know" about this guy that the rest of us and the main street media doesn't know ?

[Scola2]

whosaid1: Oh, same thing everyone knows. He's an attention hog who is quite possibly the worst law enforcement officer in the country. While crime is down in pretty every city and town in the US, under Joe Arpaio, it's exploded in Maricopa County.

Of course that plays right into his hands because he can go on a talk show and claim he's getting "tough". He can also blame the Latinos for it, getting even more attention. While homicides rose 166% in Maricopa County from 2004 to 2007, for example, Chief Bratton in LA drove the rate in that city, with far more illegal immigrants, to a 40 year low.

There may be a sucker born every minute, but I'm not sure that's enough to keep this grandstanding incompetent bozo in office for too much longer.