PHOENIX – Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is trailing his opponent in the race to be Fountain Hill’s mayor. Fountain Hill is where Arpaio has lived for more than two decades.
The former sheriff said during the late night hours of August 2 that the vote totals so far came from early ballots, and he was awaiting the totals of in-person voting.
This is Arpaio’s third campaign for an elected position since his failed re-election campaign for Maricopa County Sheriff in 2016.
Arpaio trying to unseat incumbent mayor
Arpaio, who announced his mayoral candidacy in October 2021, is attempting to unseat two-term Mayor Ginny Dickey.
“I can bring to Fountain Hills one thing: life experience. I worked all over the world, dealt with presidents, on and on. So I have life experience, and I think I have a little common sense,” said Arpaio at the time he announced his campaign. “Why I continue? What do you want me to do? Go fishing? Go golfing? I don’t do anything. My hobby is work. I’ve done that my whole life. I’m not stopping now.”
The stakes for Arpaio in this election are smaller than when he served as the top law enforcement officer for Maricopa County. In this election, he is seeking the top leadership post in a community of about 24,000 on the edge of metro Phoenix.
Arpaio, a skilled political fundraiser who spent more than $12 million in his 2016 sheriff’s campaign, has shelled out $161,000 in the mayor’s race — six times the amount spent by Dickey.
Dickey said that when she first learned Arpaio was running against her, she was unsure how his candidacy would affect the race. She ultimately concluded that it didn’t change it very much except that he has a fundraising advantage and notoriety and she did not change her campaigning.
“I believe I have run in the same way I always have,” Dickey said.
Arpaio ran for Senate, Sheriff following 2016 defeat
If Arpaio loses in the mayoral election, it would mark his fourth electoral defeat in recent years.
In 2016, Arpaio, who ran for a seventh term as Maricopa County Sheriff in 2016, was defeated by current Sheriff Paul Penzone.
Since then, he ran in a number of political races, including the Republican Party primary for Arizona’s Senate seat in 2018, where state figures show he came in third, behind Martha McSally and Kelli Ward.
In 2020, he ran in the GOP primary for his old job as sheriff, ultimately losing to his former right-hand man, Jerry Sheridan. Sheridan went on to be lose the election to Penzone, who ran for a second term.
Continuing Primary Election Coverage
The Associated Press (AP) contributed to this report.
