By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--April 11, 2013
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"To give you an idea of how sinister the attacks on Sheriff Joe have been, we have a community that had to close its police Dept., of course the sheriff has to take over and police it. There were over 400 plus reports of sex crimes in that town over a number of years that had not been investigated. The left comes in and uses this statistic as if it is Sheriff Joe's fault." "Well, the sheriff did investigate them. During a meeting with the Board of Supervisors a member of the county attorney's office said that out of the 400 plus incidents, there was only seven of them that didn't have a final disposition on them. Now, at the time there was a political reporter from Channel Three named Frank Camacho who was in that meeting. He heard very clearly that there were only seven of these cases that were still open. That night on Channel Three Frank Camacho said there were over 400 cases still open. It wasn't long before Frank Camacho, whether at the insistence of the station of on his own, became the communications director of the Arizona Democrat Party."One of the biggest problems with the recall campaign is the millions it will coast Maricopa taxpayers. Once the petitions are turned in, half a million signatures will have to be verified one-by-one by Maricopa County recorder Helen Purcell. Thomas and Ludders estimate that it will cost taxpayers up to $1.5 million to verify the signatures. Then the county will have to pay for the recall election itself. This will cost another estimated $4 million dollars. Finally, after the recall election is done, another possible $1.5 million will be spent on lawyers for recall result lawsuits. The final tab could cost taxpayers up to $8 million. Speaking of money, it is coming in heavily for the recall effort. "They have over 120 paid petitioners from outside of Arizona many of whom worked for the effort against Russell Pearce, plus they have a plethora of volunteers," Breitbart was told. When Breitbart asked Thomas and Ludders if they felt unions were heavily invested in the recall effort, both said an emphatic yes. "We believe the AFL CIO is deeply involved," said Ron Ludders. "The fact that they are having their meetings in union halls kind of tells the story." Ludders notes that the recall petitions are being funded by outside money from the AFL-CIO as well as other unions and are being circulated by the same people that the left paid to circulate the petitions in the successful recall of State Senator Russell Pearce who was ousted in 2011. Unfortunately, due to Arizona's reporting laws, the total donations and donor lists aren't due to be filed until the middle of May, too late to be of much use to Arpaio's supporters as recall petitions are due the end of May. To buttress the claim that unions are a chief backer of the recall, a recent story in the the Phoenix New Times shows that one anti-Arpaio rally was held at the Painter's Union Hall in Phoenix. Ludders also pointed out that on the very night of our interview, a mass meeting of recall operatives was going to be held at the Bakers and Confectionary Union Hall in Maricopa County. The recall isn't the only goal that Respect Arizona is pursuing. "They are obtaining voter registrations. They are just not going after Joe, here. But the master plan is to turn Arizona blue," Ludders said. Ludders said that the recall campaign was just another part of the drive to bring Democrats to power in Arizona. "I want to reference the book The Blueprint; How The Democrats Won Colorado," Ludders said. "On page 184 it says "The strategy is not build up Democrats as much as it is to tear down Republicans using opposition research and other hardball tactics" in a way that draws emotion.'"
"In sheriff Joe's case, that emotion is that he's a racist, that he's a bigot. That is simply not the truth. As you all recall Eric Holder sent a number of people out to get Sheriff Joe, actually dropped the case for a lack of evidence. This essentially America's Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, against the entire organized left who is leveraging unions inside the state and sending a flood of millions of dollars in outside, left-wing money to fund the attack on Arpaio."As to this foolishly loose recall law, Arizona Republicans are trying to get a revision of the wide-open rules (HB2282) passed but legislators are being "held hostage" by their own Governor, Jan Brewer. The Governor is holding many bills up, not just 2282, because she wants to force the legislature to pass her healthcare laws and has maintained that she won't sign or consider anything until her healthcare measures are passed and signed. Naturally, changes to the recall laws are at least a year off as even once passed state Republicans expect the Department of Justice to attack the changes and take the state to court to block them. So, even if these changes do get made, it won't be in time to help save Sheriff Joe's job. Finally, Ludders and Thomas had a warning for those of us that might want to help Sheriff Joe beat this recall election. Beware of the fake groups out there trying to separate you from your money, the pair said. The Conservative Business League is one of the only groups that is putting boots on the ground in Maricopa County itself to help Joe fight the recall. Unfortunately, there are several other groups out there with "Help Sheriff Joe" efforts but they are not giving Joe any of the money they are claiming to raise in his name. Ludders says that one group last year claimed to have raised over a million dollars for Arpaio but only actually gave him around $30,000 when all was said and done. Further these other efforts are based in Washington DC or Virginia and are not in Arizona like CBL is. Unlike these other groups raising money in places far away from Arizona, the CBL is using donations to hire petitioners and directly fund efforts to beat the left’s recall game in Maricopa County. Ludders has tried to track down these shadowy groups but can't seem to find them as they have fake address, fake webpages, and disconnected phone numbers but all too real Internet-based donor pages. So, for those interested in helping Joe Arpaio beat this recall effort, only go to www.savesheriffjoe.org to donate. This is the site authorized by the Conservative Business League, and all donations will go directly to their efforts to fight the recall on the ground in Maricopa County.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.