Saban fires back at Arpaio campaign's lies

Dan Saban, Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff, has been the subject of a robocall smear campaign conducted by Joe Arpaio. The calls have spread complete lies about Saban, his positions, and his statements.

From a Saban press release -

One 60-second call claims that Saban “will close Tent City, coddle inmates, eliminate chain gangs and even ignore state laws that combat illegal immigration.” In fact, Dan Saban has never made any such statements. A woman’s voice on the call also claims that Saban would cause “hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes,” which Dan Saban called “absurdly false hyperbole.”

“Arpaio has hired a Washington D.C. swiftboat firm when he still hasn’t come clean about the funding of his last TV smear ad campaign,” said Saban. “Research shows that voters and media are rejecting negative advertising this year, and I hope they will see Arpaio’s tactics as below the belt. I have categorically supported the use of the tents, and I will bring in even tougher immigration enforcement efforts, going after real criminal aliens, not just janitors.”

Saban said he will eliminate unconstitutional housing and treatment of detainees and prisoners, and work to Arpaio’s policies that bring a never-ending stream of negligence lawsuits. Over his 16-year tenure, Arpaio’s mismanagement of the County jails has cost taxpayers more than $43 million in lawsuit payouts, settlements and attorneys’ fees. His chronic understaffing in the jails has resulted in more than 60 deaths—many of detainees awaiting trial—in the last three years alone. Last week, a federal court found conditions in Arpaio’s jails in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“When you can’t talk about your own record, and when you’ve been caught lying in public, you get even sneakier. You’re more or less forced to resort to smear phone calls,” Saban said. “I want everyone to know that I will be a more honest sheriff, a fairer sheriff and a better sheriff than that little voice on your phone. I call on Joe Arpaio to halt this fraudulent robo-lying immediately and stop smearing me once and for all.”

All the way from the McCain campaign at the heights of the ballot down to the lowliest county hack trying to retain his ride on the nativist gravy train, the Republicans are running every scheme in their 'fear and smear' playbook.

As important as it is to work to put Barack Obama over the top in his quest for the Presidency, we need to support downballot candidates to effect the sort of change that affects people's everyday lives.

Volunteer this weekend to help get out the vote for Democrats across the Valley, and on Tuesday, vote for Dan Saban for Sheriff, Tim Nelson for County Attorney, and Ed Hermes, Joel Sinclaire, Marilyn Fox, and Leigh Strickman, Democratic candidates for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Later!