Joe Arpaio Fined $154K for ‘In-Kind Contribution’ to Bill Montgomery
Score one for the white hats. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s re-election campaign was fined $153,978 Tuesday for financing a mailer advocating the defeat of his arch-nemesis, interim County Attorney Rick Romley.
That mailer was to the benefit of Arpaio’s bought-and-paid-for toady Bill Montgomery, the guy who takes over from Romley in November. As you no doubt know, Montgomery bested Romley in the GOP primary, and as county Dems failed to field a candidate, Monty becomes C.A., practically by default.
Rewind to August 24. That’s when Jeffrey Messing, special counsel to the County Attorney’s office, found that TV ads smearing Romley, ads paid for by Arpaio’s campaign to the estimated tune of $700K, did not violate state campaign laws.