Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his opponent Mike Stauffer are going to be in the same room tomorrow for a candidate forum in Sun City West, according to the Stauffer campaign.
New Times tried to confirm that Arpaio would be at the event, but his campaign manager Chad Willems literally told us he had no idea if he'd be there.
Arpaio's actually setting himself up for a first in this campaign if he's really planning on attending the forum, since he typically likes to either ignore Stauffer or pretend like he has absolutely no idea who he is.
"I don't even wanna talk about that guy," Arpaio grumbled to New Times in August. "What is he, some cop in Scottsdale? What does he know what we operate except what he reads in the New Times? It seems to be his campaign newspaper."
Arpaio's reference to "his campaign newspaper" is likely to the New Times online town hall Stauffer participated in -- which Arpaio declined to do.
According to Stauffer's campaign, 21 candidates for both local and federal offices will be participating in tomorrow night's Republican forum, hosted by the Sun City West Republican Club.
Stauffer's campaign is billing it as the first time Stauffer and Arpaio will "share [the] podium."
In case you haven't been keeping score, Stauffer's been on the attack against Arpaio since he entered the race.
The Scottsdale Police Lieutenant has commented on Arpaio's publicity stunts, approach on immigration enforcement, misspending, mismanagement, and pretty much just his existence in general.
If someone at Arpaio's campaign actually finds out if their candidate is showing up to the event tomorrow, we'll provide the update.
Staff writer James King contributed to this report.
