The problem with the opposition to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as I see it, is that the loudest voices calling for Arpaio's resignation are perceived to be those of leftists.
In reality, there are many GOPers that I hear from who are weary of fellow Republican Arpaio, his wasteful spending, his persistent malfeasance and his illegal targeting of his political enemies.
However, few are willing to go public, for fear of retaliation and the grief they're sure to get from other Rs.
Which is why I applaud Republican activist Paula Pennypacker and her new "purple letter" campaign calling on Arpaio to resign.
Purple letters are missives generated by PurpleLetter.org to politicians, public figures and so forth, whom the writers want to impress with their message, and the color of their correspondence
You compose the letter on the site, then the site sends a letter on purple stationary in a purple-highlighted envelope, one the recipient cannot ignore.
In her most recent recent blog, Pennypacker describes the reason for the color to none other than Randy Parraz, leader of Citizens for a Better Arizona, which led the successful recall effort against ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce and is now seeking Arpaio's resignation.
"I explained that a purple letter is a way for those of us who are center right or center left to make our voices heard," she writes of her meeting with Parraz. "You know: we are not RED or BLUE, we are PURPLE.
"I asked, `Why don't we start a PurpleLetter campaign, to see if there are more people who feel that Joe Arpaio should resign?' After all this is not a RED or a BLUE issue, it's a PURPLE issue."
The idea would be to flood county Board of Supervisors Chairman Max Wilson with a tide of purple. Maybe he'd grok the message that it's not only lefties and Hispanics who are ticked off with Arpaio, but Republicans and those in the middle of the road, too.
Pennypacker writes:
"[H]ow can Republicans stand behind a man who misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars, targets his political enemies costing taxpayers over $50 million in unnecessary lawsuits, and is under investigation by the feds for racial profiling people with brown skin?
"And what about the 400 uninvestigated cases of sex crimes against women and children that occurred under his watch?"
Solid questions. Indeed, how can anyone argue that Arpaio represents Republican values?
Unless the GOP wants embrace corruption, dereliction of duty, wasting money and a disregard for the U.S. Constitution.
Sadly, many local GOPers are a-okay with Arpaio's misdeeds. Pennypacker clearly is not, so she's leading the charge to take back her party from the lunatic Joe-worshippers on the far-far right.
If you want to help her, she suggests you go to PurpleLetter.org and use the promo code MYCAUSE, which she says will allow first-time users to send two first class letters for free.
You don't have to know Wilson's official address. But you will have to register with PurpleLetter.org. The service does everything but write the letter for you.
Wilson can't fire Arpaio, as the sheriff is an elected official. But the Board of Supervisors controls the MCSO's purse strings. And that's a lot of power over ol' Joe.
So if Pennypacker is successful in painting Wilson's office purple, it could have an impact. Wilson would be hard pressed to ignore Pennypacker's purple tide.
