Did you hear the one about 79-year-old Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio considering a run for the United States Senate?
That's not a joke -- Arpaio, at 79, really claims to be considering running for the Senate seat getting vacated by Senator Jon Kyl.
Anyone who knows anything about America's self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" knows he'll do whatever it takes to get his name in the headlines -- including claiming to be considering running for political offices he has no real intention of actually running for.
For example, in April of 2010, Arpaio claimed he was seriously considering running for governor. ABC15's Josh Bernstein even claimed he had the inside scoop that Arpaio had filed all the necessary paperwork for a run for the governorship and he was going to announce his candidacy. Bernstein quoted "several high-ranking sources within the Sheriff's Department."
Bernstein even had us convinced (to the point that we still owe a colleague lunch after losing a bet over whether Arpaio would run).
As our co-worker predicted, Arpaio didn't run, claiming that "so many have supported my campaign for re-election that I do not want to betray them by running for another office."
Arpaio now claims to have $6 million in the bank for his upcoming re-election campaign for sheriff. That's a lot of dolla bills he'd apparently hate to "betray."
If you ask us, there's no chance in hell that Arpaio will run for Senate -- and there's an equally minute chance that he's actually considering it. More likely, it's just another depraved act of media slutiness for which the sheriff has become infamous.
But we want to know what you think: is there any chance Arpaio is really considering running for Senate, or is this just his latest act of media slutiness?
Cast your vote below.
