Phoenix sheriff raises windfall to fund campaign

PHOENIX — The sheriff of metropolitan Phoenix has raised close to $10 million in his bid for a seventh term, a stunning collection of campaign riches for a local police race, and much of it was contributed by a devoted base of backers who live outside Arizona.

“Most people would think that you mistakenly added a zero to that number,” said Heath Brown, a public policy professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who studies the role of money in politics.

The influx of out-of-state donations fuels criticism that outsiders have emboldened Arpaio, leaving Phoenix taxpayers to pay the hefty legal bills that result when his jail and immigration policies are tested in court.

Contributors included retirees, self-employed business operators and people who worked in law enforcement and served in the military, according to records.

Mike O’Neil, an Arizona pollster who has followed Arpaio’s career, said the sheriff’s campaign war chest can be attributed heavily to his reputation for immigration enforcement, even though he was forced to abandon those efforts in January 2015 in a lawsuit over his business raids that targeted immigrant workers.