Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas have announced they did not seek the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper the Arizona Republic. Arpaio and Thomas assumed they would not get the endorsement of the Republic so why should they seek it. Below is an explanation of their decision in their own words.

Why We Could Not & Did Not Seek the Arizona Republic's Endorsement  

Gratified By Support from Police & the People Not Left-Tilting Newspapers & Criminal Defense Lawyers

  By Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio & County Attorney Andrew Thomas  

John McCain isn't going to be getting the New York Times endorsement over Barack Obama.  And we have a hunch that the Arizona Republic probably isn't going to be touting our re-election campaigns either.  

And that's OK, because it would seriously confuse our supporters were we to seek the Republic's editorial endorsement, as candidates typically do.  

This is why we took the unusual step of politely and respectfully declining the paper's recent offer to solicit its support by appearing before its editorial board with our opponents.  

After all, the Arizona Republic board has been one of the biggest voices against steps we have successfully taken to reduce Valley crime.  Even the paper's own lawyer has been opposing us outside of its own pages.  

Crime reduction is not hyperbole on our part.  It is a fact.  Are we the only ones responsible for this improvement?  Of course not.  Police officers and deputy sheriffs on the front lines deserve most of the credit.  

But we have taken new forceful steps that have made a difference.  And unfortunately the Arizona Republic has systematically opposed many of them.  

Most notably, they have opposed our joint efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.  Many people once said local law enforcement officials couldn't make a difference.  We are proving otherwise with our hard-hitting, cutting-edge approach. Illegal immigration is down, even leading to significant self-deportation. Crime is down.  

This is not a Republican, Independent or Democrat battle.  This is everybody's issue, except the Arizona Republic's.  

We have also been criticized by the paper for pursuing the death penalty, prosecuting illegal immigrants under the human-smuggling law and the employer-sanction law which cracks down on businesses knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.  

In opposing our candidacies the Republic will likely cite issues other than tough-on-crime policies and achievements.  

They will likely talk about the Phoenix New Times illegally publishing Sheriff Arpaio's home address and our respective office's conduct after the fact.  

They will talk about an approach toward judges they thought was too tough in the aftermath of some judges refusing to implement the voter-approved Proposition 100.  This measure instructed the criminal justice system to deny bail to illegal immigrants committing heinous crimes.  

They will talk about our opponents in glowing terms while ignoring their own research which would alert the public to embarrassing, disgusting or way too soft on crime information about our opponents.  

Are we perfect public servants?  We are not.  We make mistakes like everyone else and learn from them.  

But we continue to do many more good things right than wrong.  That's why crime has dropped and bad guys are spending more time and longer times behind bars.  So while the Arizona Republic may not like our policies, the state's leading police and border patrol organizations do because they have endorsed our candidacies, as have voters from all political parties.  

So as you contemplate the Republic's commentary consider their editorial pages have swung so far to the left that they will actually suggest changing out the County Sheriff and County Attorney for opponents favored by the attorneys of Valley criminals and open border activists, and at a time when we are starting to win more of the war on crime.  Then again, the New York Times didn't endorse Mayor Giuliani despite his success cleaning up New York City either.  The New York Times was out of touch.  The Arizona Republic editorial board is out of touch.