In November of 2023, Paul Penzone announced that he was stepping down as Maricopa County sheriff, which became effective in January of this year. (He took a job at Blue Cross Blue Shield.)
Since Penzone was a Democrat, state law required that the Maricopa Board of Supervisors replace him with another Democrat, in a procedure that hasn’t been used since 1946 when a sheriff died while in office. (The Board is currently majority Republican.) No Democrats applied for the job out of the eight men who applied.
The next day, Penzone’s chief deputy, Russell Skinner, changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and won the spot. He will serve as temporary sheriff until November’s election. The lone Democrat on the five-person board was the only member to vote against Skinner as a replacement.
Now, Skinner will run as a Democrat, presenting himself as Penzone’s apolitical successor. While there are other Democrats running for the spot in the upcoming election, Skinner, as the incumbent, has the clear advantage.
I wonder if this guy believes other people should be allowed to transition with as little resistance as he got.
It sucks that this is legal, but I don’t know how you would be able to put a stop to people switching parties for convenience rather than ideology.
Yeah, I think the best remedy here is just making sure that Maricopa County voters are very aware of what happened here
You put a hold on their ability to run for office. Can’t run for some amount of time after changing to prevent exactly this. Context for those who didn’t RTFA:
The next day, Penzone’s chief deputy, Russell Skinner, changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and won the spot.
That is not a bad idea. It would at least lessen this problem.
It’s almost like law enforcement shouldn’t ever be an elected position
At some point as you go up the chain of government you have to get to an elected role else there’s no accountability to the people. A sheriff is the highest position in the county law enforcement chain. I don’t know there would be a better way to keep them and the office accountable.
Yes, it should be a random lottery 🤦♂️
Oh wait, I know, we’ll just have other politicians pick sheriffs. That’s never caused any problems.
You can’t make a suggestion like that without a solution, you just look like a jackass.
Arizona is strange as a lot of executive positions are directly elected, which leads to weird pissing matches in government where several officials can claim a direct electoral mandate.
I think we can rest assured that someone that goes from being a cop to working in medical insurance is probably a bastard regardless of the color of his stripes.
Cop to Health Insurance makes perfect sense, he already has experience casually making decisions that ruin people’s lives, and then doubling down when he is wrong.
Listen, I don’t know a fucking thing about this guy, but the real question you should be asking is he doing a good job or not?
If no Dems applied for the spot (Despite several running in the upcoming election? Not understanding that rationale unless they got term limits that are super strict.), what are they supposed to do? Let the chief deputy be the temp sheriff until the election? Doesn’t seem like that changes much for his sheriff campaign.
