Joe Arpaio's advisers say Senate bid is for real

Top advisers to Joe Arpaio on Tuesday batted down suggestions that the former sheriff's Senate candidacy was a fundraising stunt or ruse to keep the Republican's name in the news.

Arpaio, in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, announced his bid for the Arizona seat being vacated at year's end by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. The reveal followed calls by Arpaio's advisers to Republican operatives connected to the White House, and directly to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP campaign arm, to inform party leaders of his campaign.

Arpaio turns 86 in June, feeding speculation that the close ally of President Trump wouldn't follow through. But Chad Willems, Arpaio's political adviser since 2000, said in a telephone conversation that there was nothing phony about his candidacy.

"People still don’t believe it — the local media think it’s a joke, that it's to get the sheriff press attention," Willems said. "But this is really happening; this is a real campaign. We're off and running."

Willems was in the process of assembling a campaign team and building an infrastructure. In an interesting twist, Willems is president of the same Phoenix firm, The Summit Consulting Group, Inc., that advises Flake and would have handled his campaign had the first-term senator not retired. Summit's Steve Voeller, who previously worked for Flake, was the lead on the re-election until the senator pulled the plug.