I am the campaign manager for Paul Penzone, the challenger to Joe Arpaio. I am constantly amazed by how many folks are working on behalf of our campaign – giving selflessly of their time.
Volunteers collecting petition signatures for Paul told me that they would mention that there was a candidate running against Sheriff Joe and the voter at the door would call the rest of their family over to hear about Paul. I have knocked on thousands of doors on many campaigns and I can tell you that this is very rare.
We have a very motivated base of folks who are ready for change and it’s a good thing because Maricopa County is a very large area and has 3.8 million people living in it. That’s a bigger population than 23 States!
Two weeks ago, Paul spoke with over 100 volunteer organizers. It was a diverse group of men and women of all ages and all backgrounds. All have one goal in mind. Defeat Arpaio. Let me repeat that it was 100 volunteer ORGANIZERS that are heading back out to their respective corner of the county to recruit teams of volunteers to knock on doors, phone bank and register voters.
I’ve worked quite a few campaigns in Arizona since moving here in 2005 and I have never seen this level of mobilization ever.
This campaign has a professional staff including myself, our finance team and our Communications Director. The rest of the team is staffed with volunteers including our scheduler, Carol, a retired finance consultant whose son grew up with Paul and our volunteer coordinator, Michael, a real estate broker. Our house parties and coffee stops are organized by Kathryn, an attorney here in town. Bob and Judy, a retired couple from Sun City come into the office everyday to help with data entry and whatever else needs done! These are just a few examples of folks that are working side by side to defeat Arpaio.
My point here is to let you know that there are hundreds (and growing to thousands) of people that are working on behalf of Paul’s campaign. Paul has on many occasions told me after meeting with these dedicated volunteers that he is blown away and humbled by their commitment. This is Paul’s first campaign ever and I tell him “I’ve never seen anything like this!”
While Arpaio continues to reach out to the Birthers across America, we’re going to voters homes to talk with them about how they can change the direction of this County. Thanks for checking back to see what the campaign is up to.