Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Pays $77,000 Fine For Illegal Campaign Mailer In County Attorney Race

(Update 7:40pm: Confirmed by Willems that the amount paid by Arpaio campaign is the $76,989.50 assessed by the ALJ.)

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's campaign announced late this afternoon that it has settled the illegal campaign contribution case against it by paying the assessed fine.  An administrative law judge last month found that a mailer sent by Arpaio's campaign committee was an illegal in-kind contribution to (successful) Maricopa County Attorney candidate Bill Montgomery rather than an expenditure to promote Arpaio's re-election in 2012.  The ALJ fined Arpaio $76,989.50 - the midpoint between a $1 fine and the maximum three times the expenditure.

The settlement comes two days before County Elections Director Karen Osborne was required to accept, modify or reject the ALJ's determination.  According to the press release sent out by Arpaio's campaign manager Chad Willems, the Sheriff's campaign committee continued to admit no wrong-doing.  The amount of the settlement is the full amount of the fine assessed by the ALJ, according to Willems.  The text of the release is included below the jump.

Arpaio's 2012 re-election campaign had acknowledged that it had spent more than $50,000 on the mailer that was the subject of the complaint by former County Attorney Rick Romley.  The administrative law judge rejected Arpaio's contentions that the mailer was constitutionally-protected speech.  Arpaio's committee also spent several hundred thousand dollars on television commercials which supported Montgomery and attacked Romley.