Is Babeu's new campaign ad misleading?

Paul Babeu has released a pair of new campaign advertisements for his run for Congress that tout what “voters” think about the Sheriff.

The 30-second advertisements present several short testimonials of unnamed people.

It begins, “Listen to what the voters are saying about Paul Babeu.”

But it turns out that almost all of the “voters” depicted in the video are actually Pinal County Sheriff’s Office employees.

The ABC15 Investigators found that six of the people who speak in the campaign ads are on Sheriff Babeu’s payroll. Many of those employees were given jobs or promoted by Babeu since he became Sheriff.

Those employees include:

• Cheryl Chase, PCSO community outreach director
• Wayne Cashman, PCSO Lieutenant
• Hank Mueller, PCSO deputy
• Ruben Montano; Commander of Policy and Compliance
• Jayne Valenzuela, Commander of Program Services
• Jason Villegas, PCSO Lieutenant

Babeu is running for Congress in Arizona District 4.    

The new advertisements could raise even more legal trouble for the Sheriff.

Babeu is already under investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Federal investigators are looking into potential violations of the Hatch Act, which is the unlawful use of public resources for personal campaigns.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Elias Johnson told the ABC15 investigators that all of the PCSO employees “volunteered” their time for advertisements.

Sheriff Paul Babeu’s campaign did not return a call seeking comment about if the advertisements were misleading.

However, in a message on Babeu’s campaign website , he criticizes his opponent Paul Gosar for being misleading .