Sheriff Joe Arpaio will not run for governor, announcing Monday that he will remain Maricopa County's top cop for at least two more years.

The decision ends months of speculation, much of it fueled by Arpaio himself, that he would resign from the Sheriff's Office to run for the state's top elective office.

Arpaio's decision to remain sheriff was heavily influenced by the role the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors would play in naming his successor, potentially reshaping the Sheriff's Office.

Arpaio said he was being loyal to the office's longtime employees.

"I feel that I owe it to the people of Maricopa County, my hard-working employees and others who believe in my office's policies to continue as their Sheriff," Arpaio said in a statement.

"To leave this office open to appointment by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors of an interim Sheriff may very well put us on a path that would be extremely displeasing to the voters of this county."

Had Arpaio resigned, county supervisors would have had to appoint a successor, just as they did when Rick Romley was named interim county attorney to fill former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' seat when Thomas resigned to run for attorney general.

The prospect of supervisors appointing Arpaio's successor, and the personnel changes that would follow in the Sheriff's Office, was too much for Arpaio to risk if he were to run for governor.

Arpaio has battled the supervisors and county administrators for the better part of two years over budget issues, and launched criminal investigations into two members of the Board of Supervisors, Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox.

Arpaio said at a Monday afternoon news conference that he would have been more likely to run for governor if he could have a say in who would replace him as sheriff. Thomas tried that and failed with his Maricopa County Attorney post when he resigned to run for Arizona attorney general.

"This is tough this time around," Arpaio said of his decision, adding that he feels relieved to have made a decision. "It's almost like being elected today as Sheriff."

Instead of running for governor, Arpaio will finish out his fifth term in office and begin preparing for a sixth sheriff's campaign in 2012.

Arpaio already has more than $2 million in campaign contributions, according to his political consultant.