EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Arizona Topples Senate President Russell Pearce, SB 1070 Immigration Law Architect, in Historic Recall Vote
MESA, AZ -- In a stunning blow to the Tea Party movement, a huge turnout in Mesa's conservative LD 18 overwhelmingly voted out Arizona's hardline State Senate President Russell Pearce in a historic recall election today.
In a stunning blow to the Tea Party movement, a huge turnout in Mesa's conservative LD 18 overwhelmingly voted out Arizona's hardline State Senate President Russell Pearce in a historic recall election today. (photo: Jeff Biggers) As the self-proclaimed "Tea Party President," Pearce's national role as the figurehead for punitive immigration measures also turned the recall election into a referendum on the state's notorious SB 1070 "papers, please" immigration law, which Pearce had made the hallmark of his legislative career.
According to the Maricopa County Recorder Elections Department, Republican moderate and SB 1070 opponent Jerry Lewis overcame the Pearce campaign's series of dirty tricks and election war chest to win 53.4% to 45.3%. in a contest that divided the city's influential Mormon Church.
"This is a huge shift," said Randy Parraz, co-founder of the Citizens for a Better Arizona, which organized the recall drive in one of the most conservative districts in the state. "Russell Pearce is not only too extreme, but had remained untouched. This election shows that such extremist behavior will not be rewarded, and will be held accountable."
Considered the de facto governor of Arizona, the seemingly invincible and right-wing extremist Pearce became the first state Senate president in American history to be thrown out of office in a recall election. Led by an inspiring citizens movement, Pearce's downfall marks an extraordinary sea change in Arizona politics, especially in the areas of the changing electoral demographics and immigration reform policies. According to Parraz, the Citizens group registered more than 1,150 new voters in the district.
"Immigration issues are not Republican or Democratic," said Parraz, noting that the recall effort was successful largely because of its bipartisan support that also focused on education, health care and jobs. "To have effective and sustainable change, we have to work together."
Defying all expectations, the unprecedented bipartisan organizing effort led by the Citizens for a Better Arizona galvanized the recall movement into a statewide effort to cast out Arizona's increasingly volatile and embarrassing extremist political leader. Only a year ago, Pearce's ascendancy to the Senate president post was hailed by many as a watershed moment for the Tea Party movement. Within days of his reign, Pearce and his Tea Party legislators introduced a flurry of radical bills, including an effort to "nullify" federal laws.
"This election sends a message to other Democratic efforts," said Dan O'Neal, with the Arizona chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America, "to not be afraid to take on issues and races in red states."
Considered the architect of the SB 1070 immigration law, Pearce had worked with the American Legislative Exchange Council lobby front to shape the latest version of the bill, which had spawned similar laws in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and other states.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
30 Comments so far
Show AllDear good people of Arizona - you have proven the overblown violent rhetoric of monied advertising to be NO CONTEST to the true will of the people. The solidarity of solid good will toward one's fellow and due process is something this particular human being celebrates in your reaffirmation of DIGNITY FOR ALL. Thank you Arizona! You bring tears of joy to these old eyes!
It's heartening to see that people are finally waking up to what the few crazies in our midst are hell-bent on doing to destroy every decent thing about this country.
This is good news!
Migrant labor from Mexico is not the enemy anymore than the Oakies were during the depression. Let's put the blame where it really lies. The employers that promote their influx and the companies that force these workers to migrate in order to find employment.
They are ABSOLUTELY the enemy right now. Illegal immigrants are taking jobs. Oh sure, no one is going to do the jobs *at the rate they pay* the issue is that without a free supply of labor, those rates will go up and get passed along to everyone and the jobs will start to make economic sense or the jobs will get done by machines which have to be built by labor.
I can promise you that there will not be a shortage of sweet potatoes but they may cost a little more.
Ah,.... another Neoliberal troll outs itself. It's the likes of YOU that are "ABSOLUTELY" Public Enemy #1.
Great post and just wanted to add some points of info. The way the corps promote and force is through their political contributions and lobbyists who buy off our representatives. Then the Dems and Republicans and independents pass Free Trade Agreements, fund the Drug War and approve militarization of Latin America. In my view this is the three pronged attack that works to literally kill people in the south who dare to attempt to organize themselves for their better good. If the potus and the rest were to promote activists in the south to organize, then the corporations' cheap farm and sweat shop labor, cheap resources from Latin America and the undocumented would disappear.
Nice to know our citizens are more kind than our president. :)
That's a high jump over a low hurdle, but I will admit that I am encouraged.
Way to go but it's only the beginning. There are a lot of laws that have to be overturned, not just in AZ but in the US, Citizens United being first and foremost. We have a lot of work to do yet.
The City of Missoula, Montana, passed by almost 3-1, a ballot initiative on Tuesday that calls for a Constitutional Amendment that specifies that corporations are not "persons."
That what we all should be working on.
What's going on here? This jerk gets recalled, Issue 2 loses by a landslide in Ohio, and the good citizens of Missippi don't think a fertilized embryo is a person? All in one day?? Are the nutters on the run?
This vote is a mountain range of EPIC WIN. Great job, Arizona.
Next up: Joe Arpaio in the dock.
And the good people of Maine voted down 3 more casinos/racinos. This is good news, too. We don't need more Las Vegas people running those scams here, especially since we already have two casinos in the State.
To respond to another post-er, people who are in this country illegally do take away jobs from local people, especially in agriculture where local people used to do all that work. Now the corporations pay so little that people cannot afford to take the work.
The illegals and other migrants get free housing and whatever food the employers choose to feed them - they keep them hidden from the rest of us but we know where they are, of course.
The migrants also get free federal health care, child care, food stamps, welfare from the poor towns, and so on. How can local people afford to work for practically nothing without all those benefits? The migrants get so much for free and just take whatever money they're given (many cannot speak English) by agribusiness corporations., and send it back to Mexico, Honduras, etc.
Do NOT call names if you've never had your job taken away by someone willing to work for practically nothing because their housing, food, and transportation is all taken care of for them.
We all know they're desperate, many of them, and that it's not their fault that the employers take advantage of them.....but there it is. Do NOT deny the facts.
What planet are you from? The only health care undocumented workers can receive is emergency services. Of course, if you think denying them treatment when they're suffering from, say German measles, because they were never vaccinated in Guatemala, or wherever, is a good thing, perhaps you won't feel that way if your kids die of it as it spreads. They don't get welfare, or food stamps either.
Planting and harvesting has never paid living wages. While doing a homeless survey for Monterey County 23 years ago, I found 17 people living in a dirt-floor garage. A drought left them without gas money to get back home.
When those workers unionize, from Florida to California, both undocumented and legal, they start to get better pay and conditions. Still, as the United Farm Workers showed in their "Take my job" campaign, only a handful of unemployed whites took them up on it. It's nasty, difficult work, and Americans are too soft to do it at any price.
Farmers in Alabama and Georgia have been hurting for months, with their crops rotting in the fields because those workers who are undocumented, or who have spouses or children who are not legal, feel terrified they or other family members will be arrested and deported and have left those states. No one is taking their places no matter what wages are offered.
Hello fellow Earthling. The anchor babies of illegals get Medicaid, the mother and baby can get WIC and sometimes welfare. The children can attend K-12 and Church and other groups will help these families. Despite the rule of law most state agencies, especially here in predominantly Hispanic NM turn a blind eye and refrain from splitting families. We're one of the few states that grant drivers licenses to illegals thanks to criminal Richardson. The Gov and nearly 70% of the New Mexico people want the law revoked but the Latino state legislators won't allow it. Wait til some of the other states get more latino representation, that is their intent, political power. My state looks more and more like Mexico as the years roll by.
If anything, UFW's PR stunt merely showed they haven't improved anything for farmworkers for over 20 years. They're rife with the typical Mexican-style corruption and membership is a measly 5000 or so. The "rotting crops" which BTW I have not seen any evidence of, are what is called minor crops, perishables more or less and only a small fraction of the national harvest. We can certainly live without cukes, tomatoes and berries; most of this food tastes like cardboard anyway. Machines harvest most of the crops in the US. Farmwork is transitional and merely a gateway to better paying jobs and this is what I think CleanEarth meant. When a farmworker leaves to take a construction job he leaves a vacancy for the next illegal. Corporations and businesses love this cycle -endless cheap labor and no commitments to workers. In my area and many others the once diverse construction industry is mostly illegals. Wages haven't risen for over 20 years.
There are those of us who are human and have some compassion for fellow human beings and then there are those who do not. Which side are you on? Wages for all American worker have not risen in the last 20 years - that has nothing to do with immigration, but a lot Wall Street and the American Oligarchy.
I'm actually laughing my arse off at these comments. Two Mormon Republicans battling for who is most effective at implementing LDS doctrine (Utah Compact) through the political system and "progressives cheering it on." This was a Mormon event , the real prize was manipulation of the AZ political system for more followers and friendlier business environment.. Pearce defied the LDS. It was Mormons, all businessmen, that started up Citizens for a Better AZ. Latino immigrants are a windfall for LDS and that IS a fact.
I suggest you wake up folks, the game is changing faster than you can keep up -the convergence of corporate and religious power in politics. Perfect -obedient wage slaves. I can see now why progressives were easily blind-sided by Obama. AZ is lost no matter how you look at it, and this includes what's coming climate-wise; but I do prefer Utah over Mexico.
What in the name of God are you talking about?
Hello Alan, see my comment above about "waking up". Do some research, do the work like I did, and come back with a worthy rebuttal -if you can. Otherwise, go back to sleep.
Hello twototanga AKA readbetween, orchardkeeper, bloodmerdian, pheran,
Compulsive name changing indicates one is not comfortable with themselves. And you're talking to me about sanity? Get some help......
It doesn't take all that much effort to entertain your delusions. Truth and poetry mean nothing without beauty of the soul. Personally, I'd rather see that than a new username. As old as you are you still seem like a lost child......
Spare yourself some embarrassment, readbetween. Stop replying to my posts and I'll leave you alone. Otherwise, I'll treat you like the petulant child that you act like. You're not dealing with a self-loathing anglo armchair liberal.
signed -born and raised in the SW
You're "dealing" with me? You got yourself all wrapped up in it, don't you. It's only the internet dear.
My, my another FOX propaganda fried brain.
I've said some nasty things about Arizona recently. Even if Arpaio is still there it seems some Arid Zone people are thinking a little more clearly, better still they are actually acting.
Once again, Common Dreams completely misses the point.
The only reason that anyone could think of Jerry Lewis as a "moderate" is because he's not as nuts as Russ Pearce. He's only a little less rabid on immigration. He's extremely conservative. This is from his website, if your writer bothered to look:
"As your State Senator, I will work to make Arizona’s business climate conducive to job growth and expansion by working with business and government leaders to restore Arizona’s and Mesa’s positive image and reducing or eliminating unnecessary government intervention and regulation."
Are you not able to recognize those code words?
Lewis runs a charter school, for pete's sake. They are in the business of sucking tax dollars away from the public school system to run Mormon madrassas. They vilify public unions, especially teachers. They refuse to take kids with costly special needs, putting even more stresses on the public system.
So, you miss one of the critical reasons that progressives joined in the efforts to recall Pearce. He was long one of Arizona's biggest boosters of for-profit prisons. SB 1070 wasn't only passed to cater to racists (and Pearce literally had shared his platform with neo-Nazis), but to bolster the bottom line of the dangerous and corrupt for-profit prison industry. Last year's homicidal and economically ruinous escape from the Kingman Management and Training Corporation prison gave the Arizona public a dose of smelling salts. Activists had resisted the state's initiative to sell most of its public prisons, then to allow it to contract out 5,000 beds that it didn't need, for which it would have been forced to pay, even if none were used, over $2 million a week.
The for-profit prison industry was also the biggest campaign supporter of Governor Jan Brewer, both in contributions and in campaign assistance. Her spokesperson and her campaign manager in 2010 were for-profit prison industry lobbyists.
I'm not sure you even read your own content. Beau Hodai is the writer who busted ALEC, the Koch brothers, Brewer, Kansas racist-for-hire Kobach and their fellow xenophobes back in June 2010! You carried this piece from Hodai a year later that included:
"In mid-2009, Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce called upon the two “brightest minds” known to him in the sphere of immigration reform: IRLI attorney Kris Kobach and IRLI general counsel Mike Hethmon. Pearce asked the two men to create what became Arizona’s controversial “Support our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” otherwise known as SB 1070, which treated immigrants as trespassers if they were found in the state without their papers on them, and required immigration checks for anyone suspected of committing an offense. (A U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary injunction against several provisions of SB 1070 in July 2010; the case is ongoing.)"
Worse still, perhaps, you've ignored the influence of the for-profit prison industry right there in your home state of Maine, where Tea Party Governor Paul LePage imported CCA's Joe Ponte from Nevada to run his pens, and where legislation was introduced to build a prison at Milo and export Maine prisoners to empty CCA prisons in other states.
I hope you'll at least carry something about Mainers defeating LePage's bill to further disenfrancise your home town voters by ending same-day registration.
Time to stop sleeping, Common, perchance to end your Dreaming.
thank you for the insightful post and for placing this article in broader context (AZ politics).
...peace...
One step at the time. Arizona is better off now then it was before the recall. Next election there might be even a little bit better person elected. So, hurray to the voters!