四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

I don't think there is anything wrong with Senate President Russell Pearce that a bullet won't fix. But as long as he is alive I think he is a disgrace to government and should be recalled. I suspect the Founders created the Second Amendment because they knew there would be government tyrants like R ussell Pearce.

While I frequently disagree with the socialists at the New Times I certainly thing police state thug Russell Pearce should be recalled.

Hauser's number-one complaint is about the affidavit filled out by each circulator, swearing that, as far as the circulator knew, the signatures on each petition sheet were from qualified voters.

The language of that affidavit, prescribed by statute, is determined by the Secretary of State's Office, not the recall committee. In fact, the Committee for a Better Arizona got the format of the petition sheets from the Secretary of State.

She doesn't like the recall committee's statement of the grounds for the recall. She claims it doesn't advise signers that their signatures could result in a recall election.

This, despite the fact that the statement was vetted by the Secretary of State's Office and that "Recall Pearce" was at the very top of the petitions.

she doubles down on her dumbness by asserting that if one of the signatures on a recall petition is deemed invalid, the entire sheet must be tossed.

Source

Russell Pearce's Lawyer Is Full of Bunk

By Stephen Lemons Thursday, Jul 21 2011

I understand that lawyers need to make a buck, and usually I wouldn't worry about one latching onto Republican state Senate President and recall boy Russell Pearce like a lamprey sucking the blood out of an alligator, but even so, Phoenix attorney Lisa Hauser is a joke. And not a funny one.

Not that her recent court complaint on behalf of Pearce challenging the certification of recall petition signatures, collected by Citizens for a Better Arizona, doesn't afford some grins.

Instead of the "massive voter registration fraud," alleged by wingnut writer Linda Bentley of Cave Creek rag the Sonoran News, Hauser went after Secretary of State Ken Bennett, big-time, as well as Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne, who works for GOPer and County Recorder Helen Purcell.

I should point out that Governor Jan Brewer, another Republican, has ordered a November 8 recall election, as she was required to do under Arizona statute. Indeed, all the actions taken by the Secretary of State's Office and Osborne are dictated by state law.

The recall committee gathered many more than the required 7,756 signatures from registered voters in Pearce's Legislative District 18 to force a special election. Recently, Osborne re-certified 10,296 signatures as valid. There will be a recall election, as much as Pearce and his allies wish otherwise.

Pearce's anti-recall committee, Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall, pored over the signatures collected, hunting for evidence of fraud.

What did they find? People who signed but whose addresses have changed. Entries in which the handwriting for addresses did not match the signatures (some folks print these, instead of writing in cursive). A couple of petition circulators with niggling problems on their petition sheets.

Zero evidence of fraud. So what's the basis for Hauser's lawsuit?

Hauser's number-one complaint is about the affidavit filled out by each circulator, swearing that, as far as the circulator knew, the signatures on each petition sheet were from qualified voters.

The language of that affidavit, prescribed by statute, is determined by the Secretary of State's Office, not the recall committee. In fact, the Committee for a Better Arizona got the format of the petition sheets from the Secretary of State.

But Hauser argues that the Arizona Constitution mandates that the circulator "make and subscribe an oath on said sheet, that the signatures thereon are genuine."

Hauser alleges the Secretary of State's recall petitions are not in line with the Constitution and, therefore, all the signatures, legitimate or not, are invalid and must be tossed.

This is where I must restrain hysterical laughter. I do so because Hauser's tack is insulting and attempts to disenfranchise fellow citizens, nullifying their legal right to recall Pearce.

Such anti-democratic malarkey, on behalf of a politician who claims he can handily win a recall election in his longtime district, should annoy the public.

It's not the first time Hauser's gone there. Her résumé on the website of her law firm, Gammage & Burnham, notes that she "represented 'Bush for President' before the Broward County [Florida] canvassing board during the 2000 presidential election recount."

Ah, Florida in 2000, when the Repugnants stole the presidential election from Vice President Al Gore and ushered in an era of backwardness and foreign-policy disasters by President George W. Bush.

At least we know what kind of attorney we're dealing with.

Hauser has a couple of other big problems with the recall petitions. She doesn't like the recall committee's statement of the grounds for the recall. She claims it doesn't advise signers that their signatures could result in a recall election.

This, despite the fact that the statement was vetted by the Secretary of State's Office and that "Recall Pearce" was at the very top of the petitions.

Moreover, Secretary of State spokesman Matt Roberts told me, "The petition can say anything it wants at the top."

Recall organizer Randy Parraz observed the same, noting that there's nothing in state statute ordering how the recall statement must read.

"We could have said, 'We don't like Russell Pearce, he has a big nose, and wears Ronald McDonald shoes,'" he scoffed. "As far as telling people when there will be an election, the governor tells them that when it happens."

As dumb as Hauser's line on the recall statement is, she doubles down on her dumbness by asserting that if one of the signatures on a recall petition is deemed invalid, the entire sheet must be tossed.

Both county elections and the Secretary of State's Office disagree, and they are prepared to defend themselves in court over this waste-of-time and waste-of-tax-money lawsuit.

Were Hauser correct (which she is not), that would mean every signature-gathering effort — whether it put a politician or a proposition on the ballot — should be retroactively annulled.

Think about it: If you sign a petition, and the person three lines down has his or her sig scrubbed, why should your signature follow suit? Particularly if you signed properly and are a qualified elector.

The specious reasoning Hauser uses reveals her lawsuit for what it is: a sham, a delay tactic on the part of a politician afraid to face voters.

Fortunately, all of this has to go in front of a Superior Court judge, with Hauser on one side and the Secretary of State's Office, county elections, and the recall committee on the other.

[See the Phoenix New Times for the rest of the article]

Russell Pearce's don't recall me propaganda

If police state terrorists Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne support Russell Pearce, that alone is probably a good reason to recall him.

Bad news for Russell Pearce

Our View: Good, bad news for Russell Pearce

Posted: Sunday, July 24, 2011 4:15 am | Updated: 10:33 am, Sat Jul 23, 2011.

Russell Pearce has been a favorite of voters in Legislative District 18 for the past 16 years, easily winning elections to the Arizona House and Senate from the largely Republican base of constituents in Mesa.

Given that track record, he’ll tell you he’s not worried about the upcoming recall election in November brought about by Citizens for a Better Arizona.

He should be.

Recall elections in Arizona — which are rare — are a completely different animal than normal elections.

A normal partisan election includes a primary, where candidates must first win their party’s nomination. In the Republican stronghold that is LD 18, that is where the real battle is won. Republicans who lean farther right (and Pearce is on the extreme right) tend to emerge from the primary. And from there, the Republican nominee is a shoo-in to defeat his Democratic opponent in the general election in this district.

But in a recall election, there is no primary — just a nonpartisan, winner-take-all election. Any number of candidates, from any number of parties, can run for office.

That’s good and bad news for Pearce.

The good news for Pearce is that there could be a large number of candidates who oppose him. The more candidates there are, the more the “anti-Pearce vote” will be split among them. In a recall, only the top vote-getter wins, regardless of whether he or she gets a majority of the votes. Pearce could get 30 percent of the votes and still win if the other 70 percent are split among six or seven candidates.

Given that, be prepared for allegations of “candidate-stuffing” should we see a large number of people vying for Pearce’s Senate seat (remember the accusations from Democrats when a number of Green Party candidates suddenly emerged last November, theoretically recruited by Republicans to take votes away from Democrat candidates?).

The bad news for Pearce is that, because it is a nonpartisan election, there will likely be at least one fellow Republican running against him. If that GOP opponent takes just one-fourth of the conservative vote (likely from more moderate Republicans), that spells trouble for Pearce.

In November, Pearce won the general election with 17,552 votes, easily beating Democrat Andrew Sherwood (10,663) and Libertarian Andrea Garcia (2,808). But in a recall election, those 13,471 votes that went to Sherwood/Garcia, plus just 25 percent of the Republican vote (4,388), could easily turn the tide in favor of a new would-be challenger.

That challenger will not be Sherwood. Honestly, any Democrat would be foolish to throw his hat in the ring and siphon votes away from a more moderate Republican candidate who has a better chance of defeating Pearce.

“Russell would like to turn this into a partisan election, and I am not taking the bait,” Sherwood told the Tribune this week. “This isn’t a conventional election where two political parties select candidates. This is Mesa residents stepping forward saying ‘I will serve.’ That’s how I see this. We need a bipartisan coalition to defeat Russell Pearce.”

Sherwood said the ideal candidate would be someone who is plugged into the business world, well known in the community, big on education, and can do some fundraising in a very short amount of time.

“This election is going to happen lightning-fast,” Sherwood said. “In that time frame, you’ve got to do triple the amount of signature-gathering while simultaneously campaigning and fundraising. … This person has to be energetic. They need to be everywhere all the time.”

Thus far, only one little-known candidate has thrown his hat into the ring against Pearce. Tommy Joseph Cattey, a 62-year-old audiologist and registered independent, announced his candidacy last week. Charter schools executive Jerry Lewis has expressed interest and could make an announcement early this week.

All they need is 621 valid signatures from district voters — and the fortitude to run against Pearce, whom many consider the most powerful member of the Republican Party in Arizona.

Armed with that, and the fact that this is a nonpartisan recall election, and anything could happen.

Recall Russell Pearce web sites

• recallpearce.com
• facebook.com/pages/Russell-Pearce-Recall-Election

Run against Russell Pearce and get your legs broken?

Source

Potential Pearce opponent struck in the groin while jogging

by Jim Walsh - Jul. 26, 2011 04:04 PM

The Arizona Republic

A potential candidate in the recall election against state Sen. Russell Pearce was struck in the groin with a padlock thrown from a pickup while he was out jogging, Mesa police said.

Authorities are investigating whether the assault was a random act or politically motivated.

According to a police report on the incident, Jerry Lewis, 54, was jogging with a friend along Brown Road in north central Mesa about 6:30 a.m. and doubled over in pain when he was struck but did not require medical attention.

A white Chevrolet pickup with chrome wheels, pulling a black trailer, sped away. The suspect was described as a White male, 35-40 years old, wearing a black long sleeve shirt with short brown hair.

Sgt. Ed Wessing, a Mesa police spokesman, said police don't have enough information to determine the motivation for the attack.

"Based on the little information we have, I don't know if it's something that was planned," he said.

Wessing said it is unusual for someone jogging or riding a bicycle to be attacked in such a manner early in the morning. He said people sometimes report having objects thrown at them from time to time.

"No, that's not a frequent occurrence," he said.

A friend of Lewis, Daniel Jacobson, found a green and black Master Lock lying near Jacobson shortly after the incident and turned it over to police.

Wessing said police will analyze the lock forensically to see if they can identify any fingerprints or DNA that might help identify Lewis' attacker.

He said neither Lewis nor Jacobson reported a license plate number on the truck and attempts to locate the pickup were unsuccessful.

Lewis is expected to announce Wednesday whether he will run for Pearce's seat in the unprecedented Nov. 8 recall election. Pearce is believed to be the first legislator to face a recall election in Arizona history. Pearce is known nationally for spearheading SB 1070, a controversial anti illegal immigration law, and other immigration legislation.

Tommy Cattey to run against Russell Pearce

First declared candidate enters recall against Pearce; another one likely

Posted: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 3:44 pm

By Garin Groff, Tribune East Valley Tribune

A 62-year-old audiologist is the first declared candidate in the recall against state Senate President Russell Pearce, though he's likely to get company Wednesday.

Tommy Cattey has filed paperwork with election officials and has gathered about 100 of the 621 signatures required to get on the November ballot. The Mesa resident decided to run because of Pearce's signature issue, SB 1070. That law targeting illegal immigrants has since had major provisions put on hold.

"It has been pretty emasculated by the courts. I believe his intention for it is harsh," Cattey said. "We do need to control the borders and it does need to be done in a better way and more humane way."

Cattey registered with the Secretary of State July 17, organizing a campaign that's limited to raising or spending no more than $500. Cattey said he plans to refile soon he can raise more.

He'll likely be joined soon by Jerry Lewis, a charter school executive from Mesa who has scheduled a media event Wednesday to discuss a potential candidacy. Lewis is a Republican and Mormon, a plus in the west Mesa area that is Legislative District 18.

Cattey is a registered independent and an ordained minster. He is retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and has no political experience.

In facing Pearce, Cattey will compete against one of Arizona's most powerful politicians who has waged eight successful campaigns for the Legislature.

Cattey said Pearce's tenure can work against the lawmaker.

"The people I'm talking to will vote for somebody other than Russell Pearce," he said. "His political experience is what at least partially got Arizona in the difficulties that it's in."

Recall organizers have hoped to keep the number of challengers low - perhaps to just one person - to avoid splintering the anti-Pearce vote. Cattey said he's not worried about doing that because he believes he's the best candidate to defeat Pearce.

Cattey has lived in the Valley 57 years and 11 years in Mesa. His organization consists of him and his wife now but will expand soon, he said. Cattey expects to announce endorsements within days. He has a website, www.catteyville.com.

Cattey wants to establish scholarly commissions on immigration and on the economy, then enact what's recommended.

"I can't solve all the problems," he said "I don't have all the answers but I'm going to go to the experts who have the answers."

Ultraconservative Russell Pearce is a hypocrite

I didn't know or remember that Russell Pearce was part of that “Alt-fuels” boondoggle!

"He ... became one of the first lawmakers to sign up for the state-subsidized alternative-fuels program. “Alt-fuels” is considered by some to be the biggest political boondoggle in Arizona history."

And in modern times Russell Pearce accepted $40,000 in kickbacks or bribes from the Fiesta Bowl, opps I mean "campaign contributions", not bribes.

"Pearce has been at the apex of the scandal in which lawmakers took thousands of dollars worth of trips, tickets and more from the Fiesta Bowl"

And of course ex-cop or ex police officer Russell Pearce was fired from his job at ADOT for fixing traffic tickets -

"He was fired by Hull when subordinates were said to have cleaned up the record of a drunk driver, supposedly as a political favor"

I would make fun of Russell Pearce for passing racist SB 1070, which I hate, but I suspect many ultraconservatives are racists who love SB 1070.

Last but not least Russell Pearce is a retired cop and probably is collecting almost $100,000 from his police pension.

Source

E.J. Montini's Column

Don't count out Arizona's political Rasputin

Senate President (and de facto governor) Russell Pearce will not lose his recall election in November, even if the other guy gets more votes.

Pearce has “lost” many times over the years but always manages to survive, even thrive.

He's the Rasputin of Arizona politics.

It's entertaining to see him challenged, first by a committee that gathered enough signatures to force a recall election, now by the solid conservative Mormon candidate Jerry Lewis, but if there is one thing that long-time observers of Pearce know it's that no single defeat has defeated him.

And nothing, yet, has knocked him off the government's payroll.

In the 1990s he worked as Sheriff Joe Arpaio's chief deputy, leaving to take a job with then Gov. Jane Hull, eventually becoming head of the state Motor Vehicle Division.

He was fired by Hull when subordinates were said to have cleaned up the record of a drunk driver, supposedly as a political favor. Pearce claimed to know nothing about it, saying of his dismissal, “That's OK. I understand politics.”

The scandal didn't hurt him.

He got elected to the state House of Representatives and became one of the first lawmakers to sign up for the state-subsidized alternative-fuels program. “Alt-fuels” is considered by some to be the biggest political boondoggle in Arizona history.

Again, Pearce survived the scandal.

He developed his obsession about illegal immigration early on, which caused many to speak of him as a “fringe” politician. It didn't bother him.

He told me that the government should reinstitute a version of the mass round-up and deportation from the 1950s called “Operation (inappropriate term).”

When some people within his own party questioned the offensive reference Pearce told me, "My critics don't like history. They want to rewrite history. I didn't use the term ((inappropriate term)). I quoted a successful program. The far left always tells you, 'Russell, you can't deport 12 million people.' I say, 'Yes, you can, if you have the will.' But I never used the term or referred to anyone like that."

But while he disavowed the term “(inappropriate term)” he embraced the phrase "sissies” when referring to Republicans who weren't sufficiently committed to his immigration agenda.

"These are the same sissies that backed away from Proposition 200 (a 2004 initiative aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting or obtaining state aid),” he told me. “People are tired of that ... (Politicians) don't even know their own constituents. It's about time somebody started stepping forward and recognizing the damage to America.”

Those words didn't hurt him, either. Pearce has taken on all of the Republican bigwigs in Arizona at one time or another. In 2006 he told me, “I didn't take my oath of office to support big business. On something like this (illegal immigration), which is destroying our country, I take odds with my president (Bush). I take odds with (U.S. Sen.) John McCain. I take odds with (Congressman) Jeff Flake. And I tell you, I find their actions almost treasonous. Their failure to do their constitutional duty."

The bigwigs pretended not to notice, at least until Pearce's anti-immigrant message started to catch on. He then went from kook to kingmaker.

Gov. Jan Brewer won her election the moment she signed Pearce's SB1070. She owes him everything and they both know it. That's why she's helping to raise money for his recall election.

Most recently Pearce has been at the apex of the scandal in which lawmakers took thousands of dollars worth of trips, tickets and more from the Fiesta Bowl. Pearce's tab is roughly $40,000.

If he should lose the recall election – or worse, wind up in legal trouble – he'll land on his feet. There always seems to be a government job for Pearce.

He'll blame the enemies of freedom for his trouble. Or the “open borders crowd.” Or “sissies.”

It has worked before. Like he once told me, “If I have to be the punching bag…I'm willing... I make no apologies."

Libertarian Michael Kielsky to run against tyrant Russell Pearce

Mesa attorney enters Pearce recall race

Posted: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:28 pm | Updated: 5:42 pm, Tue Aug 16, 2011.

By Garin Groff, Tribune | 0 comments

The recall targeting state Senate President Russell Pearce has another potential challenger, Mesa attorney Michael Kielsky. He filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State on Tuesday, which lets him begin gathering the 621 signatures required to qualify for the Nov. 8 election. He filed to run as a candidate who will not raise or spend more than $500.

Kielsky previously ran as a Libertarian for Congress and Maricopa County attorney. Kielsky has represented the owners of Angel Tattoo, who sued Mesa in 2009 when the city denied their application to open a shop near Dobson and Baseline roads.

He is the third potential opponent against Pearce, a Republican. Charter school executive Jerry Lewis has begun a high-profile campaign, while candidate Oliva Cortes has done nothing to promote her effort. Audiologist Tom Cattey ended his brief campaign to endorse Lewis.

Jerry Lewis is almost as bad as Russell Pearce!!!

Source

Jerry Lewis files signatures to run against Russell Pearce

by Alia Beard Rau - Aug. 18, 2011 10:32 AM

The Arizona Republic

Mesa Republican Jerry Lewis on Thursday morning submitted 1,187 signatures to the Secretary of State's Office. If at least 621 of those signatures are from valid registered voters in east Mesa's Legislative District 18, Lewis qualifies to run against Senate President Russell Pearce in the Nov. 8 recall.

Lewis said he has received a "very, very favorable response" from Mesa voters.

"They want a new style, new representation," he said. "They want leadership that will represent their issues, their beliefs."

More: More recall election coverage

Members of Citizens for a Better Arizona, which collected the signatures for the recall, have said they do not believe Pearce reflects the goals of District 18.

They say residents want to see their leaders bring more jobs and improve education and health care, not push more legislation on illegal-immigration enforcement such as Senate Bill 1070 and loosen gun restrictions, as Pearce has done.

Lewis called SB 1070 a "good start" but said he would tackle illegal immigration somewhat differently.

"We need to secure the borders," he said. "We need to bring all the stakeholders to the table to find a solution that won't be debated in the courts for the next 20 years . . . and the federal government has to be a major player in this discussion."

Lewis also said that a District 18 senator should focus on other issues of importance to district voters, particularly the economy and education.

There is still a chance the recall election could be halted by the courts.

Pearce attorney Lisa Hauser filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court challenging the 10,365 signatures collected to get the election on the ballot. Last week, Judge Hugh Hegyi denied the legal challenge, but Hauser is appealing that ruling. It will now go before the Arizona Court of Appeals. A hearing has been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 7.

Hauser's legal challenge alleged several problems with the signatures, including that none of the petition forms complied with state requirements that a petition gatherer sign an oath that the signatures are "genuine" and that the recall statement was misleading and did not clearly explain that signing the petition would support a recall election.

All the candidates seem to be moving forward as if the election will happen, including Pearce. He attended a fundraiser in his honor Wednesday night hosted by several major lobbyists.

Pearce has said he will campaign actively "to promote and defend my long record of promoting economic recovery, job creation, balanced budgets, law enforcement and secure borders. I have never lost an election and will fight these outside forces that support lax law enforcement, amnesty and open borders."

Other candidates interested in running against Pearce in the election have until Sept. 9 to collect the 621 signatures required to qualify for the ballot and submit them to the Secretary of State's Office.

Any resident - no matter which party - of District 18 can run. The candidate with the most votes on Nov. 8 becomes District 18 state senator.

In addition to Lewis, Republican Olivia Cortes and Libertarian Michael Kielsky have filed paperwork to begin collecting signatures.

These are some of the signs that the Russell Pearce folks are putting up that are full of lies.

They say

Randy Parraz and his Recall Candidates:

• Oppose the Rule of Law
• Support Open Borders
• Supported by Labor Unions Who Boycotted Arizona

Stand for the Rule of Law * Oppose the Recall

Randy Parraz - a liberal extremist and community orgainzer who supported the boycott of Arizona, supports gay marrage ans is opposed to East Valley values. Paid for by Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall.

Russell Pearce is a liar, slander and hate monger?

It's kind interesting in that cops often make up the biggest, hugest lies. And sadly often it seems the bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe. And of course Russell Pearce is an ex-cop.

I suspect Russell Pearce made up this fib, but he might say he didn't make up the lie, and blame it on "his supporters" who call themselves "Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall".

And remember that Libertarian Michael Kielsky is running in this election. If you want to vote for somebody who thinks ALL drugs should be legal come out and vote for Michael Kielsky.

Source

Russell Pearce foes demand removal of signs

by Gary Nelson - Aug. 20, 2011 06:32 AM

The Arizona Republic

Backers of Senate President Russell Pearce are facing the threat of legal action over signs they have posted attacking an organizer of a recall election that could cost Pearce his job.

The signs were posted this week by Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall.

They say organizer Randy Parraz and any candidate who might oppose Pearce in the Nov. 8 election "oppose the rule of law, support open borders (and are) supported by labor unions who boycotted Arizona."

Parraz said those statements are false. Lawyer Chad Snow, another recall organizer, sent a letter to Pearce and to Matt Tolman, chairman of the committee that posted the signs, demanding their removal.

The signs are the latest indication that the recall election won't be a walk in the park for anyone.

Already, candidate Jerry Lewis has been the target of a phony Twitter account that distorted his political positions before being removed from the Internet this past weekend.

Last month Lewis was hit by a padlock that was thrown by the occupant of a pickup truck while Lewis was jogging in north-central Mesa. Police spokesman, Sgt. Ed Wessing, said no leads have emerged in the case and there is no way to tell whether the attack, which Wessing termed unusual, was politically motivated.

Pearce's challenge to the legality of the recall petitions is moving through the courts. Last week a county judge said the recall committee had complied with Arizona law when it submitted petitions with enough valid signatures from District 18 voters to trigger the election, but Pearce's legal team has appealed that decision.

Tolman said language on the signs attacking Parraz was developed by consultants even before it was known who would run against Pearce.

When asked how candidates could be attacked before their identity was known, Tolman said, "It goes back to our belief that the recall is wrong. It's being used for intimidation purposes only. . . . I'm just opposed to the recall in any way, shape or form."

Recall elections are allowed under the Arizona Constitution, and state law makes no requirements as the grounds for a recall. Past court decisions have ruled that public officials can be recalled even if it's just a matter of constituents no longer agreeing with the office-holder.

"There are baldfaced lies on those signs," Parraz told The Mesa Republic. "Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but they don't have the right to lies." [I feel the same way about that asshole David Dorn who I found out 10 years ago that he was spreading lies about me that I am a government snitch. F*ck David Dorn!]

Parraz said his father was a deputy sheriff for 13 years, so allegations that he opposes "the rule of law" are absurd. He also said he does not favor open borders and did not support calls to boycott Arizona in the wake of Pearce's Senate Bill 1070, a tough immigration measure that is now being challenged in the courts.

Parraz acknowledged that he does support gay marriage, another allegation that is made in smaller type at the bottom of the sign, but that has not been an issue in the recall campaign.

Lewis, for his part, filed nominating petitions Thursday to run in the election and echoed previous statements that the immigration issue must be addressed by securing the border first. Lewis has made no public statements to the effect that he opposes the rule of law or supported the Arizona boycott efforts.

Michael Kielsky, who said this week he also would run in the recall, is himself a lawyer.

Olivia Cortes, another potential candidate, has not responded to queries about her candidacy or policy positions.

Parraz said his committee did not recruit any of those potential candidates.

Snow's letter to Pearce and Tolman demanded immediate removal of the signs and cessation of the allegedly defamatory comments. It threatened legal action if Tolman's group does not comply.

Tolman said he had not yet received the letter but would consider its demands in consultation with legal counsel.

Pearce recall supporters attack 'stealth' candidate

Pearce recall supporters attack 'stealth' candidate

by Gary Nelson - Aug. 25, 2011 09:36 AM

The Arizona Republic

Backers of the effort to recall state Sen. Russell Pearce went public this week with accusations that one of the possible candidates is a Pearce ally who is trying to dilute the anti-Pearce vote.

Olivia Cortes, who filed as a Republican candidate in the scheduled Nov. 8 election, has not responded to media queries about her platform, her reasons for running or what she would do if elected to the Senate.

In contrast, Jerry Lewis, a Republican charter-school executive, has made several public appearances and launched a Facebook page in his effort to unseat Pearce. Michael Kielsky, a Libertarian attorney, likewise has spoken with the media about his candidacy.

Lewis already has filed his nominating petitions; others have until Sept. 9 to file 621 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

Randy Parraz, a leader of the group that organized the recall campaign, said there's a reason for Cortes' reticence.

"We know for a fact that this person Olivia Cortes was a supporter of Russell Pearce beforehand and would not sign the recall petition," Parraz said in a news conference at the Mesa headquarters of Citizens for a Better Arizona.

He said people who have called Cortes and offered to volunteer in her campaign have been told their help is not needed. It appears, he said, that Pearce allies "drafted a candidate that they know is not even running a campaign, just to draw votes away from another candidate to help (Pearce) get re-elected."

Neither Cortes nor Pearce responded to requests for comment on Parraz's allegations. A reporter who went to her central Mesa address this week was told by a woman who said she was Cortes' sister that Cortes was not home and that she did not know when she would return.

Parraz said Cortes' purported candidacy is part of a pattern of unsavory behavior by Pearce's supporters, including a phony Twitter account that targeted Lewis and anti-recall campaign signs that were illegally posted across the Southeast Valley this month.

Mesa ordered the signs removed this week. They can be reinstalled on Sept. 9, but Pearce's backers must include contact information that was left off the original version, in violation of state law.

However code compliance administrator Steve Hether said he was told by Pearce recall opponents that they do not believe the codes apply because they specifically mention primary and general elections, but not recall elections.

Parraz said if Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall leaves the signs up, the pro-Pearce group may face a libel suit. Parraz is the chief target of the signs, which accuse him of opposing the rule of law, favoring open borders and favoring a boycott of Arizona that was launched after Pearce's most famous immigration bill, Senate Bill 1070, became law last year.

Parraz said all those accusations are false and defamatory. "It's a smear campaign on me," he said. Attorney Chad Snow, chairman of the recall committee, said, "It's unbecoming a Senate president, I think, to go after private citizens who just happen to disagree with him politically. We've been very careful not to go after Mr. Pearce personally.... We've stayed away from that. We disagree with his politics."

A political ally of Pearce, Mesa resident Franklin Bruce Ross, has challenged the recall campaign in court. A county judge already has ruled the election can go ahead, but Pearce's team is appealing that ruling. Both sides have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to take the case directly, rather than waiting for a ruling from the state appeals court before considering the matter.

Tom Ryan, attorney for the recall group, said he's confident Judge Hugh Hegyi's ruling will stand. "The standard of review ... is going to be, did this judge abuse his discretion?" Ryan said. "No, he didn't." Ryan said he expects the matter to be resolved in court before election officials must begin mailing ballots in late September.

3 candidates poised to be on ballot

Pearce recall election: 3 candidates poised to be on ballot

by Alia Beard Rau - Sept. 9, 2011 10:02 PM

The Arizona Republic

It looks like there could be three candidates on the Nov. 8 recall ballot in west Mesa's Legislative District 18, and all three are Republican and Mormon: Senate President Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis and Olivia Cortes.

Friday was the deadline for candidates to turn in the minimum 621 signatures from district voters required to qualify for the ballot.

Lewis turned in his signatures weeks ago and added a couple hundred on Friday, bringing his total to about 1,400. Cortes' campaign, which has become enmeshed in controversy, filed 1,177 signatures Friday afternoon.

Pearce, as the candidate facing recall, is automatically on the ballot.

Cortes has been bombarded with allegations that she is trying to run a sham campaign to draw support away from Lewis and help Pearce. She has turned down numerous media attempts to question her about the allegations, as well as requests for more information about her campaign stances.

She did not show up at the Secretary of State's Office to submit her petitions. East Valley Tea Party leader and District 18 resident Greg Western submitted them on her behalf.

Western said he was volunteering with Cortes' campaign "to get some experience" running campaigns. He said Cortes was running to win and denied that she is running to help Pearce. His tea-party group has historically been a strong supporter of Pearce. When asked if he supports Pearce, he answered that he is "helping Olivia."

Western seemed to know little about Cortes' political stances or why she chose to run.

"I know she, as a legal immigrant, would like to have a sensible policy where they can get here more easily and be here legally," he said, adding that he does not know anything about her stance on Senate Bill 1070 or illegal immigration.

Pearce has been a lightning rod of controversy over the past couple of years. He was the primary force behind SB 1070, Arizona's tough anti-immigration law. He has been a strong proponent of expanding gun rights, protecting states' rights and limiting state spending.

Lewis, a former CPA who is now assistant superintendent of the Sequoia charter-school chain, has stressed jobs and education in his campaign efforts. He has called SB 1070 "a good start" but said he supports working with the federal government to secure the borders.

Two other district residents filed paperwork to collect signatures, but neither turned them in by the deadline. Both registered independent Tommy Cattey and Libertarian Michael Kielsky said they were throwing their support to Lewis.

Lewis' and Cortes' positions on the ballot aren't yet guaranteed.

Anyone with concerns about the signatures they collected has until Sept. 23 to challenge them in court. If the court determines that fewer than 621 are from registered voters in the district, they would be disqualified.

The election itself also is not a sure thing.

An attorney representing Pearce filed a court challenge of the signatures that prompted the recall. The Arizona Supreme Court is considering the challenge and could rule on it as early as Tuesday. If the court agrees with attorney Lisa Hauser's challenge, it could throw out enough recall signatures to cancel the election.

If the election proceeds, early voting begins Oct. 13.

Republic reporter Gary Nelson contributed to this article.

Pearce recall race: Kielsky withdraws, backs Lewis

Pearce recall race: Kielsky withdraws, backs Lewis

by Gary Nelson - Sept. 9, 2011 03:47 PM

The Arizona Republic

Mesa lawyer Michael Kielsky announced Friday - less than two hours before the deadline to file nominating petitions - that he is withdrawing from the Russell Pearce recall election.

Kielsky, a Libertarian who has mounted several previous election campaigns, said he reached his decision after several discussions with Jerry Lewis, a Republican who has emerged as Pearce's chief challenger.

The state Supreme Court will confer Tuesday on a lawsuit filed by a Pearce supporter challenging the legality of the recall petitions that were circulated in Mesa's District 18 beginning early this year. If the high court upholds a county judge's ruling that the petitions are valid, the election will occur on Nov. 8.

Pearce, Arizona's Senate president, has been the target of criticism over his governing style and his acceptance of thousands of dollars worth of free tickets and other benefits from the scandal-scarred Fiesta Bowl. He has served west Mesa in the Legislature since 2001.

Kielsky is the second prospective candidate to leave the race and throw his support behind Lewis. Tommy Cattey withdrew last month, saying Lewis has the best chance to unseat the senator.

Kielsky issued a press release that said:

"After several discussions with Mr. Lewis, including a frank exchange of our views of the proper role of government, and specifically the harm that SB1070 has caused to our economy and our civil liberties, and comforted that Jerry and I actually share very similar views there, I've decided that it would be best to exit this election."

Senate Bill 1070 was sponsored by Pearce and became law last year. It was regarded at the time as the nation's toughest state law against illegal immigration, but key portions are now on hold pending federal court review.

Kielsky's release also said, "Mr. Kielsky entered the race to give voice to the Libertarian perspective of individual rights and limited government in this contest. . . . SB1070 was a prime reason for the recall campaign, and I thought it important to have a strong anti-SB1070 voice explain how this law was a grave error in many respects."

He added, "I've decided that it's important that we have a candidate that, like me, stands for liberty and freedom. I believe Jerry Lewis is that candidate. He understands the need for limited government and individual freedoms. Although we don't see eye to eye on every issue Jerry Lewis is the type of candidate that can rid LD18 of a career bureaucrat."

The only other announced candidate, Republican Olivia Cortes, was still collecting nominating petition signatures on Friday. The deadline to file with the Secretary of State's Office is 5 p.m.

Does Olivia Cortes want to split the vote in the Pearce recall?

Does Olivia Cortes want to split the vote in the Pearce recall?

Ever since she took out paperwork in July to run in the recall election against State Senate President Russell Pearce, critics have maintained that mysterious low-profile candidate Olivia Cortes was only trying to get her name on the ballot to split the anti-Pearce vote.

Recall organizers said as much last month. And Cortes, in her only interaction with The Republic to date, didn't deny it, instead using the opportunity to attack recall organizers.

On Thursday, the day before the deadline for turning in nominating petitions, a woman who said she was a paid petition circulator collecting signatures for Cortes added more fuel to the fire.

The woman, who did not give her name, engaged a Republic reporter in conversation as he was leaving Mesa's downtown public library.

The reporter mentioned rumors that Cortes had entered the race to split the vote.

“Right,” the woman said. “Not away from Pearce. To Pearce.”

Reporter: “So she's actually hoping that Pearce will win the recall?”

Circulator: “Right.”

When the reporter said that seemed like an unusual approach to the election, the circulator simply said, “Politics.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Sherwood, Pearce's Democratic opponent last year, posted audio of a strikingly similar, but more detailed encounter on his Facebook page.

The circulator's claims weren't exactly a surprise to recall organizer Randy Parraz, who held a news conference last month to out Cortes.

“She's busted,” Parraz said Thursdsay.

Cortes, in keeping with her apparent policy of not speaking with The Republic, did not respond to requests for comment.

– Gary Nelson

Pearce faces two challengers; Cortes' motives questioned

Pearce faces two challengers; Cortes' motives questioned

Posted: Friday, September 9, 2011 5:32 pm

By Garin Groff, Tribune East Valley Tribune

State Senate President Russell Pearce will face two challengers in the Nov. 8 recall amid accusations one of them is a fake candidate out to split the anti-Pearce vote.

Olivia Cortes filed her signatures with the Secretary of State Friday afternoon, the deadline to enter the race. She joins charter school executive Jerry Lewis.

Unlike Lewis, Cortes does not have a website, hasn't staged events or tried to get any publicity for her campaign.

Recall organizer Randy Parraz said a woman collecting signatures at the Mesa library on Cortes's behalf told passers-by that Pearce supporters would want Cortes on the ballot to dilute anti-Pearce votes. Parraz called Cortes a stealth candidate propped by Pearce supporters. Parraz had an audio recording of the discussion.

"This is really behavior that is not becoming of a senate president," Parraz said.

Cortes did not respond to a phone call or email.

Her petitions were submitted by Greg Western, who insisted that Cortes was "in the race to win" and not simply trying to siphon off anti-Pearce votes that would otherwise go to Lewis.

Western acknowledged he had read published reports that people gathering signatures on petitions for Cortes had said the real purpose was to help Pearce.

"Maybe that's why they were helping her," Western said, adding there might be Pearce supporters among the volunteers and paid circulators who gathered the signatures. "But they don't speak for Olivia."

Western, chairman of the East Valley Tea Party, acknowledged he had recruited Cortes to run in the special election, saying they both belong to the same Mormon church.

Pearce campaign chairman Ed Phillips said the stealth candidate allegations sounded made-up.

"That's absolutely not true," Phillips said. "We don't have anything to do with her. I don't even know who she is. That's her campaign and we're running our campaign. I know nothing about her or her campaign."

Cortes filed 1,177 signatures Friday. It takes 621 to qualify for the ballot. Lewis has filed 1,448 signatures. Pearce is automatically qualified as the target of the recall.

Like Pearce, Lewis and Cortes are Republicans in a west Mesa legislative district dominated by the GOP.

Parraz said he knows voters in legislative District 18 would examine the Cortes signatures and will consider challenging them. A challenge must be filed within 10 days, said Matthew Roberts, a spokesman for the Secretary of State.

Attorney Michael Kielsky had planned to run as a Libertarian but dropped out Friday to endorse Lewis. He said Cortes is trying to dilute anti-Pearce votes.

"I think everybody's pretty clear that Olivia is some kind of a sock puppet for Pearce," Kielsky said.

He backed Lewis after talking about issues including SB 1070, which makes it a crime to for undocumented immigrants to be in Arizona. He said Lewis agreed with him that it needs reform and helps create a police state.

"While I wouldn't call Jerry exactly a Libertarian, he's about as close as you can be to Libertarian and still remain in the Republican Party," Kielsky said.

Pearce has easily been elected to eight two-year terms in the Legislature but became a polarizing figure after SB 1070 was passed last year. But he failed to push through another broad immigration bill this year despite having a super majority of Republican lawmakers. His effort triggered a letter signed by some of Arizona's most powerful business executives, saying Arizona's approach to immigration was hurting the state's image and business climate.

Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.

Everybody does it, so I did it!!!!

Pearce: Fiesta Bowl trips good for Arizona

Senate President Russell Pearce is defending his Fiesta Bowl junkets, telling supporters at a Tea party event last night that he didn’t do anything that plenty of others didn’t do.

(Insert my mother here, with the old “if everybody jumped off a bridge does that mean you would?” speech.)

“Thirty one legislators went. I was not the only one that went,” Pearce said. “We did nothing wrong. We did what we thought was good for Arizona. Nobody snuck around.”

Nothing wrong? No sneaking around?

Really?

Pearce is certainly right that he wasn’t the only one who jetsetted his way across the country on the Fiesta Bowl’s dime, doing what was good for Arizona one Ritz-Carlton stay at a time.

But he was by far the biggest of our junketeers, having collected nearly $40,000 worth of freebies from the Fiesta Bowl. Taking free tickets, despite a law against it. Failing to disclose the all-expenses-paid trips, despite a law requiring it.

The fact that this guy continues to say that he did nothing wrong is astonishing. And it doesn’t bode well for Sen. Ron Gould’s bill – the one that will ban lobbyist gifts to legislators – from getting through the Senate next year.

Assuming, of course, that Pearce is still there.

You can vote for Stalin, Hitler or Mao - Some choice

You can vote for Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis or Olivia Cortes - Some choice

Some choice in the upcoming Russell Pearce recall election.

You can vote for Nazi Russell Pearce.

Or you can vote for Jerry Lewis who is a carbon copy clone of Russell Pearce. A Mexican hating, police state thugs who supports SB 1070 and the police state just as much as Russell Pearce supports them.

Last but not least you can vote for Olivia Cortes, who according to the media was asked by Russell Pearce to run against him, to help Russell Pearce win the election by drawing votes away from Jerry Lewis.

Olivia Cortes despite the media painting her as a carbon copy clone of Russell Pearce has her elections signs up which all have "Si Se Puede" written on them.

I suspect that is designed to convince the voters of Mexican descent that she loves them.

Of course Olivia Cortes probably hates Mexicans just like racist Russell Pearce hates Mexicans.

Russell Pearce was the author of Arizona's racist SB 1070, which wants to run all the Mexican's out of the state of Arizona. And according to the media Olivia Cortes is pretty much a clone of Russell Pearce, so I suspect she hates Mexicans too.

Sadly the only candidate who isn't a police state thug dropped out of the election. That was Libertarian Michael Kielsky. I suspect he didn't get the 600+ signatures required to get him on the ballot.

Why doesn't somebody run as a "write in" candidate?

Well in Arizona the politicians effectively made it illegal for people to run as "write in" candidates.

I say it's "effectively illegal" to run as a write in candidate, because in Arizona, while you can run as a "write in" candidate, you have to jump thru the same hoops as a real candidate to run for office.

Which means a "write in" candidate would have to get the same 600+ signatures to get on the ballot as a "write in" candidate, that real candidates Olivia Cortes and Jerry Lewis got.

The only state that I know has "None of the Above" on the ballot is Nevada. But in Nevada that is a farce. If "None of the Above" wins the election, the human that came in 2nd place still gets to hold the office.

Damn, I guess that is one of the reasons the Founders gave us the 2nd Amendment. Thank God for guns!

Russell Pearce recall is now a mad 54-day dash

Russell Pearce recall is now a mad 54-day dash

by Gary Nelson - Sept. 16, 2011 11:48 AM

The Arizona Republic

With one sparse 23-word sentence, the Arizona Supreme Court fired the starter's pistol this week on a mad political dash that could cost Mesa's most powerful politician his job.

Candidates have 54 days, beginning this morning, to convince voters that Senate President Russell Pearce should either be tossed out of office or be returned to Arizona's Capitol to continue fighting for his signature issues of immigration enforcement, gun rights and frugal budgeting.

It is believed to be the first recall of a Senate president anywhere in the country and the first of an Arizona lawmaker in nearly 100 years of statehood.

Although it is the voters of Mesa's District 18 who will decide, the race has drawn unusual national interest given Pearce's stature as one of the country's foremost and most outspoken opponents of illegal immigration.

It appears the battle will be waged in the trenches, in cyberspace and at the doors of thousands of Mesa residents as campaign volunteers take to the streets.

The candidates, all Republicans:

- Pearce, who at age 64 has been on the public payroll all his adult life and in the Legislature since 2001. [ Hmmm ... so Russell Pearce is a life time government parasite! ] He first served in the House before ascending to the Senate in 2009 and becoming Senate president for the 2011 session.

- Jerry Lewis, 55, a charter-school administrator who said he was talked into opposing Pearce by fellow District 18 conservatives concerned about Pearce's priorities and leadership style.

- Olivia Cortes, who has provided The Republic with no information about her background or reasons for running. She is widely believed to be a Pearce ally whose intent is to split the anti-Pearce vote. Asked directly about that allegation, Cortes evaded the question but did not specifically deny it in an e-mail to The Republic.

The recall campaign began early this year with a petition drive mounted by a group called Citizens for a Better Arizona. The group is led by Chad Snow, a Republican and lawyer from Peoria, and Randy Parraz, a Scottsdale Democrat who is a veteran community organizer and ran last year for U.S. Senate.

Despite its outside leadership, the group's message that Pearce no longer represents the interests of District 18 residents resonated to the extent that election officials certified 10,365 signatures on recall petitions, far more than the 7,756 needed.

A Pearce ally, Franklin Bruce Ross of Mesa, challenged those signatures in court, saying that if the election were to go forward, "irreparable harm will result to the petitioner and all qualified electors of legislative District 18."

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Hugh Hegyi last month rejected all eight claims in Ross' petition. Hegyi said he was reluctant to overturn nearly a century of precedent in which Arizona courts have given wide latitude to people seeking to recall office holders.

The state Supreme Court upheld that ruling this week in a terse order, promising to issue an opinion on the matter later.

Now, the matter heads to the voters.

Ed Phillips, a former TV weather forecaster and state legislator who serves as a spokesman for Pearce, said door-to-door campaigning is under way but declined to reveal much about strategy. [ I guess Ed Phillip is now on my hate list, along with David Dorn and Ernie Hancock! ]

"I would imagine that it would be a fairly traditional campaign," Phillips said.

W. Dea Montague, a Mesa lawyer and one of Lewis' campaign chairmen, said the Lewis effort will be multidimensional.

"We plan to make a heavy move into social media this week, as well as traditional things," Montague said. The campaign is deploying 2,000 small yard signs and planned to post street-corner signs this week.

Montague said Lewis can't afford 4-by-8-foot signs like those that have sprung up for Pearce but thinks "the smaller signs might bring more understanding of our message than a lot of the big ones."

Pancake breakfasts, door-to-door work and meet-and-greets also will be part of Lewis' campaign, Montague said.

"We still believe that 10,000 conversations from neighbor to neighbor and friend to friend are going to be what carries our campaign," he said.

Having to run for his political life in a recall election caps a dismal year for Pearce.

Only last year, he reached a pinnacle with enactment of Senate Bill 1070, which he sponsored and touted as the toughest state immigration law in the country. That moment lost its luster when a federal judge blocked enforcement of its core provisions, pending further review.

Within months of that setback, Pearce was almost denied election as a state party committeeman by dissident District 18 Republicans.

His grip in the Legislature slipped as well. This year, a majority of Republican senators voted against at least one of five new immigration-related bills Pearce was pushing, and all five were defeated. One would have challenged traditional interpretations of the 14th Amendment, which awards U.S. citizenship to all persons born here.

Last spring, Pearce emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of trips, tickets and others benefits handed out to Arizona politicians by the Fiesta Bowl in a scandal that ended John Junker's long tenure as the bowl's chief executive.

The state Attorney General's Office is continuing to conduct a criminal investigation of bowl officials and others associated with the organization. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office, meanwhile, is investigating elected officials who may have improperly received benefits from the Fiesta Bowl.

Olivia Cortes a sham candidate for Russell Pearce?

On one hand I doubt if it's illegal for a friend of yours to run in an election to help you win.

On the other hand if look at Olivia Cortes campaign signs they all say "Si Se Puede", which I suspect she hopes will tell the Latino voters that she supports them. Despite the fact that I have read that Olivia Cortes supports SB 1070 which is the anti-Mexican law Russell Pearce created. Lying? Probably! But politics is so corrupt that one joke says that politicians only lie when their lips are moving.

If you ask me all 3 candidates suck. Russel Pearce is a police state thug. Both Jerry Lewis and Olivia Cortes support SB 1070, and only seem a tiny bit better then Pearce. Kind of like having an election between Hitler, Stalin and Mao and trying to pick the BEST candidate.

Libertarian Michael Kielsky would have been a good candidate, but he dropped out of the race. I suspect he failed to get the 600 required signatures.

Source

Secretary of State asked to investigate Pearce recall candidate

by Alia Beard Rau - Sept. 20, 2011 12:47 PM

The Arizona Republic

A Democratic precinct committeeman in Senate President Russell Pearce's Legislative District 18 is asking the Secretary of State to investigate the campaign of recall candidate Olivia Cortes.

Pearce will face fellow republicans Cortes and Jerry Lewis on Nov. 8 in the first recall of a sitting state legislator in Arizona history. Rumors have run rampant in recent weeks alleging that Cortes is running as a sham candidate to pull votes, particularly from the district's high percentage of Latino voters, away from Lewis in order to help Pearce retain his seat.

Secretary of State's Office spokesman Matt Roberts said that they are looking into the allegations.

Cortes has not responded to numerous media requests asking about the allegations.

Pearce commented on the situation last week.

"I don't know Olivia. I've never met Olivia," Pearce said of that allegation. "Good people that know me may have, but not me. I had nothing to do with it."

Democrat Robert McDonald, a committee precinctman in LD 18, sent the letter. He is asking for an investigation into Cortes' recall campaign and into the group Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall.

He lists several allegations, including:

- Signs for Cortes posted in the district do not include any contact information or list who paid for them, as is required by law. [So what! The law is probably unconstitutional. The First Amendment doesn't make anonymous free speech illegal.]

- Some of the circulators collecting signatures to get Cortes on the ballot "were giving misleading information about why Ms. Cortes and the reasons she is running." [The people that circulate petitions frequently give out incorrect information. That doesn't make it right, but the bottom line is YOU have to READ the petition and know what you are signing]

McDonald in the letter also questions why Cortes is not making herself available to the media and who is funding her campaign.

"The evidence of fraud by Ms. Cortes and others in the Arizona Republican Party in Legislative Districts 18 and 19 as well as the East Valley Tea Party is overwhelming," McDonald said in his letter. "Ms. Cortes is a sham candidate being used by the anti-recall effort to thwart a legally binding and legally obtained recall election against Sen. Pearce."

He called the conduct "outrageous, irresponsible, and most definitely criminal."

Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis to face in forum

Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis to face in District 18 forum

by Gary Nelson - Sept. 20, 2011 05:00 PM

The Arizona Republic

State Senate President Russell Pearce and his chief challenger in a Nov. 8 recall election, Jerry Lewis, will face off in a public debate hosted by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber president Peter Sterling said both candidates have agreed to appear in a forum beginning at 5 p.m. Oct. 6 in the auditorium of the East Valley Institute of Technology, 1601 W. Main St.

A third candidate, Olivia Cortes, is being invited by mail, Sterling said. Cortes has not made herself available to media or in public appearances and has been accused of being a "stealth" candidate aiming to siphon votes away from Lewis.

Pearce, a Mesa Republican, is facing recall in the wake of a petition drive launched early this year by opponents who said he no longer represents the interests of average District 18 residents.

He is most famously known as an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, but Sterling said the chamber got involved because it is more interested in the candidates' positions on economic development and job creation.

"We are on the precipice in Mesa of some pretty exciting things," Sterling said. "We wanted to make sure . . . we knew their positions on all those other extremely important issues."

The chamber typically endorses political candidates who best comport with the business group's views.

But in last year's District 18 Senate race, in which Pearce defeated two relative unknowns, the chamber declined to endorse him.

Charlie Deaton, the chamber's president at the time, said the group's public-policy committee took issue with Pearce's opposition to incentives that might be needed to lure high-wage employers.

"The other thing," Deaton said then, "was there was concern about (Senate Bill) 1070 and its impact on business recruitment. Even though that wasn't an issue that kept them from the endorsement, it was certainly part of the discussion."

Pearce sponsored the controversial immigration law in the Legislature last year.

Sterling said The Arizona Republic and Channel 12 (KPNX-TV) were chosen as media partners because of their longstanding membership in the chamber. The Republic has belonged to the Mesa chamber for 32 years and KPNX since 1953.

Otto Shill, who chairs the chamber's public policy council, will be the moderator. Questions will be asked by Melissa Blasius of KPNX and Joanna Allhands, editorial page editor for The Republic's Southeast Valley community editions.

The auditorium holds only 485 people, so admission will be by ticket, with blocs allotted to the campaigns of each participating candidate.

Negotiations were underway to have the forum broadcast on city cable Channel 11.

"Un voto por Olivia Cortes es un voto por Pearce"

Candidata hispana en medio de controversia

Phoenix, Arizona

por Samuel Murillo - Sept. 16, 2011 09:35 AM

La Voz

"Un voto por Olivia Cortes es un voto por Pearce", aseguró Randy Parraz, fundador del grupo "Citizens for a Better Arizona" (Ciudadanos por un Mejor Arizona), que busca la destitución del actual presidente del Senado Estatal.

Parraz calificó de fraudulenta la candidatura de Cortes, única candidata hispana registrada en esta elección especial, al señalar que ella es parte de una estrategia del movimiento republicano conocido como "Tea Party" que apoya a Russell Pearce.

La estrategia obedecería a que la candidatura de Cortes tiene escasas probabilidades de triunfo pero disminuiría el número de votos recibidos por el otro candidato, Jerry Lewis, quien ofrece hacer una gestión diferente a la que ha hecho Russell Pearce.

La Voz intentó durante varios días obtener una opinión de Cortes pero ésta no respondió a las llamadas y correos electrónicos.

A un mes y medio de la elección, ella y Jerry Lewis son los únicos contendientes que enfrentarán a Pearce en la elección del 8 de noviembre, donde se decidirá el futuro del polémico legislador que ha sido criticado por impulsar leyes antiinmigrantes como la SB1070 que criminaliza a los indocumentados.

"Es una vergüenza que una hispana se preste para atacar a su propia gente", dijo Parraz.

Parraz denunció que el registro de la candidatura de Cortes fue realizado por Greg Western, un miembro del "Tea Party" que trabaja activamente en la campaña para evitar la destitución de Pearce.

Western se presentó 9 de septiembre en la Secretaria de Estado para someter la petición de inscripción de la candidatura de Cortes en la elección especial.

"Olivia Cortes es la única hispana que no quiso firmar para destituir a Pearce, ella es una mormona que está a favor del senador y se está prestando para dividir el voto", señaló el líder de Ciudadanos por un Mejor Arizona.

El grupo de Parraz logró reunir más de 18 mil firmas, de las cuales el Departamento de Elecciones del Condado Maricopa validó 10 mil 365, suficientes para que la Gobernadora de Arizona, Jan Brewer, convocara a una elección especial.

Pearce pasará a la historia como el primer legislador estatal que es llevado a una elección especial de remoción.

Sus detractores consideran que como miembro de la Legislatura y actualmente del Senado Estatal le ha fallado a sus representados al promover una agenda distinta a los intereses de los arizonenses.

El grupo Ciudadanos por un Mejor Arizona inició una campaña exitosa que culminará en la elección de noviembre, donde los electores serán quienes definan el futuro de Pearce.

La controversia sobre la legitimidad de la candidatura de Olivia Cortes surgió la semana pasada cuando partidarios de Pearce, que recaudan firmas para su campaña, afirmaron que "votar por Olivia Cortes es lo mismo que por Pearce".

La estrategia, explicaron los recaudadores de firmas en un video que fue subido al popular sitio de Internet Youtube, es dividir el voto para favorecer a Russell Pearce.

Tras darse a conocer lo anterior, varios reporteros han intentado infructuosamente entrevistar a Cortes, quien pese a ser candidata no cuenta con una página de Internet donde exponga su plataforma política. En diferentes puntos de la ciudad de Mesa, sin embargo, abundan los letreros de su campaña con la leyenda ¡Sí se puede! y "I will represent the people" (Yo representaré a la gente). Parraz mencionó que a partir de este fin de semana cientos de voluntarios de su organización saldrán en busca de los votantes registrados del Distrito 18 de Mesa para informarles de la campaña contra Pearce. Un movimiento paralelo realizará la organización Promesa Arizona.

Contacte al reportero: samuel.murillo@lavozarizona.com

Setting the record straight on Pearce recall

Source

Posted: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 9:00 am

By Robert McDonald, guest commentary

I write this guest commentary to respond to those Russell Pearce supporters who continually make false statements about the recall election, and to set the record straight.

This recall election has nothing to do with a leftist conspiracy or outside interference from California or the Obama Administration or any liberal organization. This recall election has nothing to do with immigration or allowing illegal immigrants to have free benefits or some other wild-eyed accusation.

As a matter of fact, there is outside interference being run but not by the recall movement. Pearce has enlisted help from former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and his organization to stay in office.

Pearce is also trying to enlist national donors to fund his recall coffers to stay in office.

A look at the campaign finance reports from Pearce, which are available online at the Arizona Secretary of State's office, will show that only eight people from Mesa Legislative District 18 donated to his campaign in 2010; the rest were from out of the district and out of the state from places like Alabama.

This recall is about is how Russell Pearce is not representing the majority of LD 18 residents and his job performance as Arizona State Senate President.

This recall is about cuts to education and the mismanagement of state funding.

This recall is about his rigid refusal to fund state employee pensions, huge tax cuts for big corporations in the middle of a huge recession and billion dollar budget deficits.

This recall is about taking thousands of dollars in special interest money from private prisons, which have benefitted from our Legislature during Pearce's reign.

This recall is about the abuse of his power as Arizona Senate President and his inability to work with others who don't share his rigid ideology.

This recall is about how Pearce has embarrassed the state of Arizona and her citizens to a national and international level.

There are many side issues that also reflect on Pearce and those are by his supporters. It is amusing that people like Matt Tolman and the tea party call the recall movement an abuse of power by a minority of citizens and that those who oppose Pearce are against the rule of law.

Let us get one thing straight: Those who claim to follow the rule of law are themselves violating the rule of law.

The law states that it is against the law to put up political signs before Sept. 9, 2011 in Mesa. What happened? Tolman's group placed illegal red signs that targeted a private citizen who is not a candidate in this recall before that date.

The same people who claim to be Christians are breaking a fundamental rule of our faith and that is baring false witness and spewing lies about the recall movement and those who support it.

Those lies are being spread online, in this newspaper and by conservative commentators on the radio. If this is who is trying to keep the status quo, then by all means Pearce deserves to be removed from office.

It just shows the lack of judgment that Pearce has to surround himself with these liars and tricksters.

Many claim that we should run government like a private business. If that is the case, this is Pearce's annual review and it is the recommendation of his employers who are in the majority that he be terminated - much like he was terminated for misuse of his office as Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department.

On Nov. 8, the people will say in a loud voice: "Russell, you're fired!"

• Robert McDonald Jr. is the Mesa 031 Democratic Precinct Committeeman and was a Democratic primary candidate in LD 18 for the Arizona Senate in 2010

Does Russell Pearce Believe in the "Holy Lie"?

Does Russell Pearce Believe in the "Holy Lie"?

By Stephen Lemons

Thursday, Sep 22 2011

The most polite way to say it is that state Senate President Russell Pearce, facing a November 8 recall election in Legislative District 18, struggles mightily with the truth. In fact, he seems to struggle with it anytime he's in front of a camera or a microphone. Pearce, bogged down in a morass of deception, deflection, half-truths, and misstatements of fact.

Most recently, he had a bad time of it on KTAR (92.3 FM) during Jay Lawrence's show. Lawrence is a bit of a softy, and Pearce is his pal, so he didn't exactly go after the Mesa Republican with a claw hammer. But his listeners did, to the extent they were allowed.

In fact, listening to Pearce tout his alleged achievements in public life, I couldn't keep myself from calling in. I was specifically interested in his characterization of his tenure as head of the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division as one in which great strides were made on behalf of the public.

So before I was cut off, I queried the senator about his four years as MVD honcho in the '90s, and asked, "Weren't you fired as the head of MVD for corruption, and wasn't your son, Justin, convicted of handing out fake driver's licenses?"

Pearce interrupted the first part of my question with an absolute, "No." After I finished, Pearce went on to make it seem as if the entire controversy way back when was over his son's wrongdoing.

"I was never connected to [Justin's crime]," he explained. "In fact, the attorney general realized that I had nothing to do with it."

Justin, then 20, was allowed to resign, and later took a plea deal. To the press, he admitted that he had changed the ages on the licenses of four pals so they could "buy beer."

At that time, Pearce had several family members at the MVD, including one other son.

But the flap over Justin was not the reason Pearce was canned as MVD director. And, yes, he was fired in August 1999 by then-ADOT Director Mary Peters, a Republican, who later went on to serve in President George W. Bush's administration as Secretary of Transportation.

Why was Pearce removed? Because, according to press accounts, he and two other MVD officials had been found to have altered a Tucson woman's driving record so that she would not face a one-year suspension of her license due to two DUIs she recently had received.

Apparently, the change was made at the request of a state legislator and then-member of the House Transportation Committee.

When one of the other MVD officials suggested that he and Pearce had been cleared of wrongdoing, Peters told the Arizona Republic, "There's a big difference between being cleared and choosing not to file criminal charges."

It's understandable that Pearce would want to downplay getting kicked to the curb like this, by a fellow Republican, no less.

But his problems with truth-telling extend to numerous other issues.

Take the Fiesta Bowl scandal. Another caller to Lawrence's show asked Pearce about the nearly $40,000 in free football tickets and trips he allegedly took from the Fiesta Bowl. These included trips to Chicago and Boston to watch some pigskin get chucked around. His wife accompanied him on two of his trips. A son on at least one other.

Yet Pearce remains defiant on the matter.

"I never took a penny from the Fiesta Bowl," Pearce responded to the caller. "They've never done a fundraiser for me. I've never called them about doing a fundraiser. I have had no personal benefit from the Fiesta Bowl at all."

And yet Pearce received campaign contributions from ex-Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, Junker's wife, Susan, as well as from Fiesta Bowl execs Anthony Aguilar, Jay Fields, and others.

You don't have to believe me. Look at Pearce's 2010 campaign-finance reports. As for the trips, they're detailed in the Fiesta Bowl's own report on the scandal.

Pearce also exclaimed that Arizona's economy is "growing" and took credit for Arizona's budget being "in the black" for the first time in recent memory.

Now keep in mind that during the supposed reign of government excess that Pearce lays at the door of former Governor Janet Napolitano, Pearce was head of the state House Appropriations Committee. If past budgets were out of whack, he deserves a fair share of the blame. He also bears some responsibility for a 66 percent rise in general-fund spending during the time he was Appropriations Chair in the House.

True, the Arizona Legislature's Joint Legislative Budget Committee recently reported an unexpected rise in revenue that has knocked out a $332 million shortfall that was being carried over to 2012.

But that had nothing to do with anything Pearce did or didn't do.

"The primary reason for the revenue overage is the unexpectedly high 18.5 increase in individual income taxes," the JLBC noted. "Given the lack of job and wage growth, this spurt may have been caused by higher capital gains and the loss of mortgage interest deductions."

Why has there been a loss of mortgage-interest deductions? The "downturn in the state's real estate market" and a "decline in mortgage interest."

The JLBC's July report further states: "The [fiscal year] 2011 rebound appears to be more a reflection of onetime factors than a rapidly expanding economy. It may still take two to four years before the state replaces the jobs lost in the recession and substantially reduces its 'underwater' mortgages.'"

Translation: Arizona's economy still is doing its impersonation of David Hasselhoff's career arc. But, then, you knew that already.

Given the Senate president's contempt for veracity, I find it very difficult to believe his contention on the Lawrence show and elsewhere that he knows nothing of the sham candidacy of Mesa resident Olivia Cortes.

According to paid petition gatherers for Cortes, who were soliciting signatures to put her name on the recall ballot at the main branch of the Mesa Public Library up until the deadline for submission to the secretary of state, the purpose of Cortes' candidacy is to "dilute" the anti-Pearce vote, siphoning it away from Pearce's nice-guy challenger Jerry Lewis, a Mesa Republican and educator.

Cortes, also a Republican, has been hiding out in her small Mesa apartment ever since her name was filed with the SOS as a possible candidate.

Other than an interview she did with me in August, she's effectively dodged the press, even as signs went up around Mesa with her campaign slogan, "Sí, Se Puede," borrowed cynically from the late César Chávez and the United Farm Workers of America.

In that e-mail interview, Cortes denied that she was a pro-Pearce plant, meant to dilute the vote. But that contradicts what paid petition-gatherers were telling me and other reporters, and when it came time for her nominating petitions to be submitted, Cortes didn't show up at the SOS' office.

Instead, it was Greg Western, a Pearce loyalist and chairman of the East Valley Tea Party. Mobbed by the press, Western denied that he had recruited Cortes, but he admitted that they just happened to be members of the same Mesa ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A review of the petition-gatherers' signatures, and the signatures themselves, revealed numerous folks who are squarely in the Pearce camp, including Franklin B. Ross, the "plaintiff" in Pearce's unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to stop the recall, and Pearce's nephew Logan Pearce, among others.

Two GOP precinct committeemen from nearby LD 19, Dan Grimm and Pat Oldroyd, also circulated petitions for Cortes, though at a recent LD 19 meeting, they and other Pearce supporters spoke on behalf of a resolution condemning the recall and supporting Pearce.

As there was no quorum, the resolution did not go to a vote, but Oldroyd was outed at the meeting by Anson Clarkson, Jerry Lewis' campaign manager, who rose in opposition to the resolution, pointing out that Oldroyd actually had come to his door to solicit signatures for Cortes.

LD 19 chairman Wayne Gardner reacted in horror to the news.

"You did that, Pat?" he asked, interrupting Clarkson.

"I did that, Wayne!" Oldroyd shot back, like a character straight out of Harper Valley PTA.

Oldroyd also was heard to protest that what she'd done was not against the law.

"It's not illegal," Clarkson said after the exchange. "But I would question the ethics of someone [who] stands here and is for Russell Pearce — I'm okay with people being for Russell Pearce — but then attempting to game the political system . . . by trying to recruit a shill candidate."

Earlier in the meeting, Gardner read a statement from Republican LD 18 chair Dan Lovell, announcing that both he and the district Pearce was elected from were remaining neutral.

"If you want to help the Republican Party in LD18," Lovell wrote in an e-mail to Gardner and other GOP district chairs, "stay out of our elections in any official capacity."

Lovell further vowed he would not choose among "three Republicans."

I attended this meeting with Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman, and some of the video has been posted to my blog. In one video, we confront Grimm about his work for the Cortes candidacy.

But when we tried to do the same with Oldroyd, we were blocked — by none other than the Senate president's brother, Justice of the Peace Lester Pearce.

Have Cortes and Senator Pearce ever met or talked? I have no idea. But it is clear that Cortes is a plant, supported by Pearce's followers and family members. Which makes it difficult to swallow Pearce's claims of ignorance.

Some are speculating that Pearce will at some point come out and ask Cortes to withdraw from the race, thus making himself seem an honorable man.

This, however, would be an empty gesture, as Cortes' name will remain on the ballot, and presumably her "Sí, Se Puede" signs will remain in place.

How can so many people who hold themselves up as righteous stoop so low? Well, as a friend of mine put it to me recently, they apparently believe in something called the "holy lie." If in the telling of such a lie, victory is secured for a cause deemed "right," then that lie is actually a wholesome, heavenly thing.

And if you buy this and reside in LD 18, maybe you'll vote to keep Pearce as your state senator. On the other hand, your conscience might have a salubrious effect, and you may decide that the "holy lie" still is a lie after all.

State will not remove Olivia Cortes from ballot

State will not remove Olivia Cortes from recall ballot

by Alia Beard Rau - Sept. 23, 2011 11:54 AM

The Arizona Republic

The Secretary of State's Office, which oversees elections, will not investigate allegations of fraud in the campaign of recall candidate Olivia Cortes.

Cortes and fellow Republican Jerry Lewis are on the Nov. 8 ballot to run against Senate President Russell Pearce for west Mesa's Legislative District 18 Senate seat. While Pearce and Lewis have been making numerous public appearances, holding fundraisers and walking neighborhoods, Cortes has evaded the public and the media.

District 18 Democratic precinct committeeman Robert McDonald formally asked the Secretary of State's Office to investigate the campaign amid numerous allegations that she is running as a sham candidate with the intention of pulling votes away from Lewis to help Pearce. Among other things, several supporters of Pearce were among those who collected signatures to get Cortes on the ballot.

"Her campaign doesn't pass the smell test," McDonald said. "How can she afford to put up signs? How can she afford to pay (petition) circulators when she has made no requests for donations, held no fundraisers?"

Cortes has not responded to requests for comment on the allegations. Pearce has said he doesn't know Cortes and had nothing to do with putting her on the ballot, but said others he knows could have.

State Election Director Amy Chan responded to McDonald's investigation request on Friday.

"The matters you refer to as the basis for your complaint are, with the exception of the campaign sign component, practical and policy matters that relate to the manner in which a candidate chooses to run his or her campaign," Chan wrote. "No government official has a role, or legal authority, to dictate how a candidate should conduct his or her campaign."

She said state law allows only the court to remove a candidate from the ballot.

Chan said the state does not require candidate signs to include "paid for by" disclosures, and so Cortes is not in violation of any state sign regulation. Chan said allegations that the signs do not include candidate or committee contact information are a matter of county and city regulation, and suggested McDonald contact Mesa.

Lawsuit challenges candidate in Mesa recall vote

Lawsuit challenges candidate in Mesa recall vote

Posted: Friday, September 23, 2011 9:34 pm

Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - A last-minute lawsuit filed Friday challenges the candidacy of a woman running in the recall election for state Senate President Russell Pearce, accusing her of getting a ballot spot to help Pearce, known nationally for championing legislation against illegal immigration.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of a Mesa woman who supported the recall drive in Pearce's legislative district in suburban Mesa argued that Olivia Cortes' candidacy was organized and financed by Pearce supporters to dilute the vote against him.

It alleged violations of state election and fraud laws, contending that Cortes' candidacy "is a cynical ploy" to take away votes from the third candidate in the race, charter school executive Jerry Lewis.

All three candidates are Republicans.

Cortes supporter Greg Western, a tea party activist who filed her petitions to qualify for the ballot, said he wasn't aware of the suit but he again denied that Cortes' candidacy is a sham. He said previously that Cortes hopes to win.

"I guess we'll have to deal with it, but I don't know how," Western said of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court late Friday, the deadline under state law to file a legal challenge in the recall race.

It wasn't known immediately what impact, if any, the lawsuit may have because Maricopa County started printing ballots late Friday.

That process won't stop without a court order, county elections spokeswoman Yvonne Reed said.

In another development Friday, a website for Cortes' campaign (www.olviacortes.com) went live.

The site said Cortes is a naturalized citizen from Mexico and that she is running "to offer a diverse view and feeling about all immigration aspects. I want every qualified national to be able to get a job in Arizona. They will feel good about themselves as positive contributors to our way of life."

Olivia Cortes isn't any different then any other sham candidate

Hmmm... Montini thinks sham candidate Olivia Cortes isn't any different then any other candidate running for office. He is probably right.

Source

Sham questions about Pearce's 'sham' opponent

My brothers and sisters in the media are asking the wrong question when it comes to Olivia Cortes, who is scheduled to be on the ballot in the recall election of de facto governor and state Sen. Russell Pearce.

The news media and others are asking if Cortes is a "sham" candidate.

It's the wrong question. Mostly because the answer is obvious.

Of COURSE I believe she is a sham candidate. Attorney Tom Ryan, who is trying to have Cortes' name removed from the ballot, points out that she is an avowed Tea Party member, someone who would worship at the altar of Pearce. He points out that supporters of Pearce collected petitions for Cortes and delivered her petitions to the secretary of state. He has filed a long and convincing application for a temporary restraining order with the court.

Based on all we know, Cortes is most likely a plant designed to take some of the Latino vote away from legitimate candidate Jerry Lewis in a cynical attempt to have Pearce keep is job.

So the question isn't whether or not Cortes is a sham.

The question is if being a sham makes her any different from most of the candidates who run for public office?

You know the answer.

Cortes avoids tough questions (or ANY questions), making it difficult to pin down her real motives.

Other candidates -- check.

Cortes is supported by people who call into question her public pronouncements.

Other candidates -- check.

Cortes appears to be lacking qualifications or experience.

Other candidates -- check.

We'd better be careful what we wish for.

If being a "sham" candidate is reason enough to keep someone off the ballot on Arizona we may not have anyone left to vote for.

Lawsuit challenging Olivia Cortes to go forward

Suit challenging hopeful in Pearce recall to go forward

by Alia Beard Rau - Sept. 28, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Although thousands of ballots already have been printed, a west Mesa voter will go forward with her lawsuit challenging the campaign of Olivia Cortes in the Legislative District 18 recall election of Senate President Russell Pearce.

Mary Lou Boettcher and her attorney, Tom Ryan, filed the lawsuit Friday alleging that Cortes is running a fraudulent campaign in an attempt to pull votes away from Republican Jerry Lewis and help Pearce keep his Senate seat. Cortes has for weeks evaded numerous attempts by voters and the media to speak with her about her stance on the issues.

"Campaigns can be as dirty as they want to be, and this one has been," Ryan said. "But elections must be pure. Running a sham candidate is a violation of Arizona's election code."

Ryan said that the state Constitution assures "the purity of elections," and state law makes it a crime to defraud or deceive voters.

The election is Nov. 8, but Maricopa County elections officials said the voting process started over the weekend, when they printed nearly 70,000 ballots and mailed 102 ballots to overseas and military voters.

Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said on Monday that any subsequent action that would change the ballot lineup would be unfair to those early voters. She said she didn't think there was anything Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke could do to pull back the ballots.

Ryan said Tuesday that there are things Burke can do, and the suit will proceed. Burke has scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit for Thursday.

Ryan said he will ask Burke to require the county to reprint the ballots with only Lewis' and Pearce's names on it, and send new ballots to the overseas voters. He said Burke could require the county to give those overseas voters a few additional days past the Nov. 8 deadline to vote with the new ballots.

Pearce said Tuesday at a GOP meeting that he was not involved in getting Cortes on the ballot and that he would not try to stop her campaign.

"Even she has the right to run," he said. "It's her constitutional right."

He called the suit against her a "sham lawsuit" because "you can't file a suit after the ballots have been printed."

Boettcher, a retired public-school teacher and active Republican who has lived in the district for more than 40 years, said she was upset to discover that Pearce supporters and family members had collected signatures to get Cortes on the ballot.

"I believe in doing something right to make sure this election is a fair one," she said.

Ryan was attempting to serve Cortes with the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon. He said if she continued to not answer her phone and door, he will ask the judge for permission to do what's called "alternative service." Ryan said that would allow a deputy sheriff to post the lawsuit on Cortes' door, whether she answers or not.

Cortes last week sent out an e-mail announcing a campaign website and inviting voters to contact her during certain hours of the day if they were interested in helping her campaign. Several calls to the number she provided went unreturned Monday and Tuesday, and Cortes did not answer her door.

District voter Carmen Guerrero said after numerous attempts to reach Cortes, the candidate called her back on Friday.

"I told her I wanted to help, and she said, 'No, I do not need your help,' " Guerrero said. "She hung up on me when I asked her what her education platform was."

Cortes on her website said she does not know Lewis or Pearce, and is running with her own money.

Olivia Cortes: a political newbie and already a legend

Olivia Cortes: a political newbie and already a legend

We are living in legendary times

No, really, we in Arizona are bearing witness to a fanciful era, when fables fairly spring to life right before our astonished eyes.

Think Loch Ness Monster. Think Bigfoot. Think Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Think Olivia Cortes, candidate for the Arizona Senate.

Much like her fellow mythical beings, Cortes is often talked about but rarely, if ever, sighted as she doggedly “campaigns” to defeat Russell Pearce in the coming recall election.

And I use the word “campaign” lightly.

Generally speaking, candidates for public office actually emerge into public view. Generally speaking, candidates are unavoidable for comment, anxious to spread their name far and wide. Cortes, however, ducks reporters, doesn't answer her door and won't respond to e-mails or phone messages.

All we really know about Cortes is that she's a Tea Party plant, a diversion aimed at siphoning minority voters from Pearce's opponent, Jerry Lewis, so that Pearce is assured of a win.

On Thursday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke will hold a hearing on a request to toss Cortes off the ballot. Attorney Thomas Ryan says both Cortes and her handlers are violating the law by attempting to mislead Spanish speaking voters into supporting a sham candidate – support that would actually propel Pearce back into office.

ARS 16-1006 says it's illegal to “either directly or indirectly…defraud an elector by deceiving and causing him to vote for a different person for an office or a different measure than he intended or desired to vote for.

”It's insulting to all of Arizona,” Ryan said. “For a guy (Russell Pearce) who said I'm not afraid, everything he's done to date shows he is very afraid.”

Pearce has denied any involvement in Cortes' candidacy.

“We had nothing to do with it," said Chad Willems, who is running Pearce's campaign. "Russell doesn't know her. We've never met her, never seen her, never talked to her.”

Maybe not, but the fingerprints of Pearce's supporters and even his relatives are all over this thing.

Several Republican strategists told me they don't see a problem, noting that Cortes turned in the required number of signatures to qualify for the ballot. Constantin Querard, who is running an independent campaign in support of Pearce, says the Republicans' involvement with Cortes is no different than Democrats' involvement with Lewis yet the media never said a word about it.

"When the Democrats were going to find a white older LDS Republican male to run against Russell Pearce, I missed the outrage,” said Querard, who denies any involvement in the Cortes campaign.

The difference, of course, is that Lewis, though supported by Democrats, is a lifelong Republican, a Mormon who is actually running a Republican campaign. Cortes seems to be running a diversion.

Consider:

--She, too, is a Mormon and a Republican, yet her campaign signs say “¡Sí, Se Puede!” – the rallying call of the United Farm Workers.

--Her official statement of candidacy lists a phone number for Greg Western, the chairman of the East Valley Tea Party and the guy who turned in her petitions. Meanwhile, the group he chairs recently invited Pearce to speak and urged members to bring as guests as possible, “to show our support for Senator Pearce during this recall election.”

--Her two press releases were written by somebody using the moniker, Paul Revere.

--Two of Pearce's nieces circulated Cortes' nominating petitions.

--So did Franklin Bruce Ross, who sued to stop the recall. And Pat Oldroyd, a precinct committeewoman who Ryan says recently presented a resolution in support of Peace. And Suzanne Dreher, who was caught on tape telling Pearce supporters to sign a Cortes petition because he might lose a one-on-one matchup.

Cortes appears to have no real campaign other than her ¡Si Se Puede! signs and a barebones website (oliviacortes.com). She's announced no positions, other than being for “the dignity of work, the harmony of the family and compliance with the law.”

We'll see on Thursday whether that last one is true.

Cortes, who emigrated from Mexico 44 years ago, said this week in a press release -- entitled “Racism is Alive and Well in Mesa” -- that she will not be intimidated by Lewis supporters who question the legitimacy of her campaign.

“I earned the right to be on the ballot and I intend to win,” she said. “Latinos everywhere should be outraged.”

They should be outraged, that Pearce's people would think them so easily fooled.

Olivia Cortes main web page

oliviacortes.com

Arizona Revised Statutes 16-1006

Source

16-1006. Changing vote of elector by corrupt means or inducement; classification

A. It is unlawful for a person knowingly by force, threats, menaces, bribery or any corrupt means, either directly or indirectly:

1. To attempt to influence an elector in casting his vote or to deter him from casting his vote.

2. To attempt to awe, restrain, hinder or disturb an elector in the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

3. To defraud an elector by deceiving and causing him to vote for a different person for an office or for a different measure than he intended or desired to vote for.

B. A person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of a class 5 felony.

Cortes agrees to take part in Mesa chamber's recall election forum

Cortes agrees to take part in Mesa chamber's recall election forum

Tim Hacker/East Valley Tribune

Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The public will finally get its first look at Olivia Cortes on Oct. 6 after the recall election candidate accepted the Mesa Chamber of Commerce's invitation to participate in a public forum.

Cortes, a Republican, had not responded to several inquiries from the chamber and missed the initial deadline to participate, but she informed the group on Wednesday that she would like to take part.

Since taking out the paperwork in July to run as a candidate in the recall election against State Senate President Russell Pearce, Cortes has not made herself available to the media or the public. She has ignored all interview requests and attempts from citizens to speak with her.

Cortes has been accused of being a "sham" candidate aiming to siphon votes away from another Pearce opponent - Republican Jerry Lewis - after it was discovered that several of the people who circulated signature petitions on her behalf were Pearce supporters and even members of Pearce's extended family.

Pearce himself has denied any involvement in Cortes' campaign.

The forum will begin at 5 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Jack E. Shell Auditorium of the East Valley Institute of Technology, 1601 W. Main St. Tickets, which are free, will be required for admission to the forum. Approximately 500 tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis with preference given to Legislative District 18 voters. Ticket requests can be made via email at forum@mesachamber.org or by phone at (480) 969-1307, Ext. 16.

EastValleyTribune.com will feature an interactive, live blog of the event.

Pearce is facing a recall organized by voters who say he no longer represents their interests. Pearce has become known nationally for his tough stance on illegal immigration and as the sponsor of SB 1070. He introduced several more immigration bills during the last legislative session that were turned down by the Republican-controlled Legislature, in part due to fears among Arizona businesses that they would further hurt the economy.

Here is a copy of Olivia Cortes main web page

It's at: oliviacortes.com

Olivia Cortes for Arizona Senate LD18

My reasons to be in the race for the Senate of LD18

I want to have an opportunity, to bring into this race for Arizona Senator of District 18 my points of view and observation as an Permanent Alien and later Naturalized American citizen for forty years.

I came to this country from a small town by the Gulf of Mexico called Veracruz. I didn't know how my father found his sponsor, but he had worked on the railroad in Chicago as a young man. My widower father started his paperwork for emigration until he sold his business and we moved to Mexico City. After a couple of months, he received his immigration package and explained his plan to us.

After he got settled he worked as a barber and then in a restaurant in Arizona so he could request a petition for us so that we would be together again as a family. He became an artist more than a barber and people came for haircuts from him from far away; one man used to pick up my father in his limousine for a good haircut before a business trip!

After a year and a half passed by and many trips to the American Embassy, we finally received our very own immigration packages. When I was 17, we settled in Mesa because it was a small and very quite town with a low crime rate. This would be a good place to raise a family.

I am for the dignity of work, the harmony of the family and compliance with the law. It gives a good sense of satisfaction, honor and integrity when anyone is in compliance with whatever the requirements of one's country may be. It uplifts us and encourages us to become better people, citizens, and build a better country.

My very first day at Mesa High School, I marveled when a student was asked to offer a prayer. I thought what a beautiful thing to acknowledge and honor God no matter what creed or religion, because in the final analysis we are all sons and daughters of God. [ Looks like Olivia Cortes is also a religious nut job who wants to use government to force her God on us. ]

Immigration

It greatly saddens me to hear news about the loss of the lives of the migrants who perish in the dessert, and to hear of the violations and crimes they suffered by the coyotes.

There are too many other nationalities coming through the border illegally, so I am for controlling it more tightly. [ I am an Uncle Tom who supports SB 1070. Or perhaps better said a Tia Tomas? ] The price is much too high to pay. Life is precious and cannot be replaced. For those who need to have a transition of legal status, they have employers who can sponsor them through a job offer or find a sponsor. .

Arizona's Economy

We desperately need to be creative and innovative in job creation. Bring back our manufacturing. I was privileged to raise my two sons while working in the private sector and so many women were able to raise their children by working in the semiconductor business, some would come as far away as from Superior, Peoria and Glendale Arizona. There are many single women raising their families alone who are in need of employment that offers good benefits.

I am not a politician by trade, but am running for office as a naturalized citizen, an outsider to the regular political process. As a citizen who can exercise her constitutional right to be in the race for the Senate seat for the State of Arizona, I believe in our self-government by our own district citizens. Rule of law is very important to me as a citizen and member of LD18 [ Rule of law is a code word that Russell Pearce and others use to mean supporting the American Police State. If you love the rule of law raise your right arm and loudly proclaim "Heil Bush, Heil Obama, Heil Pearce". ]

I do not know my two opponents at all. [ Really? Swear to God? You don't know Russell Pearce? ] I want to offer a diverse view and feeling about all immigration aspects. [ Supporting SB 1070 isn't a diverse view, it's a racist view. ] I want every qualified national to be able to get a job in Arizona. They will feel good about themselves as positive contributors to our way of life.

No minority citizen should be intimidated against running for public office, especially from interests outside our state who don't even live in our district or even in or state.

I want to help my friends and neighbors where I see the need and I get a good feeling when I see others succeed.

If you live in Arizona, donate to my campaign in support of Truth, Justice and The American Way.

PAID FOR BY ELECT CORTES
PO Box 1031
Mesa, AZ 85201

Tom Ryan Attempts to Boot Olivia Cortes Off the Recall Ballot

Lawyer Tom Ryan Attempts a Hail Mary Legal Pass to Boot a Fraudulent Candidate Off the Recall Ballot

By Stephen Lemons Thursday, Sep 22 2011

Politics is an inherently dishonest profession. By contrast, most religions, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints specifically, mandate that adherents be honest in all dealings with their fellow men and women.

LD 18 recall candidate Olivia Cortes has not been honest in all of her dealings with others, as LDS scripture instructs.

So perhaps it's no great revelation that mass schizophrenia has taken hold of the deeply Mormon, deeply conservative city of Mesa, where the recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce has pitted the natural duplicity of politics against the dictates of the LDS faith.

In Legislative District 18, this conflict is embodied by Olivia Cortes, the so-called "sham" recall candidate placed on the November 8 ballot through the efforts of Pearce's friends, family members, and supporters.

The Cortes campaign's sole purpose, in the words of one of her paid petition circulators, is to "dilute" the vote, sucking support away from Pearce's main challenger, Mesa educator and former CPA Jerry Lewis.

Thus, Cortes' candidacy is a dishonest one, which is highly ironic given that, according to my sources, she was recruited to run by a fellow LDS worshipper in the Mesa ward she attends, East Valley Tea Party chairman Greg Western.

(Note: Both Pearce and Lewis also are LDS, as you probably know already.)

Western, a Pearce devotee, has denied that he recruited Cortes to run, yet he admits to assisting her campaign, and he even had the gall to turn in Cortes' nominating petition sheets to the Arizona Secretary of State.

Cortes has confined herself to her small, modest Mesa abode with a rigor that reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes might have admired, particularly since Cortes, a retired semiconductor worker, lives with her sister and an aged, infirm man some have identified as her brother.

By remaining hidden and dodging the press and members of the public who've shown up at her door, she continues to bolster the grand sham that she is a legitimate candidate.

On one of my recent excursions to Casa Cortes, treks that many newshounds have now mimicked (to my great delight), I spoke with some neighbors and acquaintances.

One gentleman, whose son lives next door to Cortes, offered that she is a "quiet" woman who is getting taken advantage of by the Pearce camp. Two women who live nearby described her as "goofy," saying that she has taken to parking a block away from her residence and rarely going out.

But unless she is mentally deranged or has suffered severe brain injury, I'm not giving her a pass. Though by all accounts she's never been politically active, her cynical campaign signs have boasted the activist slogan "Sí, Se Puede," and a website and press releases in her name have made statements at variance with the truth.

The assertion on her website that she's paying for her campaign seems, well, laughable. Did she pay for the signature-gathering company Petition Pros out of her Social Security check? Ditto her campaign signs and the web design of www.oliviacortes.com?

Sorry, but I doubt she's even had a say in the press releases sent out under her name. One, published on the far right-wing Sonoran Alliance blog, bears the imprint of a seasoned dissembler. In the release, Cortes plays the race card, accusing those questioning her campaign of "racism."

This, when she is supported by followers and family members of the most bald-faced anti-Latino bigot in Arizona history. César Chávez must be doing cartwheels in his grave.

"I gathered and submitted more than 1,000 signatures of people who believe in me," Cortes is quoted as saying in the release. "I earned the right to be on the ballot, and I intend to win. Latinos everywhere should be outraged; we deserve to be represented, and I intend to bring the Latino voice to the Arizona Senate."

Latinos everywhere should be outraged, all right — but at Cortes' participation in this ongoing deceit, not at those who have unveiled the illegitimacy of her candidacy.

Cortes did solicit signatures — and scored 20, by my count. That's far fewer than garnered by Pearce's nieces Shilo Sessions and Megan Sirrine, who also pimped petitions for Cortes. Sirrine netted 24. Sessions got 62.

And, as mentioned, Western submitted Cortes' signatures, not Cortes.

But there may be more than mere falsehood and evasion at work in Cortes' campaign. There may be lawbreaking, as well.

As elections law attorney Tom Ryan suggests in his recent lawsuit against Cortes, seeking to have her thrown off the ballot, the shenanigans Cortes and her backers are involved in could constitute a class-five felony.

Ryan cites Arizona Revised Statute 16-1006, which makes it unlawful for a person "knowingly by . . . any corrupt means, either directly or directly . . . to defraud an elector by deceiving and causing him to vote for a different person for an office or for a different measure than he intended or desired to vote for."

This statute is intended to "secure the purity of elections and guard against abuses of the elective franchise," states Article VII, Section 12 of the Arizona Constitution.

There is case law to back up Ryan's complaint. In 1959, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in Griffin vs. Buzard that a case involving a sham primary candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission could proceed to trial, even though both the primary and general election had taken place.

In that primary, candidate William A. Brooks was recruited to run against incumbent William T. Brooks by the latter's main opponent, A.P. Buzard.

Buzard's intent: confusing voters and siphoning votes from the incumbent.

The court found William A. Brooks to be a "diversionary" and "male fides" (Latin for "bad faith") candidate, and ruled in the plaintiff's favor, despite the fact that Buzard's ploy worked and he was already in office.

In reversing the lower court's ruling and sending it back for trial, the state Supreme Court noted:

"The courts must be alert to preserving the purity of elections, and its doors must not be closed to hearing charges of deception and fraud that in any way impede the exercise of a free elective franchise."

Whether Ryan is successful in this Hail Mary legal pass remains to be seen as this column goes to press. Early ballots have been printed by the county, and a few have already gone out to military and overseas voters, per federal law.

Nevertheless, there is the issue of an alleged violation of A.R.S. 16-1006.

Under Title 16, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has the obligation of enforcing this law.

I asked Horne flack Amy Rezzonico if the AG's Office is investigating or plans to investigate allegations of election fraud relating to Cortes.

"Appears it is being handled in a civil action," she replied tersely via e-mail.

However, Ryan's lawsuit does not preclude the AG's Office from investigating. Indeed, there's more smoke here than in the AG's investigation of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission for possible Open Meetings Law violations.

That AIRC probe began on the basis of reports written in the Arizona Capitol Times' Yellow Sheet and in right-wing blogs. Horne has persisted in it, though his office is conflicted because it represented the AIRC for several months this year, and because Horne has had ex parte communications with Republican AIRC Commissioner Rick Stertz.

Will Horne's office look into the Cortes affair? I'm not going to bust a lung waiting for it, though I suppose the AG may take it on as a whitewash-in-the-making.

See, Horne has endorsed fellow GOPer Pearce's bid to survive the recall. The fix is in, and this fraud on the electorate continues unimpeded.

I know nothing!!!! Olivia Cortes

Source

Cortes denies being a sham candidate in Pearce recall election

by Alia Beard Rau - Sept. 29, 2011 02:17 PM

The Arizona Republic

Recall candidate Olivia Cortes took the stand Thursday to defend herself against allegations that she is a sham candidate running to draw votes away from candidate Jerry Lewis and help Senate President Russell Pearce retain his seat.

"I wanted to offer my points of view as a naturalized citizen, a concerned citizen for the future of Arizona," Cortes said. "I want to serve my community."

She said the accusations about her campaign make her feel "bad."

"I feel they are taking away my constitutional right," she said. "Anybody can run. I'm running to win. I want to win."

During her testimony, Cortes said she is paying for her campaign but admitted she hasn't yet spent any money. She said she does not know who paid professional circulators to collect the signatures to get her on the ballot. She said she also does not know who paid for the signs with her name on it that were put up around West Mesa. She doesn't know who created her Web site.

Cortes said she was not forced or paid to run. She said East Valley Tea Party leader Greg Western is the only one helping her with her campaign and as a political novice, she has left many decisions to him.

Western is scheduled to take the stand later in the day. Legislative District 18 Republican Mary Lou Boettcher filed the lawsuit. Cortes for weeks has evaded attempts by the voters and the media to speak with her about her stance on issues.

She said on Thursday that she wants to improve education and bring more manufacturing jobs and small businesses to the state.

Cortes, who describes herself as a "conservative Republican" but not a member of the tea party, said she has not been a supporter of Pearce in the past.

"I agree with some things. I agree with closed borders because we don't want criminality going on in the south," she said. "But I don't agree on the way that he is on illegal immigration. He's too harsh about immigration."

The election is Nov. 8, but Maricopa County elections officials said the voting process started over the weekend, when they printed nearly 70,000 ballots and mailed 102 ballots to overseas and military voters.

Cortes' attorney, Anthony Tsontakis, called the lawsuit "politically motivated."

"Olivia Cortes is before you because her presence on the ballot constitutes a political threat to Jerry Lewis," Tsontakis told Judge Edward Burke.

He said the legal issues in this lawsuit are ones that should come after an election is held, not before. "My client has not put her name on the ballot with the intent of misleading, confusing or deceiving voters," he said, adding that if voters think there is an issue, they can inform themselves and then vote accordingly.

Boettcher's attorney Tom Ryan argued that it would be too late after the election. And he said this case is unique because Cortes likely won't be the one coming out of this race the winner.

"How do you bring an election charge against (Russell Pearce) when he says he did nothing here?" he asked.

Ryan's case, and the questions he asked witnesses on Thursday, focuses on the allegation that Pearce supporters helped Cortes get on the ballot.

Burke essentially has two decisions to make in this case: Is Cortes' campaign violating the Arizona Constitution and running a fraudulent campaign? And given ballots already have been sent out to overseas and military voters, is there anything he can do about it now?

Ryan is asking Burke to require the county to print new ballots, send them to overseas voters and extend the time those voters have to return them.

More on I know nothing!!!!

Olivia Cortes, Greg Western and Sgt. Schultz

Quick, what do the three of them have in common?

They know nothing, nnnnnnothing.

Like the sergeant on Hogan's Heroes, Cortes, who is hoping to win Russell Pearce's seat in the Senate, and Greg Western, the brains behind her operation, know nothing...

Nothing about who put up the Cortes campaign signs in the colors of the Mexican flag -- the ones that say Si, Se Puede! (The new slogan, apparently, of conservative Republicans everywhere.)

Nothing about who paid a petition company to circulate her nominating petitions. (A petition company that advised pro-Pearce people to sign Cortes' petitions in order to help Pearce's campaign).

And certainly nothing about any scheme to dangle a conservative Republican with a Hispanic surname and a Si, Se Puede slogan before Hispanic voters, in hopes of fooling them into casting their votes for her instead of Jerry Lewis, thereby ensuring that Pearce ekes his way back into office.

The identity of the mastermind -- someone who spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to anonymously provide the wind beneath candidate Cortes' wings -- is, apparently, one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. like what's parked over there at Area 51 and who killed JFK and why in the world anybody would think that Conan O'Brien is funny..

Really.

Cortes and Western got up on a witness stand today, after swearing to tell the truth, and feigned ignorance about the whole thing.

Now, when it comes to Cortes, I actually believe that she has no clue. She came across as a well meaning woman who was thoroughly manipulated by Pearce's supporters in the East Valley Tea Party. She -- who serves as her own campaign chairman and treasurer -- has no idea who put together her website last week on the very day the lawsuit challenging her candidacy was filed. She'd never seen one of the two press releases put out in her name. She has no idea who collected the signatures to get on the ballot or who paid for her campaign signs -- the ones she earlier told the city of Mesa that she paid for herself.

Her answer to virtually every question about her campaign was that Western was handling it.

Greg Western, who serves as chairman of the East Valley Tea Party, was less believable. In fact, I'm guessing he may be relieved they no longer make you swear on a Bible when you testify in court.

This longtime Pearce supporter testified that he was captivated by Cortes' views on immigration (she thinks Pearce is too "harsh") and so decided to abandon his longtime support for the most powerful politican in the Legislature and instead suggest to Cortes that she run for his seat.

As for those mysterious signs and the petition signatures?

"I know somebody paid," Western said, arms crossed in front of him. "I don't know who it is."

Nobody was buying it, of course. Not even the judge.

]"It's a little hard to believe, isn't it, that some Good Samaritan out there did this for Ms. Cortes?" Judge Edward Burke asked Cortes' attorney, Anthony Tsontakis

Cue the crickets from Tsontakis.

Burke said he'll rule by Monday on whether to toss Cortes off the ballot. Weighing on his mind, surely, will be the unprecedented headache it would cause Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborn, given that the election is already under way. Two overseas votes have already been cast.

I don't envy Burke.

On the one hand, Cortes comes across as sincerely believing that she's a candidate -- never mind that she's done nothing to act like one. But who's to say how a candidate must act? And she (or rather, Western) did turn in the requisite number of signatures and was certified for the ballot. So does a judge have the right to say otherwise, just because the political motives that fueled her campaign are suspect?

On the other hand, the only reason she was able to get onto the ballot was because of those motives -- the Tea Party people who her up as a diversion and the invisible people who paid for her signs and even her signatures. I'm pretty sure not a single one of them was motivated by any desire to see Olivia Cortes in the Senate.

This is a tough one. Is it a stain on the purity of elections in our state to take Olivia Cotes off the ballot? Or is it an assault on the electoral process to leave her on?

Like I said, I don't envy the judge.

But whichever way it goes, we've learned a lot about the East Valley Tea Party "patriots" and about Russell Pearce. You are, after all, known by the company you keep.

Cortes tells judge she's in recall race to win

Cortes tells judge she's in recall race to win

Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2011 1:22 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

Olivia Cortes insisted in court Thursday she is in the recall race against Senate President Russell Pearce to win but admitted ignorance about key elements of her campaign.

Cortes said she decided to run in July when it became clear there would be enough signatures to force Pearce to defend his seat. Cortes said she agrees with some of his position, including securing the border

"We don't want the criminality that's going on in the south,'' she said.

"But I don't agree on the way he is about illegal immigration,'' testified Cortes, who was born in Veracruz, Mexico, but said she came to this country legally. "He's too harsh about immigration.''

Cortes conceded, though, she has no idea who paid to hire circulators to get signatures to put her name on the Nov. 8 ballot. And both she and Greg Western, the self-professed brains behind her campaign, said they have no knowledge who paid to erect signs around the east Mesa legislative district urging her election.

Tom Ryan, who is representing those who want Cortes off the ballot, also got several members of the East Valley Tea Party -- people who said they support Pearce -- to admit they had circulated nominating petitions for Cortes to run against him.

And Suzanne Dreher, one of the paid circulators hired to get Cortes on the ballot, testified she told Pearce supporters they should sign the petitions because having her on the ballot would dilute the anti-Pearce vote.

All that, Ryan told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke, proves that Cortes is a "sham'' candidate, part of a fraud on the election process. He wants the judge to strike her name from the ballot, turning the election into a head-to-head race between Pearce and Lewis.

Ryan said it does not matter if the candidate herself knew that she was being used to help Pearce, or if Cortes, who has avoided virtually all media interviews and turned away volunteers, now plans to wage a real race.

"The fraud has already occurred,'' he said. "She would not have been able to get the (nominating) signatures except for the chicanery and skullduggery of the East Valley Tea Party.''

Burke showed some interest in the legitimacy of Cortes' candidacy, questioning her himself at one point. He wanted to know, for example, her views on specific issues.

Beyond immigration, Cortes said she is concerned about social promotion of Hispanic children, being passed from grade to grade without having learned enough to advance.

"They pass them and they say, 'They'll catch up later,' '' she said. "I don't think that's the right process.''

But Burke also wanted to know about those campaign signs.

"I've seen them,'' she told the judge. "But I haven't personally paid for them'' even though she lists herself as her own campaign committee chairwoman and treasurer.

Burke also wanted to know why someone seeking office would refuse volunteers.

"They were trying to infiltrate my campaign,'' Cortes responded, saying that even included "people from my own church.''

And Cortes justified not talking with reporters until the night before Thursday's hearing. She told the judge that when she does agree to speak, it will be "on my own terms.''

Burke seemed astonished by all that professed ignorance by both Cortes and Western, especially over campaign funding, asking Anthony Tsontakis how that could be.

"Honestly, I don't know how to answer that question,'' the lawyer responded.

All of that, however, may not legally matter.

Burke told Ryan that people run for office for all sorts of reasons, even those who know they have no chance of winning.

"And there's nothing wrong with that,'' the judge said. And Burke said it might even be argued that people are free to run even if their goal is to help someone else getting elected.

"What's wrong with that in the final analysis?'' he asked.

"You don't get to mislead voters,'' Ryan responded.

Tsontakis told Burke there's another problem with what Ryan wants. He said there is no law allowing him to remove Cortes from the ballot.

He said state law does allow pre-election challenges when a candidate is unqualified to run for office, whether by virtue of being too young, not a citizen or not living in the district, none of which is alleged here.

And Tsontakis argued that Arizona law prohibits election fraud claims to be filed before an election.

Ryan conceded that, strictly speaking, there are no laws to specifically address his claim that she is a sham candidate and have her removed from the ballot.

But he told Burke that waiting until after the election really is not an answer, especially if what he contends is a vote-siphoning scheme works and Pearce wins. He said the judge has broad powers of "equity'' to right a wrong.

Burke, however, indicated he is not convinced.

"The statutes don't seem to cover this situation,''

A more practical concern is that more than 70,000 ballots already have been printed, 102 of them have been mailed to military and overseas voters and two of those already have been marked and sent back.

Ryan suggested mailing out new ballots with an explanation. And if nothing else, he said Burke can order the vote to go on, but with a court order that ballots marked for Cortes not be counted and that signs informing voters of that be erected in all polling places.

Yes we sham!!!!!!

Secretary of State to investigate Cortes signs

Secretary of State to investigate Cortes signs

The Secretary of State's Office plans to look into the state's most fascinating whodunit.

That is, who paid for Olivia Cortes' campaign signs for the Russell Pearce recall election.

Meanwhile, the city of Mesa this morning removed the signs.

This after, both she and her campaign manager-who's-not-a-manager, Greg Western, testified under oath on Thursday they are stumped about who put out the conservative Republican's "Si, Se Puede!" signs, in colors of the Mexican flag.

"I've seen them but I don't know who put them up," candidate Cortes said.

"We don't know where the signs came from," said Western, who is chairman of the East Valley Tea Party and Cortes' go-to guy on the campaign. "I know there's campaign signs but we didn't pay for them."

So well then, WHO DID?

It seems I'm not the only one who is curious. This mystery has also caught the eye of Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is charged with enforcing campaign finance laws.

"We are going to be reaching out to the Cortes campaign and who Olivia has seemingly placed in charge of her campaign, Mr. Western, to ascertain who and if he has any understanding or know of who put these signs up or printed the signs and paid for them," Bennett's spokesman, Matt Roberts, told me this morning. "Because if they aren't a candidate sign, they are required to have a 'paid for' disclosure and they don’t."

Which is why they were taken down on Friday morning. Christine Zielonka, who oversees code compliance in Mesa, says Cortes notified the city on Thursday that the Si, Se Puede signs are not hers.

"We have removed all of them that were out there today because they do not comply with the state statute," said Zielonka, who is director of the city's Development and Sustainability Department.

State law requires that signs put up by a third party disclose who paid for them and a contact name and phone number. The mysterious Si, Se Puede signs have none of that information. (Can't imagine why.)

Zielonka said the city had earlier been in contact with Cortes about several of the signs that were improperly but never directly asked her if they were hers. Cortes also never volunteered the information.

So, it'll be left to Bennett's office to figure out who really did put up the signs. A canvas of the usual suspect political sign companies should be able to turn up a name.

Meanwhile, Roberts said Bennett, like the rest of us, will be waiting with bated breath in a few weeks to find out who paid for a company to circulate Cortes' nominating petitions.

Cortes testified on Thursday that she was equally clueless about who paid for those signatures, which allowed her to qualify for the recall ballot.

"I never know who was circulating my petitions," she said. "I was told that people would be helping me."

Told, that is, by Western, who in turn testified that he has, too, no idea who paid for those petition circulators.....the ones who were instructed to tell Russell Pearce's supporters to sign the Cortes petitions in order to help Pearce win the election.

Most of Cortes' signatures were collected by the circulations, who were paid by ..... ?????

"I don't know that," Western testified. "I know somebody paid and I don't know who it is."

Constantin Querard, a Republican strategist running one of the two indepdent campaigns in support of Pearce, has said he wasn't involved. We'll see if the other independent committee discloses it on Oct. 27, when campaign finance reports are due.

"If someone has made a campaign finance expenditure and not formed a committee and not disclosed that on the campaign finance report., then that would be a violation of campaign finance law," Roberts said.

Will Cortes controversy bring down Russell Pearce?

Will Cortes controversy bring down Russell Pearce?

It is, if you are Russell Pearce, a Yankee Doodle disaster. A Tea Party scheme that blew up in your face this week, in a patriotic shower of red, white, blue and black ops.

By now everybody knows who and what Olivia Cortes is.

To be kind, a nice woman who seems to believe that she really is challenging one of Arizona's most powerful politicians.

To be real, a stooge used by Pearce's supporters and even some of his relatives to fool just enough voters to allow him to eke out a win in the Nov. 8 recall election.

If there were any doubts about what the heck has been going on in Mesa, Thursday's court hearing blew them to smithereens.

Cortes may, in fact, believe that she's a legitimate candidate. It's just that she doesn't know who's behind the “¡Sí, Se Puede!” campaign signs – the new slogan, apparently, of conservative Republicans everywhere. (“I've seen them,” she testified Thursday, “but I don't know who put them up.”)

She doesn't know who paid for the petition circulators who obtained most of the nominating signatures needed to get her onto the ballot. (“I never know who was circulating my petitions,” she said. “I was told that people would be helping me.”)

She doesn't know who designed her website, the one that went up the day the lawsuit challenging her candidacy was filed. She'd never seen one of her two press releases -- the “racism is alive” piece, written by a Tea Party activist and quoting Cortes as saying Latinos should be outraged at those who question the legitimacy of her campaign.

Olivia Cortes doesn't even know who is working on her campaign, other than one guy.

“I don't know who else,” she testified. “I communicate with him. He communicates with me.”

That would be Greg Western, chairman of the East Valley Tea Party, a man apparently so captivated by Cortes that he abandoned his longtime support for Pearce to persuade her to run against Pearce.

Western says he, too, is mystified about who put up the money for Cortes' signs and petitions.

Meanwhile, neither he nor other Tea Party members – people who circulated her petitions without knowing anything about her -- are aware of any scheme to dangle a conservative Republican with a Hispanic surname before Hispanic voters. A scheme to dupe them into voting for her instead of Jerry Lewis, ensuring that Pearce squeaks back into office.

At least, that was the plan, according to the paid petition circulator who testified Thursday.

“I was told that if people were supporters of Mr. Pearce to tell them go ahead and sign this, that this will help his chances,” said Susan Dreher testified.

And so we come to Pearce, the man who has steadfastly denied any involvement in Cortes' candidacy. Never met her. Doesn't know her.

Apparently, none of his supporters and not even his two nieces who carried her petitions – one while sporting a Pearce sign in her front yard – filled him in.

It is, of course, curious that he could have been so blissfully unaware, and even more so that he doesn't apparently see a problem with what has gone on here.

“She has the right to run, whether they like it or not,” Pearce told reporters on Friday.

No doubt, 40 percent of Pearce's constituents – the ones who would follow him naked down Main Street – will agree. Just as the anybody-but-Pearce crowd – the ones convinced that he has horns and a tail -- will disagree.

But what of those in the middle, ythe ones who will decide this election?

It's difficult to believe that a fair number of them won't be turned off by this ends-justifies-the-means Tea Party tactic, this idea that voters should be manipulated, deceived even, if that's what it takes.

Truth, justice and the American way, they like to say. Is this, then, what it has come to?

I have no idea whether Judge Edward Burke will toss Olivia Cortes off the ballot on Monday. I'm not sure it even matters.

Whichever way it goes, we've learned a great deal about the East Valley Tea Party “patriots” and about Russell Pearce, president of the Arizona Senate.

In fact, I believe we witnessed this week the beginning of the end of the Pearce's political chokehold on this state.

You are, after all, known by the company you keep.

Election officials investigate Cortes signs

Source

State election officials launch investigation into Cortes signs

Posted: Friday, September 30, 2011 5:12 pm | Updated: 5:56 pm, Fri Sep 30, 2011.

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services | 3 comments

State election officials launched a probe Friday to find out who is paying for those campaign signs urging people to support Olivia Cortes in the Nov. 8 special recall election against Senate President Russell Pearce.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said the inquiry started after Cortes, testifying under oath in court on Thursday, said that neither she nor her campaign had paid for or erected the handful of signs that have sprung up around the east Mesa legislative district.

"I seen them," she said. "But I don't know who put them."

Sitting in court was state Elections Director Amy Chan. She, in turn, reported it to her boss, Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

"That (admission) triggered the part of the state law that says if someone other than a candidate's committee puts up signs, they have to disclose on the sign who paid for those signs," Bennett said on Friday. "Once we realized it wasn't her committee that had done so, then the signs became known to us as being in violation."

Bennett said while he can seek penalties against the offending sign erectors, he has no power to take them down.

But they are coming down.

Christine Zielonka, director of development and sustainability for the city of Mesa, said that lack of disclosure violates her city's codes. And some signs, she said, were illegally placed in the public right of way.

"We had just assumed that she was responsible for the signs because she hadn't told us otherwise," Zielonka said. Now, with Cortes' sworn testimony, her staff realizes there is "no responsible party to bring the signs into compliance."

At this point city officials say they have taken down the six signs they have found.

That action may help Bennett unravel his mystery. Zielonka said the city will hold the signs for 10 days, as required by law, to see if whoever owns them wants to claim them.

Absent that, Bennett said his staffers will begin some sleuthing of their own.

He said they will peruse the campaign finance reports of other candidates to see who they have paid to print and erect their signs. Bennett said calls will be made to all of those companies to find out who printed the signs with Cortes' name, a quote attributed to her saying, "I will represent the PEOPLE," and the saying "Si, se puede," which originated with the United Farm Workers and loosely translates as "Yes, it is possible."

The penalty for violating the sign-disclosure law is a fine of three times the amount spent.

Bennett said, though, his office has no independent powers to penalize those who violate the sign-disclosure law. Instead, anything he finds has to be referred to the Attorney General's Office.

There may actually be two violations occurring.

State law does allow groups to spend money on behalf of candidates without their consent.

But these "independent expenditure" committees first have to register with the Secretary of State's Office. And Bennett said there is no record of any committee forming to aid Cortes.

Cortes' testimony came during questioning by attorney Tom Ryan who is representing those who want her name removed from the ballot. He contends she is a "sham" candidate, placed there by Pearce supporters to split the anti-Pearce vote between Cortes and candidate Jerry Lewis.

The inquiry about the signs was part of Ryan's series of questions to her designed to determine if she is a legitimate candidate or simply someone put up by others to aid Pearce.

Ryan is alleging that the real force behind the Cortes campaign is the East Valley Tea Party. But Greg Western, who is both the chairman of that group and working to help elect Cortes, said he, too, has no knowledge of the source of the signs.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke said he will rule on Ryan's lawsuit by Monday.

Olivia Cortes will remain on ballot

Olivia Cortes will remain on ballot in Pearce recall election, court rules

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 3, 2011 02:50 PM

The Arizona Republic

Recall candidate Olivia Cortes will stay on the Nov. 8 ballot despite allegations that her campaign is part of a fraud, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Edward Burke heard arguments last week in the lawsuit filed by a Legislative District 18 Republican alleging that Cortes is part of a sham campaign to draw votes away from candidate Jerry Lewis and help Pearce retain his seat. In Monday's ruling, Burke wrote that no one during the all-day hearing last week "impugned Cortes' honesty or integrity."

"The court finds that she is genuinely opposed to what she believes is Pearce's harsh legislative treatment of and comments about illegal Hispanic immigrants," Burke wrote.

Attorney Tom Ryan, who is representing plaintiff Mary Lou Boettcher in the case, asked Burke to order the county to print ballots without Cortes' name and give overseas voters extra time to return those ballots. Ballots already have been printed, more than 100 have been sent to voters overseas, and two voters in Paraguay have cast their votes and sent them in.

County elections officials have said it would be costly and difficult to reprint and send out new ballots without Cortes' name on them in time to meet election deadlines.

Burke declined to order new ballots.

"Two citizens have already voted. By the time new ballots could be printed and mailed to military and overseas voters, more may have voted," Burke wrote in his ruling. "The court cannot take the chance that any voter will be disenfranchised by its ruling."

In his ruling, Burke did skewer East Valley Tea Party chairman Greg Western, a Pearce supporter who has been helping Cortes with her campaign.

"His testimony that he has no idea who designed, posted, and paid for campaign signs supporting Cortes or who paid the professional circulators is too improbable to be believed," he said. "The court finds that Pearce supporters recruited Cortes, a political neophyte, to run in the recall election to siphon Hispanic votes from Lewis to advance Pearce's recall election bid."

Burke said without the support of Pearce supporters, Cortes would have had no chance of qualifying as a candidate or running any sort of political campaign, but reiterated that the court found no wrongdoing by Cortes herself. He said the courts should not, in most cases, be the final arbiter of the motives political candidates have for running for election.

"Divining candidates' motives and acting on them is more properly the role of the voters," Burke said. "Plaintiff's remedy is through the ballot box and not the courts."

He said the fact that many petition gatherers honestly told signers that signing Cortes' petition would help Pearce makes it additionally difficult for him to find fraud.

Cortes, a 59-year-old Republican and naturalized citizen from Mexico, had avoided the public for weeks. She took the stand in court to defend her campaign. She said she was not a sham candidate, she was not forced to run and she was not paid to run. Like Western, she said she did not know who paid for the signs with her name on them or the petition circulators who collected signatures to get her on the ballot.

"I wanted to offer my points of view as a naturalized citizen, a concerned citizen for the future of Arizona," Cortes said. "I'm running to win."

Western said Monday that he is glad the judge kept Cortes on the ballot.

"We look forward to campaigning," he said. "We're going to hopefully raise some money, get some fliers printed and go door to door passing those out."

He said Cortes is also still planning to participate in Thursday's candidate forum hosted by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

Western said despite the judge's criticism, he stands by what he said in court that he does not know who paid for Cortes' signs or petition gatherers. He said his intentions for supporting Cortes are honest.

"I want to help her get her message out on immigration," he said.

Ryan said he was still reading the ruling.

"It's not a great day for Greg Western, that's for sure," he said.

Oliva Cortes will go back to court Friday

Oliva Cortes will go back to court Friday

Apparently, the court hearings investigating alleged sham recall candidate Olivia Cortes aren't over.

Another hearing has been scheduled for Friday afternoon to allow attorneys to question additional witnesses who may know more about the effort by supporters of Sen. Russell Pearce to put Cortes on the ballot in order to siphon votes from candidate Jerry Lewis and help Pearce.

Cortes and several other witnesses testified in court last Friday. Cortes admitted that East Valley Tea Party Chairman and Pearce supporter Greg Western was her primary campaign volunteer. Several other Pearce supporters said they helped gather signatures to get Cortes on the ballot despite knowing little about her.

Cortes and Western both testified that they have no idea who paid the professional petition circulators who collected signatures to get Cortes on the ballot, or who paid for and installed Cortes campaign signs around west Mesa.

Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke issued a ruling confirming that Pearce supporters did put Cortes on the ballot to help Pearce, and that Cortes could not have gotten on the ballot by herself. But he said there was no finding of wrongdoing against Cortes herself and allowed her to stay on the ballot.

Now, the attorneys who filed the lawsuit against Cortes have filed an additional motion with Burke asking for another hearing.

The motion does not offer details, but just says that there are additional witnesses with information who may not come forward on their own but also would not lie if required to testify in court. The motion ask the court to keep the identities of the witnesses and the information they may have a secret until the hearing to avoid retaliation.

Attorney Michael Wright said the new evidence will show that the Cortes campaign was orchestrated by people with more direct links to Pearce than just a handful of his supporters.

"There is evidence that this scheme to put Cortes on the ballot was orchestrated by Pearce campaign officials," Wright said, declining to offer additional details. "We want it to be fresh and undefiled evidence."

Wright said they will ask Burke to declare Cortes' campaign fraudulent and remove her from the ballot.

The attorneys for both sides had a teleconference with Burke Tuesday morning and the Friday hearing was set.

Cortes' attorney, Anthony Tsontakis, said Tuesday afternoon that he is "looking into what Ms. Cortes wants to do about it."

"We are trying to see if there are some alternatives to having a hearing," Tsontakis said, declining to say what those alternatives may be. "Our position is that whatever evidence they claim to have is not going to change the ruling."

Holy Cow! What the heck is going on in Mesa?

Holy Cow! What the heck is going on in Mesa?

A suspected White supremacist has filed to run for the Mesa City Council. See reporter Gary Nelson's story here.

Though the race is non partisan, Ralph A. Brandt has indicated that he is part of the American Third Position of Grand Forks, N.D. Third Position has been identified by Southern Poverty Law Center as "a political party initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to White rule. The group is led by a coterie of prominent White nationalists. . . . The party has big plans to run candidates nationwide."

So where does a guy who's a member of the White supremacist movement stand on the issues?

Well, Brandt tells Nelson he supports extending light rail and wants to rein in six-figure city salaries.

He also said he opposes the recall of Russell Pearce. His candidacy, he told Nelson, "is my way of standing up and being counted" on the Pearce recall.

Whatever that means...

White supremacist files for Mesa council seat

White supremacist files for Mesa council seat

by Gary Nelson - Oct. 4, 2011 11:26 AM

The Arizona Republic

A member of a White supremacist political party has filed organization papers with Mesa to oppose District 3 City Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh in next year's municipal elections.

Although Mesa's local elections are nonpartisan, Ralph A. Brandt identified the American Third Position of Grand Forks, N.D., as his sponsoring organization.

American Third Position is a political party that was founded in 2009.

Its mission statement says, in part, "The American Third Position Party believes that government policy in the United States discriminates against White Americans, the majority population, and that White Americans need their own political party to fight this discrimination."

"Our party represents the ethnic interests of White people," Brandt told The Mesa Republic Tuesday. "I personally believe that White people are getting the short end of the stick."

Brandt, 62, said he opposes federal rules that affected Mesa's recent redistricting process. In a plan approved Monday by the City Council, District 3 acquired an unusual "L" shape in order to maintain a Hispanic majority in District 4.

On other local issues, Brandt said he favors extending light rail to Mesa Drive - a decision made by the City Council more than two years ago. He also wants to rein in city salaries, claiming that Mesa has about 70 people drawing six-figure incomes.

Brandt also said he opposes the recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa. His candidacy, he said, "is my way of standing up and being counted" on the Pearce recall.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors what it deems extremist political groups, says on its website that American Third Position "is a political party initially established by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to White rule. The group is led by a coterie of prominent White nationalists. . . . The party has big plans to run candidates nationwide."

American Third Position's director is William Daniel Johnson, identified by SPLC as a Los Angeles corporate lawyer who was born in Pinal County and graduated from Brigham Young University.

"As early as 1985, Johnson proposed a constitutional amendment that would revoke the American citizenship of every non-White inhabitant of the United States," SPLC said. He also favored deporting ethnic minorities, including American Indians.

Johnson's political allies have included neo-Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the profile.

Brandt would not be the first far-right candidate to seek a Mesa City Council seat.

In 2006, J.T. Ready finished second in a four-way primary in District 4, but then-incumbent Kyle Jones won the seat outright with a majority of the vote.

Ready was not open about his neo-Nazi affiliations during that race, but he later identified himself with that movement. Pearce was an early political ally of Ready but later disavowed their relationship.

In the statement of organization he filed with the City Clerk's Office, Brand lists his occupation as "computer geek" and his employer as Ted Watkins EA, a Scottsdale accounting firm.

Kavanaugh said he knows nothing about Brandt other than his party affiliation.

"His goal seems to be to qualify his party as a recognized party for state election purposes, so it seems curious he would run for a nonpartisan office with his sponsoring organization being his partisan political party," Kavanaugh told The Republic.

He added, "I have never had any questions or comments from him on city issues or my performance in office during all the time I have served. He has never expressed any interest to participate in any community projects, boards or committees, which is typically where council candidates come from. I look forward to hear what he would do if elected."

Kavanaugh, elected to his third council term in 2008, is running again next year.

Olivia Cortes withdraws from Pearce recall race

Olivia Cortes withdraws from Pearce recall race

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 6, 2011 12:09 PM

The Republic/azcentral.com

With a week to go before early voting begins, candidate Olivia Cortes has withdrawn from the Legislative District 18 recall race. The decision was part of a deal to avoid a Friday court hearing, according to her attorney.

Senate President Russell Pearce will now face fellow Republican Jerry Lewis.

document Cortes' voluntary withdrawal | Recall coverage | Watch Pearce debate live today

The ballots already have been printed, and Cortes' name will remain on the ballot. Signs will be posted at polling places to notify voters that she is no longer a candidate.

Cortes was scheduled to attend a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court on Friday for a lawsuit that alleged the Cortes campaign was a fraudulent effort to pull votes from Lewis to help Pearce.

The judge already had ruled in the case, saying that Pearce supporters did put Cortes on the ballot but finding no fault with Cortes herself. However, Judge Edward Burke later this week agreed to hear additional evidence in the case.

Attorney Micheal Wright said they had additional witnesses that would connect the Cortes campaign with individuals involved with the Pearce campaign.

Cortes attorney Anthony Tsontakis said Cortes' decision to withdraw was a court deal. "The opposing party made my client an offer that if she would voluntarily withdraw from the race, they would vacate the hearing," Tsontakis said.

He said he passed the offer to Cortes, and she called him back and told him to accept. He said she just told him that she made the decision "for personal reasons."

Tsontakis said he couldn't say if or why Cortes may have been concerned about what could have come out in court Friday. He said he never received a witness list, and did not know who may have been called or what information they may have had.

"But at this point, it's a moot issue," he said, explaining that her decision vacates the entire case. Neither Cortes nor her primary campaign volunteer East Valley Tea Party Chairman Greg Western immediately returned calls for comment.

The news of her withdrawal came from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, where Cortes had filed a statement of voluntary withdrawal on Thursday morning. The paperwork does not require her to indicate why she chose to withdraw.

Pearce and Lewis also did not immediately return calls for comment.

Randy Parraz, who organized the recall effort, said Citizens for a Better Arizona will be going out into the community and calling voters to let people know that Cortes is no longer a viable candidate.

"Is there a likelihood that someone will still vote for her? Certainly," he said. "But it's our job now to make that less of a likelihood."

He said polls from two weeks ago indicated Cortes had eight percent of the vote, but even before she withdrew that had fallen to about four percent. He said they hope to get it below one percent.

Cortes withdraws from Pearce recall race

Cortes withdraws from Pearce recall race

Posted: Thursday, October 6, 2011 12:13 pm

Associated Press

A Mesa woman running in Senate President Russell Pearce's recall election has dropped out of the race, halting a legal challenge that claims she was a fraudulent candidate meant to siphon votes from the contest's other contender.

Olivia Cortes filed a voluntary withdrawal with the Arizona secretary of state's office Thursday.

Cortes lawyer Anthony Tsontakis said his client withdrew for "personal reasons" and that she accepted an offer by attorneys for a Pearce critic to cancel a court hearing Friday if she stepped out of the race.

Pearce faces charter school executive Jerry Lewis, a fellow Republican, in the Nov. 8 recall election that resulted from a petition drive. Its organizers said Pearce has been out of touch with district voters' concerns on education, health care and the economy. He denies that and says recall organizers targeted him because of his support for laws against illegal immigration.

Recall supporter Mary Lou Boettcher filed a lawsuit challenging Cortes' candidacy, and a judge ruled Monday that there was evidence Cortes was recruited to run in the recall election to help Pearce by attracting votes that otherwise could go to Lewis.

However, Burke ruled that Cortes could remain on the ballot because she appeared to be sincere, because ballots already had been sent to overseas and military voters, and because any questions about her candidacy should be judged by voters, not the courts.

The challenge was revived when Boettcher's lawyers filed a motion saying they could present new evidence linking the campaigns of Pearce and Cortes.

Burke on Tuesday agreed to hold a hearing Friday, and the Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Cortes' request to block it.

Cortes' name will still appear on ballots because they've already been printed, but her withdrawal means she wouldn't take office if she gets the most votes, said Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office.

Signs will be posted at polling places to notify voters that Cortes no longer is a candidate, Roberts said.

Approximately 28,000 early ballots will be mailed as-is to voters on Oct. 13 under the schedule set by state law, said Maricopa County Election Director Karen Osborne. Those ballots are already in envelopes and it's too late to consider enclosing a notice about Cortes' withdrawal, she said.

Cortes and Greg Western, a tea party activist who previously testified that he helped launch her campaign, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A message also was left for a spokesman for Lewis' campaign.

H. Michael Wright, one of the attorneys for Boettcher, said the offer to end the challenge in exchange for Cortes' withdrawal was originally made and declined last week, before the first hearing. Tsontakis did not say why Cortes ultimately accepted the offer, Wright said.

"Everybody can draw their inferences for it," Wright said. "Obviously it was in her interest or somebody's interest that the hearing not go forward."

Tsontakis asked Thursday if the offer was still on the table, and he accepted it on behalf of Cortes when told that it was, Wright said.

Pearce has denied knowing Cortes, and Pearce's campaign spokesman Ed Phillips has said the campaign was not involved in launching her candidacy.

Wright declined to provide specifics but said subpoenas issued for people to testify in Friday's now-canceled hearing included ones for Western and Lester Pearce, a Maricopa County justice of the peace and brother of the lawmaker.

"I believe that his testimony would have been that he was helping with both the Pearce campaign and the Cortes campaign," and similar testimony was expected from Western, Wright said.

Lester Pearce did not immediately return call for comm

Pearce, Lewis mainly split on immigration enforcement

Pearce, Lewis mainly split on immigration enforcement

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 7, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

The differences between Senate President Russell Pearce and his recall opponent Jerry Lewis aren't vast: Much of what distinguishes the two comes down to tone and illegal-immigration enforcement.

Pearce and Lewis, both Republican Mormons, on Thursday night faced off in the only scheduled debate of the Nov. 8 Legislative District 18 recall election. The debate was held before a rowdy, capacity crowd in the auditorium of the East Valley Institute of Technology in west Mesa.

Candidate Olivia Cortes, who dropped out of the race earlier in the day, did not attend.

The debate was hosted by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, and issues focused on education, business, taxes, the economy and immigration. On most things, Pearce and Lewis differed little.

Pearce has a background in law enforcement and state government. Lewis has a background in accounting, business and education. Pearce describes himself as a member of the "tea party." Lewis describes himself as "a conservative Republican."

Both candidates said they were open to a conversation about whether Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa should remain part of ASU or be somehow separated into its own university. Both support bringing more health-care and technology jobs to Mesa, as well as helping Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport grow. Both said Arizona needs to do more to pay teachers based on their performance.

"We need to make sure our dollars are spent well," Pearce said. "One thing we must do is move our dollars out of administration to the classroom."

Lewis agreed.

"Funding of education has to become a top priority. We need to make sure, though, that those dollars are being used to compensate great teachers," he said.

Both supported reforms that were made this year to the state's retirement system.

"We need to make sure we keep the promises we've made to government employees," Lewis said. "But we also have to make sure we have retirements we can afford."

Lewis said additional reforms could be made. Pearce said the changes made this year have created a "good system."

Neither candidate directly answered a question about whether the state should educate illegal immigrants in public K-12 schools.

Both were strong in their opposition to government regulation of businesses, specifically mentioning the timber industry.

"We have to get out of the way of business," Lewis said. "We need to listen to business leaders and find out what regulations really are not necessary."

Pearce said cutting taxes for businesses is part of that.

"If you want to get out of this recession, you've got to get Arizona back to work," he said. "Get government out of the way."

Both opposed extending the temporary sales-tax hike voters passed last year. Pearce suggested more could be done to continue to keep Arizona in the black by seeking out fraud and abuse in state agencies. Lewis suggested more could be done by growing business in Arizona. Pearce also later mentioned efforts to grow business.

The split between the two candidates came with the discussion of illegal immigration and Senate Bill 1070.

Lewis said immigration laws such as SB 1070 have given the world the idea that Arizona hates minorities.

"We need to change the image we have in Mesa and Arizona," he said. "We are seen as a very unfriendly business state. We are seen as something akin to 1964 Alabama. We need to change that."

Lewis said he will work for a more cohesive immigration-reform plan.

"We need to focus our resources on working with the federal government to solve the problem they created," he said.

Pearce said it is a "myth" that Arizona has suffered from its illegal-immigration efforts.

"Arizona suffers from a great reputation, not a bad reputation," he said.

He said tourism is up and dozens of states are creating their own legislation modeled after SB 1070.

"We're at the front of the parade," Pearce said. "We are doing everything right from jobs to safe neighborhoods. I don't know how much better it can get."

He said that while it's the federal government's job to regulate, it's the state's job to enforce those laws.

"States have the inherent right to enforce the law," he said. "We don't hear the same noise when we enforce our gun laws. We don't hear the same noise when we arrest bank robbers."

At the end of the debate, Lewis told the crowd that he was not a career politician.

"I am a Mesa resident who will listen to you and represent you in a fair way," he said. "But do not mistake my kindness and simple tone with weakness. I know how and when to be bold and when to stand up for conservative principles."

He said he has been told by some that he should have waited until Pearce's current term was up to run against him.

"Our students cannot wait another year for our schools to improve. Our economy cannot wait another year to be fixed," he said. "Mesa's image cannot take another year of the beating it's been taking. We need a fresh voice, a civil tone, a thoughtful perspective to build a better Mesa and a better Arizona."

Pearce told the crowd that he stands by his record.

"We have a constitutionally balanced budget. We lead the nation in school choice. We lead the nation in Second Amendment freedoms. We lead the nation as a state in protecting the unborn. I've been part of all those issues," he said. "States across this entire nation are proud of us and modeling what Arizona had achieved. I've kept every promise I ever made to LD 18."

Pearce, Lewis spar over illegal immigration

Pearce, Lewis spar over illegal immigration

Posted: Thursday, October 6, 2011 8:18 pm | Updated: 9:52 pm, Thu Oct 6, 2011.

Associated Press

Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce and his opponent in a recall election met in their first debate Thursday, sparring over illegal immigration and its financial impact on education and businesses.

Pearce faces charter school executive Jerry Lewis, a fellow Republican, in the Nov. 8 recall election that resulted from a petition drive.

Pearce is known nationally for championing tough legislation against illegal immigration, including SB1070. A federal judge has put key provisions of the law on hold, and Gov. Jan Brewer is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the law and allow it to take effect.

The law would require all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers and requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question people's immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they're in the country illegally.

Pearce defended Arizona's right to enforce immigration laws and argued against a moderator's statement that SB1070 has damaged the state's reputation and cost it millions of tourism dollars.

"Arizona suffers from a great reputation, not a bad reputation," he said. "We've changed the debate in Washington, D.C.

"Enough is enough. We're a nation of laws," he said. "We're a kind people, we allow more people in the U.S. legally than every other developed nation combined, but we have laws and we have a method to come here and that method must be honored and respected, and that's what I expect."

Lewis got equal amounts of boos and cheers after he criticized what he called "piecemeal" and "antiquated" immigration laws and called for a "more humane" way to address the immigration issue in a way that will work.

"Yes, we need to enforce all the laws but we need to make sure those laws are constitutionally vetted and work," he said. "We cannot be the federal government's agents in doing the job that they have to do. If we can focus our energies on first agreeing in our own state what we want, trust me, Washington will listen to us."

Another moderator asked Pearce and Lewis whether they're concerned about Arizona's agricultural industry's chances for survival without immigrant workers, pointing to Georgia and Alabama. Those states have recently passed tough immigration laws that could spell financial trouble for the state's agriculture industry, which relies on immigrant labor to harvest and process crops.

Pearce said he thinks the U.S. should redo its visa system to help meet the growing needs of farmers.

Lewis said agricultural jobs are jobs Americans won't do, but offered no solution to the matter except to generally call for immigration reform.

The organizers of the petition drive that led to the recall election have said that Pearce has been out of touch with district voters' concerns on education, health care and the economy. He denies that and says recall organizers targeted him because of his support for laws against illegal immigration.

Lewis has said he entered the race at the urging of Mesa residents who wanted more emphasis on the economy and education in the Legislature. He's also said that the 2010 law on illegal immigration was a good start toward reform and border security, but broader action on the issue is needed.

Operation Olivia lives on

Source

Cortes out but Operation Olivia lives on

“I'm running to win…Truthfully, I want to win.” - Olivia Cortes, Sept 29

“The dream of having a voice has died.” - Olivia Cortes, Oct. 6

So the curious political career of Olivia Cortes is over.

A streaking star has too soon burned out. It's a shame, really because this woman has to be something of a political genius. Cortes, with no campaign experience, no money and no campaign organization, managed to get 1,077 Mesa voters to nominate her to run against one of the state's most powerful politicians – a guy who is a rock star in that part of town.

And she did it in three days.

Now poor Olivia's dream has died. She withdrew from the recall election on Thursday, just one day before a hearing at which Russell Pearce's brother, two nieces, a close political operative and the owner of a petition company were due to be put under oath to answer questions about how Cortes came to be challenging Pearce.

With her departure goes the opportunity to get to the bottom of what happened here unless someone with subpoena authority decides to investigate.

Attorney Tom Ryan, who challenged Cortes' candidacy, says he believes Friday's hearing would have produced evidence showing that not just Pearce supporters but insiders in the Pearce campaign fraudulently recruited Cortes to run as a diversionary candidate. And that she was in on it. Cortes withdrew on Thursday after the Supreme Court declined to block the Friday hearing from going forward.

Ryan says he now plans to turn over his evidence to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, the Secretary of State's Office and the Attorney General's Office.

The question is, can you count on getting an unbiased investigation? Or, in fact, any investigation?

Jerry Cobb, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, says state law gives the Attorney General's Office jurisdiction. Secretary of State spokesman Matt Roberts says any evidence would be turned over to the Attorney General's Office.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Tom Horne has endorsed Pearce in the recall election.

Horne didn't return my call Friday. I think he's still steamed at me for calling to question his conflict of interest in investigating the Fiesta Bowl fiasco, given that Fiesta Bowl lobbyist Grant Woods co-hosted a Horne fundraiser earlier this year.

Instead, Horne's spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico called to say they haven't received any evidence.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens if, in fact, he does contact us,” she said.

Ryan said that had Friday's hearing gone forward, he would have called Pearce's brother, North Mesa Justice of the Peace Lester Pearce, and his two nieces, Megan Sirrine and Shilo Sessions, who circulated petitions for Cortes. He also would have called political strategist Constantin Querard, who is running an independent campaign in support of Pearce.

“If we were allowed to keep digging, my sense of it all would go right to the top and that means Russell Pearce,” Ryan said.

Querard has told me had nothing to do with Cortes. Lester Pearce could not be reached on Friday.

Pearce, meanwhile, has repeatedly insisted that he knew nothing about what his various relatives and supporters were doing. It defies logic to think that could be true. But if it is, he certainly didn't denounce the scheme to dupe his own constituents.

And he benefits even now. While Cortes is gone, her name remains on the ballot. Signs that she's out will be posted at all polling places. But Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell told me that roughly 70 percent of the vote will come by early ballot. Those 28,800 ballots are already sealed into envelopes, so notice of Cortes' withdrawal can be included before they go out on Thursday. Nor can the office send notice under separate mailing without Department of Justice approval, according to Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne

Which means, of course, that Operation Olivia lives on. Though Cortes won't win, she will bleed votes from Pearce's opponent, Jerry Lewis. Some voters will be scammed by a Hispanic surname and a ¡Sí, Se Puede! slogan, fooled into supporting a candidate who doesn't – and really never did – exist.

To paraphrase a political genius: Their dream of having a voice on Nov. 8 will have died.

Sadly, Jerry Lewis is a carbon copy clone of Russell Pearce

Pearce recall: Jerry Lewis insists he's no puppet

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 11, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Jerry Lewis has some things he'd like to clear up with the voters in west Mesa's Legislative District 18.

First, he's not part of some vast left-wing conspiracy to kick Senate President Russell Pearce out of office in the Nov. 8 recall election. He's not a front for the Mormon Church out of Salt Lake City. And immigration isn't his only issue in the race.

Lewis, a 55-year-old Republican, is running against Pearce in the state's first recall election of a sitting state lawmaker. Although active in leadership with the Mormon Church and various community groups, Lewis has never held political office. He said he was not part of the effort to get the recall election on the ballot, did not sign the petition for the recall and was not coerced to run by those behind the recall effort. He is not being endorsed by the Democratic Party.

"So much wrong information out there is being spread by good people," Lewis said. "That's what's kind of amazing, that people that know better are caught up in this rhetoric. Check out our facts. Find out who I am. I am nobody's puppet."

Lewis was born in California and moved to west Mesa in 1982. He and his wife, Janet, have seven children, ages 13 to 31, and five grandchildren, ages 11 months to 8 years.

He has bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University. He speaks Chinese and runs marathons.

Lewis, a former certified public accountant, is now superintendent and CEO of the Sequoia charter-school chain. He also has worked as a teacher, charter-school principal and in administrative positions with a private development company and a lighting company.

Lewis has served in a variety of civic and church positions, including as vice president of the Grand Canyon Council of the Boy Scouts of America, stake president with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Little League coach and a member of various area school-parent groups.

Lewis has had little political involvement. He did vote in the 2006, 2008 and 2010 primary and general elections, according to county voting records. In 2008, he donated money to the ballot-measure effort to define marriage as being between only a man and a woman.

He has said he was asked to run in the recall election by friends and Republican community leaders in District 18.

"I'm not a career politician," Lewis said. "I had never thought about running, but I have seen the damage come to the reputation of my city and these neighborhoods for the past five years. I've been bothered by it." A more 'civil tone'

Lewis has promised to bring to the Legislature a more "civil tone" and a willingness to listen to all sides. If elected, he said, he would not take a government pension and his first bill would be one that bans lobbyists and special-interest groups from giving free tickets and gifts to lawmakers, referencing the controversy over state legislators taking trips and football tickets from the Fiesta Bowl.

But Lewis' background is not without its own controversies.

He has been accused of allowing a teacher at Children First Academy where he was principal, to take items that had been donated for students at the school and sell them at her garage sale for her personal benefit. The school, formerly called the Thomas J. Pappas school, serves homeless students.

The allegation is part of an ongoing wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by a former school assistant principal against the charter-school company that oversaw the school.

Lewis admitted he gave a teacher donated items to sell at a personal garage sale. He said the school at the time had a lot of excess donated items and it was common to give away items that were not needed for the children, whether it be to other charities or to other families in need.

"The clothing given was all used clothing," he said. "We already had a lot of new stuff filling up our closets. I didn't think there was anything wrong with it."

He said the clothing the teacher took did not sell at the garage sale and was later donated to Goodwill.

Lewis said the only thing of possible value he gave the teacher was an old oak entertainment center.

"It never got sold, and the person brought it back," he said. "We later gave it away." Broad-based focus

Lewis makes it a point to note that immigration is just one of many issues of interest to voters in District 18. It's not typically a topic he brings up on his own when asked about his campaign positions, but he does have a stance on the issue. He said he would have voted against Pearce's Senate Bill 1070 had he been in office when it became law last year.

"We need to focus our resources on working with the federal government to solve the problems they created," he said.

He said Arizona also needs to work with the federal government and other states to develop a more cohesive, comprehensive immigration policy. He said he is against open borders but supports efforts to find ways to help immigrants already in the country illegally who have committed no other crimes.

"We rushed through legislation that ignored other key issues," he said. "Giving people an opportunity to be here with legal documents so they can work and can feel safe is a good idea. The free market demands a workforce. And what do all these laws on the books do to the separation of families?" Eye on local issues

The most common question Lewis has been asked while on the campaign trail over the past few weeks is: "Why are you running?"

"We've had enough of this lack of representation," Lewis said. "We need to put behind us all of the sideshows and get about representing the interests of the people of Mesa."

Lewis said he has no personal agenda and will instead focus on what he has heard district residents are concerned about: education, jobs, the economy and immigration. He said his background in private business and education will help him do that.

"I would not have cut education for the third year in a row," he said. "Education is our future." He said he would work to develop programs that pay teachers based on their performance.

Lewis said he supports decreasing regulation on private business, particularly in industries such as logging. He supports reducing the corporate-income tax and business-property taxes. He said the sales-tax hike approved by voters last year was needed, but he will work to make sure it is a temporary tax as promised. He said the key to the state's financial future is business.

"If we can eliminate the poor image that vexes our city and state and attract more businesses, we can grow our way out of this problem," he said.

Russell Pearce loves being a racist police state thug

Russell Pearce stands by service record

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 12, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Senate President Russell Pearce doesn't apologize for the controversial stands he has taken on key issues in Arizona.

He sponsored Senate Bill 1070 and has become a national symbol for illegal-immigration enforcement, pushing for "attrition by enforcement," or using laws to encourage illegal immigrants to self-deport. He has led successful efforts to loosen gun laws in Arizona, as well as increase restrictions for abortions.

He also has become the first sitting state Senate president in U.S. history and the first sitting state lawmaker in Arizona to face a recall. On Nov. 8, voters in west Mesa's Legislative District 18 will decide whether to allow Pearce to keep his Senate seat or to replace him with political newcomer Jerry Lewis.

Pearce bristles at accusations made during the effort to get the recall on the ballot that he has focused on his personal agenda as opposed to fighting for the needs of voters in District 18. In recent weeks, his campaign has reminded voters that Pearce, a Republican, helped push through a budget this year that cut $1.1 billion in state spending, as well as a job bill that contained about $538 million in tax cuts and incentives.

"I've kept every promise I ever made to LD 18," he said. "We have changed the course of America through LD 18 in the state Legislature of Arizona."

Pearce, 64, is a Mesa native.

"I've never abandoned where my mom chose to have me," he said. "I love Mesa."

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix.

He and his wife, LuAnne, have five children and 13 grandchildren. They also have custody of three of their young grandchildren.

Pearce has no trouble admitting he often is called upon for baby-sitting duty and recently pushed his 10-month-old granddaughter along in her stroller while campaigning in the neighborhoods. He tears up when talking about them, describing his granddaughter's smile and how his grandson wakes him up each morning with kisses on his arm and news that the sun is up and they should be, too.

"My favorite job in town is to be a grandpa," he said. "That's what life's about."

Pearce has worked as a public servant almost all his adult life. He worked for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for 21 years, starting as a deputy and moving up to chief deputy under Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He was shot in the line of duty in 1977.

"I love putting bad guys in jail," he said. "I loved my law-enforcement career." [ Ask him. He love busting pot smokers and stealing their homes and bank accounts with the draconian RICO laws. ]

He later worked as a justice of the peace, then director of the state Motor Vehicle Division for three years. He was fired by Gov. Jane Dee Hull in 1999, after he and two aides were accused of altering the drunken-driving records of a Tucson woman so she could keep her license. Pearce denied involvement. The Attorney General's Office investigated the incident but determined it was a personnel issue and not a criminal matter.

Pearce served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008, then moved to the Senate in 2009. He was elected Senate president by his fellow Republican senators last year.

His tenure in leadership has been fraught with controversy, from limiting media access and allowing senators to carry firearms on the Senate floor to being named among the state lawmakers who took football tickets and trips from the Fiesta Bowl.

He defends the football trips.

"It brought us a national championship, and every time that game is played, it's a $250 million economic benefit to the state of Arizona," he said. "We did what we thought was the right thing to do for the state of Arizona." Immigration stance

Pearce has gone out of his way during the recall election to promote his positions on education, jobs and the economy. But when the subject comes up, Pearce doesn't hesitate to reiterate his view on immigration.

"I refuse to apologize for demanding our border be secured and our laws be enforced," Pearce said. "Citizens have a constitutional right to be protected from those who break our laws."

Pearce, a Mormon, denies that his stance on immigration conflicts with that of the Mormon Church, which supports immigration reform that includes programs that allow illegal immigrants to continue working in the U.S., as opposed to enforcement-focused measures like SB 1070.

"Any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God," reads an official church statement released in June.

"There is no conflict with what we're doing," Pearce said. "Their job is compassion; our job is enforcement."

He said the laws he supported have decreased violent crime, decreased the number of illegal immigrants in public schools and improved public safety. He said dozens of states are following Arizona's lead, which has helped Arizona's reputation, not hurt it.

"Arizona suffers from a great reputation, not a bad reputation," he said. "Arizona is to be proud." Jobs and education

Pearce said two other important issues in District 18 are quality job creation and education.

"Increasing quality job creation is our Number 1 job," Pearce said.

He said to do that, government needs to provide a "business-friendly tax and regulatory environment." He cites the job bill as a major step in that direction.

"Is it enough? No. Does it kick in fast enough? No," Pearce said. "But it's a good start. If you want to get out of this recession, you've got to get Arizona back to work. Get government out of the way."

The budget Pearce supported this year cut $148 million from K-12 education. But he said he's proud of his record on education.

"We love education. We've done great things on accountability," he said. "We've pushed school choice to give parents the right to choose their children's education."

Pearce said he would support requiring more of every education dollar to be spent in the classroom and cutting administrative expenses. He supports accountability programs that financially reward the best teachers and principals. He would like to see failing public schools closed.

Revenue is up this year, and the state is supposed to have a surplus. Pearce said he hopes that means more drastic budget cuts won't be needed next year. He also said he hopes it will help the fight to continue lowering taxes.

Pearce said he will not support using that money to restore budget cuts to education or social programs.

"We can't spend that money," he said. "It's got to go into a lock box."

Pearce opposed the passage of the half-cent-per-dollar sales-tax hike Gov. Jan Brewer supported and voters passed in 2010. He said he will fight to make sure the tax is temporary, as promised, and ends in 2013.

"We are overtaxed and overregulated," he said. "We can get by without that tax increase."

Pearce reiterated that he is proud of his record of service and that he will continue the same work in the future.

"We're doing everything right, from jobs to safe neighborhoods," he said. "I don't know how much better it can get.

Russell Pearce loves free tickets to football bowls

Mesa's District 18 will decide fate of Sen. Pearce, Arizona

Mesa's District 18 will decide fate of Sen. Pearce, Arizona

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 13, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

The future of Arizona's legislative leadership lies in the hands of about 70,000 registered voters who live within a 25-square-mile area in west Mesa.

Legislative District 18 is believed to be the first in the country to participate in a recall election of a sitting Senate president. The Nov. 8 election will decide the fate of Russell Pearce, one of the most influential state politicians in the nation.

If voters re-elect Pearce, much of the control over what becomes state law will remain in his hands for at least one more year. If they replace him with Jerry Lewis, the Senate will have to appoint a new Senate president, who will decide which bills get public hearings and are voted on in the Senate. The Senate president also plays a key role in developing the state budget each year.

The influence Pearce commands in Arizona politics is no secret. He was nicknamed the Shadow Governor after his anti-illegal-immigration legislation, Senate Bill 1070, helped win Gov. Jan Brewer an additional four years in office.

As the author of SB 1070, he has become an international voice for tough illegal-immigration reform, which is, in large part, why he now faces recall. If Pearce loses his seat, it will be a blow to the anti-illegal-immigration movement, which this year got dozens of tough immigration measures passed in states across the country.

Over the past 30 years, Legislative District 18 has transformed from a community of White, Mormon and Catholic middle-class families to one of the most ethnically diverse districts in the state.

The area that has served as a conservative stronghold for Arizona Republicans since its inception includes the city's historical downtown, the state's first Mormon temple, the East Valley's first mall and Mesa Community College.

More recently, property values have plummeted and foreclosures and rentals have increased, creating a growing group of younger, lower-income residents with fewer ties to the community and very different priorities.

What has remained constant is the strong influence of the Mormon Church and the district's older, conservative, longtime residents who are most likely to vote.

Demographic changes

A furniture-store sign on Country Club Drive near Southern Avenue reads, "Se habla Español." Nearby, a large billboard advertises Corona beer in Spanish.

The district's Hispanic population has grown to 43 percent, according to the U.S. census. Other minority groups also have grown. Residents have mixed feelings about the changes.

"I don't have a problem with immigration. I wouldn't be here without it. But I don't see a problem with doing it the right way," said Karen Norman, 59, who has lived in her home for 39 years. "It's so evident here. Parts of Mesa are like little Mexico."

Down the street, Victoria Yeldon, 24, has lived in her home for two years. She and her husband have an 8-month-old son. She volunteers at a local shelter.

"We never see gangs or bad kids or any vandalism," she said. "I feel safe here."

She said many people in the district, including many illegal immigrants, are just trying to make a better life for their families.

Religious diversification

Once mostly Mormon and Catholic, west Mesa is now a broad mix of religious views. But like the white, steepled Mormon gathering places called stake centers that can be found every couple of miles, the religion continues to dominate district values.

There are an estimated 29,000 Mormons, including children, in District 18, according to church leaders, representing about 17 percent of the district's religious population.

The elected officials who represent the residents of District 18, from the mayor to the U.S. representative, are White, male, Mormon and over age 40. Pearce fits that demographic, as does challenger Lewis, a former stake president who oversaw several thousand area Mormons.

The church's official stance is that it does not tell its members whom to vote for, and members say they are not being told whom to support in this recall.

But there have been individuals at church functions in the district trying to garner support for Lewis. And the church has been public in its support of immigration reform more along the lines of what Lewis supports, which includes programs that allow illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States, as opposed to enforcement-focused measures Pearce supports, like SB 1070.

But individual members have their own views.

Lisa Alatini, 39, a Mexican-American Mormon mother of four and a hospital secretary, said she votes for candidates with strong family values and particularly those who oppose gay marriage and illegal immigration.

"If you aren't a citizen, you don't belong here," she said. "My grandmother worked really hard to get everybody here legally."

Joyzelle Curtis, 52, a Mormon stay-at-home mother of 10, has lived in the district for 16 years. She said she knows Lewis and Pearce and likes things about both of them. But she said she'll likely vote for Pearce because she opposes the recall. She said if voters are tired of Pearce, they can vote him out in November.

"I think Jerry Lewis is a great man, and I would love to see him run at another time," she said. "Mr. Pearce could do a whole lot more if he could focus on his job instead of this recall."

Behind the recall

Pearce first ran for the Legislature in 2000 and has never lost an election. Since winning a competitive primary in 2008, he has been deemed practically unbeatable in a district where many voters feel strongly about illegal immigration.

In 2008, some of the most powerful Mormon families in the state tried to oust Pearce with a candidate of their own: U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake's brother-in-law, Kevin Gibbons, a Mesa immigration attorney.

That election, as with the recall, was effectively a referendum on Pearce's strong stance on illegal immigration. Gibbons promised to bring a more civil tone to the Legislature. Pearce promised to continue to push illegal-immigration legislation.

Gibbons had the backing of the agriculture and business communities that opposed employer-sanctions regulations pushed by Pearce. Pearce had the support of residents who had grown increasingly angry at the changes in their community and the suffering economy, many of whom blamed an influx of illegal immigrants.

Pearce won, and in 2010, no Republican ran against Pearce in the primary.

The recall effort, led by a group called Citizens for a Better Arizona, which said it wanted a senator who focused more on jobs and education than illegal immigration and guns, began shortly into Pearce's current term.

The group got enough signatures from registered voters in Pearce's district to get the recall on the ballot. Lewis was not part of the recall group. He said he decided to run once the recall was set because he was concerned the district wasn't being well-represented by Pearce.

Tony Zeh, 40, a photographer and gulf-war veteran, finds himself regularly in the minority in the district. He's pro-choice and believes civilians shouldn't own handguns.

"Most of the people that get out and vote here are elderly, Mormon and less-educated," Zeh said. "Their value systems are stuck."

Lewis and Pearce, he said, are conservative and "against my platform."

Mike Burges, 65, said he's "not particularly happy" with Pearce but is concerned about the unknowns of someone new. He said neither candidate is focusing enough on jobs.

"We need real living-wage jobs," he said. "Fast-food jobs don't cut it. Service-industry jobs do not create wealth. We need more manufacturing."

Voter turnout

About 61 percent of the district's approximately 116,000 residents over age 18 are registered to vote. Of those, only 48 percent cast a vote in the 2010 general election.

Half of those who voted in the district during the 2010 general election were Republicans, about a quarter were Democrats and about a quarter were independents, according to Luis Heredia, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. About 14 percent of those who voted were Hispanic. Nearly 57 percent of those who voted were 50 or older.

Experts say younger, lower-income and minority residents are not typically strong voting populations. Nor are the more transient residents likely to live in apartments or rental homes.

"Who votes? Middle-aged homeowners, LDS," said Zach Smith, a politics professor at Northern Arizona University. "Those are the people who come out in much higher numbers."

Steve Meixner, 27, a software engineer, has lived in the area for two years. He said he wasn't familiar with the recall election. He said there has been too much focus on illegal immigration and is more interested in local issues such as funding teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Nicholas White, 43, a landscaper and father of five who has been renting a house for the past few months, said he has similar concerns. He wasn't familiar with the recall and said he wasn't sure whom he may vote for.

"We need jobs," he said, "and Medicaid and Medicare for the elderly."

Rodolfo Espino, an assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University, said the lack of voter interest in the district is also about a lack of competitive elections. In a district with such a strong Republican turnout, candidates of other parties have little chance and Republicans often win by wide margins.

"That doesn't draw voters to the polls," he said.

Santiago Luna, 44, a landscaper, said that is part of the reason many Latinos don't vote.

"The Mormon community has very good control of the area and kind of dictates what goes on and how it goes on," he said. "Unfortunately, the votes of the minority can't do much against the majority. They are frustrated." Finding the votes

The outcome of the recall will depend on which candidate gets the support of the most influential Mormon leaders, as well as whether less-traditional voters break the mold and show up and vote, local election experts say.

Pearce has the endorsement of several influential Mormon state lawmakers, Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Democratic and Latino groups are going door to door in the community to register more Latinos to vote. Democrat Randy Parraz, who helped organize the recall effort, said they've registered close to 900 new voters since January.

"A significant number of those are Latino voters," he said.

And he said in a race that could come down to a few hundred votes, those new voters could have significant impact.

"Most of the polls are showing a dead heat," he said. "Every vote is going to count."

Pearce and Lewis have already begun spending weekends walking neighborhoods and gathering with small groups of residents to garner votes and raise money.

Early voting begins today.

Cortes-gate Unravels

Cortes-gate Unravels, and All Arizona Needs Is a Prosecutor Willing to Do His Job

By Stephen Lemons Thursday, Oct 13 2011

I had an interesting conversation following the recent debate between state Senate President Russell Pearce and his recall opponent, Republican Jerry Lewis, at Mesa's East Valley Institute of Technology. Pearce, the Godfather: Can you really believe he knew nothing of the Olivia Cortes scam?

As I was speaking with Pearce's brother Lester, a Justice of the Peace, and listening to him apologize profusely for angrily grabbing freelance newshound Dennis Gilman's video camera just before the forum, a tall gent walked up and said something snide to me about my columnizing.

He identified himself as Summit Consulting's Chad Willems, a Republican political operative who is managing Pearce's campaign along with the notorious Chuck Coughlin of High Ground Public Affairs, the man who pulls Governor Jan Brewer's strings.

Willems is no slouch, either, as he runs Sheriff Joe Arpaio's well-funded re-election campaign.

His presence lent me the opportunity to ask him about a meeting that Lewis' campaign manager, Anson Clarkson, stumbled upon weeks back. This, before sham candidate Olivia Cortes was forced from hiding and made — through the pro bono efforts of attorneys Tom Ryan and H. Micheal Wright — officially to withdraw her candidacy

Clarkson thought he was going to a Tea Party function in Mesa but was told by Willems that the coffee klatch actually was a campaign meeting for Pearce.

At the meeting, Clarkson told me, were (among others) the senator, Lester Pearce, Willems, and Greg Western, the East Valley Tea Party chairman responsible for recruiting Cortes to run as a diversionary candidate, meant to siphon votes away from Lewis.

When I asked Willems about this gathering, he played dumb at first. But then I turned to Lester Pearce and reminded him that he was there, which he freely admitted. Willems then had to own up to being present, too, though he said he didn't remember meeting Western.

"I don't believe I talked to Greg Western," Willems said. "I know the name. I met about a hundred people that night. It was my first Tea Party meeting . . . I'm a North Scottsdale guy; it was the first one I've ever been to."

I asked Willems whether he knew about Western and his Tea Party pals' putting Cortes on the ballot.

"Not until I read it in the paper," he claimed.

Was the Cortes candidacy discussed at this meeting?

"Not that I know of," Willems said. "I was outside loading up signs. [The Tea Party people] said they were taking care of internal business at their meeting. And after that, we were the guests there. We walked in and told them we needed their support."

Nevertheless, Willems confessed that he did ask Clarkson to leave because Pearce's campaign strategy was on the agenda.

Russell Pearce has denied knowing anything about the Cortes candidacy, in spite of the fact that his friends and family members circulated petitions for Cortes.

Perhaps he does have some "plausible deniability." When the Tea Partiers discussed "internal business," Willems and Pearce supposedly waited outside. Quite convenient.

I then wondered about Willems' unique political partnership with Constantin Querard, the guy running an independent expenditure committee on behalf of Pearce and the guy whom many believe ultimately was behind the Cortes effort — though Querard has denied this.

"We usually work on opposite sides," Willems told me, adding, "I'm a Republican consultant. He's a consultant. He's got his candidates. I run mine. Often times, we're at odds. I know him; we're not friends. He's not the kind of guy I'd go and have a beer with."

And yet I suspect that all these political consultants — Willems, Querard, and Coughlin — are well aware of the shenanigans perpetrated by various members of the Pearce campaign.

It's also tough to digest Pearce's denials. After the debate, Pearce was surrounded by members of the news media. Like Willems, he said he learned of his supporters and family members' shilling for Cortes by reading the newspaper. He said he confronted his nieces, who circulated Cortes petitions, and they broke down in tears.

What about Constantin Querard's bag of dirty tricks?

In a private Facebook message from July, first exposed by Channel 12's Brahm Resnik, Querard sought to recruit LD 18 "patriots" to run in the recall election.

Querard later told Resnik he was attempting to recruit Democrats to run, though it makes no sense that he'd ask this of fellow Republicans. And in any case, Querard has operated a pro-Pearce independent expenditure committee, Arizona Deserves the Best, since February. He is prohibited by state statute from coordinating his activities with candidates.

This explains Pearce's slithery replies to my questions.

"Constantin Querard is not working on my [behalf] — that I know of," he said after the debate.

I pointed out that Querard had challenged signatures in favor of the recall, submitted by Citizens for a Better Arizona.

"I didn't organize that. He may have. You're asking if I know?" Pearce shot back as I pressed him.

"Does he have a direct connection to Olivia Cortes?" I asked.

"Ask him," Pearce said. "I don't know."

It should be noted that Querard has crowed about his access to Pearce in the past, and previously, Pearce has been overheard telling a supporter to contact Querard to help out with vetting opposition signatures.

"If laws were broken in the Cortes affair, should they be enforced?" I inquired of the state Senate president.

"If laws were broke, I'm a believer in the rule of law," he said. Pearce, the Godfather: Can you really believe he knew nothing of the Olivia Cortes scam?

"Even if it involves members of your own family?" I wondered.

"My family didn't break any laws," he replied.

Pearce, his brother, his nieces, and his Tea Party allies probably believe this Cortes business will blow over. After all, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has endorsed Pearce's re-election bid, and Horne so far has refused to look into Cortes-gate.

Yet the Arizona Secretary of State's Office dutifully is investigating the provenance of Cortes' mysterious campaign signs, and if evidence of wrongdoing is discovered, it will turn the matter over to the AG, who, you can anticipate, will sit on it 'til Judgment Day.

This is the many-tentacled octopus of corruption that is Arizona. And it is the reason such obvious election fraud is countenanced.

Recently, when I phoned Petition Pros owner Diane Burns to ask who paid her for her signature-soliciting services in the Cortes campaign, she seemed shocked.

"It's all over with, isn't it?" she asked.

Still, she declined to tell me who paid her, and she denied Querard was involved, though she had dropped the name "Constantin" when I confronted her in early September as she gathered signatures for Cortes outside the Mesa Public Library.

Tom Ryan had subpoenaed her to appear at a second hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court, but the hearing was canceled after Cortes dropped out. That is, he had tried to subpoena her. Burns purposely evaded direct service of the subpoena, according to Ryan. (Ryan says Querard similarly evaded service.)

When I queried Burns about having dodged Ryan's private detective's attempt to hand her a subpoena, she hung up.

Other sources have suggested that Cortes, as dumb as she appeared on the stand before Judge Edward Burke, was aware that her purpose in running was to split the vote, even though she stated under oath that she was "in it to win."

Western has bragged openly of recruiting Cortes to run for Pearce's benefit, and he admitted that Cortes knew what was what, these sources say.

"Cortes maintained that this was her way of serving her country, by helping Pearce," one source remembered Western stating.

Mike Wright, Ryan's co-counsel and a Lewis supporter, recently penned an op-ed titled "Mesa's Watergate," which you can read on my Feathered Bastard blog.

He observes that the lawsuit he and Ryan brought against Cortes "served as a tool to remove a sham candidate" and that case law has held that running a diversionary candidate is in violation of the Arizona Constitution.

Moreover, Arizona Revised Statute 16-1006 makes it a class 5 felony to defraud a voter by "corrupt means or influence."

The actions of those in the Pearce camp make it plain that they knew they were doing something wrong.

"The fact that there are secret conspiring actors who are unquestionably supporters of Russell Pearce," Ryan's co-counsel writes, "and that they [choose] to remain anonymous, tells us that they recognize that what they have done is illegal or at least embarrassing."

Wright's the lawyer, but I think the emphasis should be on "illegal," as I don't think those in Pearce's craven crew are capable of embarrassment.

On the other hand, they might be afraid of breaking the law or, more likely, getting caught breaking the law — if Arizona's Attorney General had an inkling of doing the right thing.

Coughlin, Willems, Querard, Cortes, Russell Pearce, and the rest should be under the hot lights of a state investigation for their involvement in Cortes-gate. That they're not is something all Arizonans should be ashamed of.

De la Isla: Dirty tricks in a recall election

De la Isla: Dirty tricks in a recall election

Posted: Thursday, October 13, 2011 4:06 pm

Guest commentary by Jose de la Isla | 12 comments

HOUSTON - When The Arizona Republic asked state Senate President Russell Pearce in a questionnaire why he thought he was getting recalled, his answers was unequivocal.

He wrote that "liberal special-interest groups" from outside his district were using "still undisclosed sources" of funds and had "organized and purchased many signatures" to require the Nov. 8 recall election.

Pearce, the architect of Arizona's reprehensible anti-immigrant law, may just as easily have been talking about himself and his own tactics, except, of course, for the word "liberal."

His bill, now synonymous with his name, came about after he was elected to the state Senate and became president of that body in 2010. He ranked as one of the state's most influential political figures.

But on July 8 Secretary of State Ken Bennett certified a petition to recall Pearce, and the governor was notified to set an election date for the state Senate district east of Phoenix. The petition drive was spearheaded by Citizens for a Better Arizona, forcing Pearce to resign or become a candidate in the recall election. He chose to run again.

In its bill of particulars, the recall group (www.citizensforabetteraz.org) claimed Pearce's illegal immigration proposals were conjoined with his advocacy for private prison companies. That special interest "has showered him with thousands of dollars in campaign contributions" in turn for millions of dollars in contracts by privatizing incarceration.

Citizens for a Better Arizona claimed that Pearce, since 2002, has introduced or has helped pass 13 bills favoring the private prison industry. The group won the issue by getting enough signatures on its recall petition to show there are widespread popular objections to Pearce's representation of the district. It also claims that the anti-immigration bill was drafted with the help of Corrections Corp. of America. The so-called "anti-immigration" law might in fact have been a pro-incarceration law.

Pearce is said to have unsuccessfully proposed three bills to entirely privatize the state prison system and he "directed" the state to contract 11,450 new private prison beds. He sponsored the FY 2012 budget, with a $10 million increase for the state prison system while cutting education and health care by $1 billion.

As Senate Appropriations Committee chairman in 2010 and Senate president in 2011, Pearce was willing to let Arizona become the first state to end its children's health insurance program and allow 36,000 poor children to lose coverage.

He helped lead an effort to balance the state's budget by ending Medicaid for 310,000 low-income adults and allowed Arizona to lose $7 billion annually in federal funding. The governor and the legislature rejected most of the cuts Pearce supported. But the 2012 Medicaid enrollment freeze Pearce sponsored will keep health-care coverage from hundreds of thousands of poor Arizonans for years.

It was only natural that two candidates like Republican Jerry Lewis and Olivia Cortes would arise to challenge Pearce in the recall election.

Cortes withdrew on Oct. 7 and the following day, Maricopa County Superior Court disclosed Cortes had been recruited by Pearce forces to spit the opposition. Pearce's relatives had been involved in the collection of signatures to get Cortes on the ballot.

Judge Edward Burke's court agreed with Lewis. Pearce had recruited Cortes "to siphon Hispanic votes from Lewis to advance Pearce's recall election bid."

In other words, it was a dirty trick. It was deceptive but the court didn't find it illegal.

Since the ballots for the election have already been printed, a notice will inform voters on Nov. 8 of Cortes' withdrawal from the race.

In a real sense, the dirty trick may stick. With Cortes' name still remaining on the ballot although she has withdrawn, the net effect may still be to siphon votes from Lewis.

Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. Email him at joseisla3@yahoo.com

Jerry Lewis & Russell Pearce sling the mud

And after SB 1070 I am embarrassed to live in Arizona. Hell I am even embarrassed because I live in the same state as that Nazi Russell Pearce!

Sadly Jerry Lewis is just as bad as Russell Pearce and this election is kind of like an election between Hitler, Stalin and Mao, you don't want to elect any of them to be your government master.

Source

Pearce recall mailer is deceptive, officials say

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 21, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's Office are investigating a political committee sending anti-Russell Pearce and pro-Jerry Lewis mailers.

Citizens United for Progress has sent at least four mailers to voters in west Mesa's Legislative District 18 within the past couple of weeks. Lewis is running against Senate President Pearce in the Nov. 8 recall election for that district's Senate seat.

The political committee appears to be an independent group and is not part of Lewis' campaign.

The committee is not properly registered with the Secretary of State's Office. It also has not reported its spending on the mailers to the state. State law requires an independent group to file a report any time it spends more than $2,500 for or against a candidate.

"They need to come into compliance with campaign-finance law," said Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office. "We have mailers we believe would have been in excess of $2,500, and these entities would need to report that."

The committee is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission as a non-profit. Arizona State University undergraduate Justin Tash is listed as the director. An ASU Tempe UPS-store mailbox is his only contact information. The committee also lists the UPS address on the mailers.

Tash did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Mailers of this type can cost about $10,000 per batch to print and send. The four mailers are clearly intended to support Lewis:

• One looks similar to information sent out by elections officials. It tells voters that Olivia Cortes is no longer a candidate in the election, although her name will remain on the ballot. Cortes bowed out of the race amid allegations that she was put on the ballot by Pearce supporters to pull votes away from Lewis.

• Two tout Lewis' stance on education and jobs.

• One declares Pearce "part of the problem" and mentions the Fiesta Bowl trip scandal and the Cortes campaign effort.

This week, State Election Director Amy Chan sent Citizens United for Progress attorney Steven Hirsch a letter requesting more information about the group. Hirsch, who did not return calls for comment, has until today to respond.

If Chan finds reasonable cause to believe that the group has violated state law by not registering or reporting financial information, she could ask the Attorney General's Office to investigate.

Chan on Wednesday asked the agency to investigate the group for the mailer about Cortes that resembles official election mail.

Roberts said the group appears to be in violation of state campaign-finance law that deals with "deceptive mailings."

"Candidates and political committees often take liberties in attacking their opponents on mail pieces, but using commonly recognized election symbols should remain inviolate," Roberts said. "Our office believes that this postcard has violated campaign-finance law by utilizing a logo that greatly resembles the USPS election-mail logo."

Assistant Attorney General Jim Barton said his office will review the Cortes mailer and determine if there is any violation. If there is, the committee could face fines. Barton said the length of the investigation would depend on how cooperative the group is, but it could take a few weeks.

Lewis campaign co-chairman John Giles said they do not know Tash, are not connected to Citizens United for Progress and do not condone the committee's actions.

"We certainly don't approve of any group, on either side of this election, operating outside of state campaign laws," Giles said.

Most of Russell Pearce's campaign money came from outside Mesa

Jerry Lewis filed his report last week. He had raised $68,837 and spent $40,510. The bulk of Lewis' money came from inside Mesa.

Senate President Russell Pearce brought in $230,282 and spent $159,150. Most of his money came from outside Mesa, and many contributions came from outside Arizona. He got $78,982 from various outside political committees.

The sad thing about this elections is both Pearce and Lewis seem to be carbon copy clones of each other. Who ever wins will support the police state!

Source

Most of Pearce's campaign money from outside Mesa

by Alia Beard Rau - Oct. 28, 2011 09:28 AM

The Arizona Republic

The financial reports for the Nov. 8 Legislative District 18 recall election are all in.

Senate President Russell Pearce, the target of the recall, filed his report about 15 minutes before the Thursday midnight deadline. He brought in $230,282 and spent $159,150. Most of his money came from outside Mesa, and many contributions came from outside Arizona. He got $78,982 from various outside political committees. About $66,000 was rolled over from Pearce's 2010 re-election campaign committee.

Most of the donors to Pearce gave small amounts $100 or less, but there were also large donations from lobbyists, attorneys and Arizona business owners. High Ground political consultant Chuck Coughlin gave Pearce $100. Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa, gave $200. Lobbyist Kristen Boilini with KRB Consulting gave the maximum $424, as did lobbyist Meghaen Duger with Public Policy Partners. Craig Berge, owner of Mesa's Berge Ford, gave $424. Gun lobbyist and Arizona Citizens Defense League president Dave Kopp gave $424. Housing developer Steven Robson and his family members gave a total of $2,120.

Pearce's opponent Jerry Lewis filed his report last week. He had raised $68,837 and spent $40,510. The bulk of Lewis' money came from inside Mesa, and much of it came in $50 to $100 at a time. None of it came from outside political committees. Find more on his report by going to politics.azcentral.com and clicking on "Pearce recall election."

Olivia Cortes, who resigned from the race amid allegations she was put on the ballot by Pearce supporters to pull votes away from Lewis, raised $910. Most of the money came from Cortes herself. Campaign volunteer and East Valley Tea Party President Greg Western contributed $28 worth of copies of her petitions and $100 from Maricopa County Republican Committee member Dan Grimm.

Cortes and Western have maintained that they do not know who paid for the petition gatherers who helped get signatures to put Cortes on the ballot or for the Cortes signs posted briefly around west Mesa. No such expenses are listed on her report - or on any other report filed so far with the state. The Secretary of State's Office is investigating the matter.

Citizens for a Better Arizona, the group that organized the recall effort against Pearce, brought in $141,024 and spent all of it. About $52,273 of that came from businesses, including $43,549 worth of legal services from Chandler attorney Tom Ryan and $3,250 in money and in-kind contributions from the Communications Workers of America union in Phoenix.

Phoenix personal injury attorney Herbert Ely gave $750. Arizona Democratic Party Chairman Randy Keating gave $1,000. Dallas dentist Dr. Maria E. Garcia-Ibancovichi gave $9,000. Blue Global Media president Chris Kay of Scottsdale gave $5,500.

Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall brought in $72,611 and spent $56,921. About one in 10 donors came from Mesa. The rest came from other Arizona cities or from states across the country.

The reporting period is from Nov. 23, 2010, to Oct. 19, 2011. Independent influence

While the candidates' reports can be an indication of how much support they have and who is behind them, the involvement of outside groups may prove telling in this recall.

Under a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, corporations, non-profits and labor organizations may now spend an unlimited amount of money to support or oppose specific candidates as long as the money doesn't go directly to a candidate's campaign and the group doesn't collaborate with the candidate.

These independent expenditure groups do not have to disclose who donated the money, as political action committees must do.

A number of groups have filed independent expenditures in the recall. Here are some of them:

- The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona spent $5,520 sending out mailers supporting Pearce. Pearce this past legislative session sponsored a successful measure to limit how much cities can charge developers for new public buildings and services.

- The American Federation for Children spent $21,140 sending out mailers supporting Pearce. The Washington, D.C.-based group advocates for school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs.

- Arizona Deserves the Best, which lists a Laveen address that belongs to Republican political consultant Constantin Querard, spent $18,939 on signs, advertising, Querard's consulting fees, mailers and fliers to support Pearce. It got $7,500 from the political committee MaricopaGOP to Elect Russell Pearce, $10,000 from Earl Johnson and his Mesa mining company Johnson-Stewart, $2,500 from Courtland Homes and $500 from Rose Law Group. The other $4,500 is listed as coming from a J B Rush. Rush's home address is the same Phoenix home address of Daniel D. Rush and Janet A. Rush, owners of All-City Towing, formerly Cactus Towing. Cactus Towing, under its previous owner, once employed one of Pearce's sons. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office investigated the company in 2005 over allegations of fraud surrounding accusations of theft from vehicles, overcharging and delaying the release of vehicles to drive up charges. No charges were ever filed.

- Citizens for a Better Arizona spent $6,523 in support of Lewis. It lists its expenses as "canvassing."

- Campaign Money Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports campaign-finance programs such as Arizona's Clean Elections, spent $16,414 on mailers opposing Pearce. Political committees

Political-action committees can raise money from their own donors and then donate a limited amount of money directly to candidates or political groups.

PACs are typically groups of people united for a certain political purpose. For example, most legislative districts have a PAC for Democrats and another PAC for Republicans. There are also groups based on professional or social interests.

PACs play a role in this recall. Here are some that have contributed:

- The Associated Highway Patrolmen of Arizona gave $250 to Patriots for Pearce, which is Pearce's campaign.

- The Committee to Oppose Recall of Russell Pearce, a Virginia-based group that supports illegal immigration enforcement, gave $424 to Patriots for Pearce.

- Democracy for America-Maricopa County gave $100 to Citizens for a Better Arizona.

- District 6 Democrats gave $250 to Citizens for a Better Arizona. That district includes parts of north Phoenix and Anthem.

- District 7 Democratic Committee gave $200 to Citizens for a Better Arizona. That district includes parts of northeast Phoenix, Cave Creek and Carefree.

- District 16 Democrats gave $50 to Citizens for a Better Arizona. That district includes parts of central and south Phoenix.

- Maricopa County Legislative District 20 Democrats gave $100 to Citizens for a Better Arizona. That district covers Ahwatukee and west Chandler.

- The Optometric Political Action Committee of Arizona gave $250 to Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall and $250 to Patriots for Pearce.

- The Pharmacist Political Action Committee of Arizona gave $424 to Patriots for Pearce.

- The Transportation Association gave $424 to Patriots for Pearce.

Olivia Cortes to be investigated

Olivia Cortes to be investigated for campaign-finance law violations

It seems destined to go down as one of life's eternal mysteries. Like crop circles and Bigfoot. Like the Phoenix Lights and the Bermuda Triangle.

And now, the Olivia Cortes campaign.

Who, we have long wondered, was the mastermind and the moneybags behind the Cortes-for Senate juggernaut. Or juggar-naut. (Naut, get it?)

But enough with the frivolity. Friday was Disclosure Day, that much anticipated time when we were supposed to find out who put up all those ¡Si, Se Puede! signs for Cortes. It was the day the now-former candidate was required by law to disclose who paid to circulate her nominating petitions – the ones that East Valley Tea Party Chairman Greg Western filed so that she could challenge Senate President Russell Pearce in the Nov. 8 recall.

The ones she had not a clue about.

“I never know who was circulating my petitions,” she told a judge earlier this month. “I was told that people would be helping me.”

Helping her, as it turns out, right into a prosecutor's in-box.

No one's owning up to the signs and the pro-Pearce forces that convinced Cortes to run against one of the state's most powerful politicians – bleeding off votes from his real competition -- have left her hanging.

On Friday, the Secretary of State's Office asked the Attorney General's Office to investigate Cortes, saying it found “reasonable cause” to believe she violated campaign finance laws by not reporting who paid for her petitions.

“It is with great trepidation that this referral is made,” State Elections Director Amy Chan wrote, noting that a judge found ‘no wrongdoing' by Cortes but that her campaign still must account for the in-kind donation that paid for her petitions.

Attorney General Tom Horne, who has endorsed Pearce in the recall, plans to transfer the case to Apache County Attorney Daisy Flores.

While we wait to see if Flores can force Team Cortes to fess up, we move on to the other cliffhanger in this race. For months, we've been told that powerful out-of-state, leftist forces bankrolled the Pearce recall. Even now, Team Russell is sticking with that story, releasing a statement on Friday that “several left-leaning independent expenditure groups” have spent $170,000 to unseat Pearce.

“It's no surprise,” Pearce campaign chairman Chad Willems said, in that release. “This is what our campaign has been saying all along which is an outside group of liberal special interests want to overthrow the will of the majority in District 18.”

Certainly, there are outside liberal special interests that want to give Pearce the old heave-ho. But they weren't involved in recalling Pearce. According to financial disclosures filed Friday:

-- Citizens for a Better Arizona, the Randy Parraz group that engineered the recall, raised $141,000. Various Arizona Democratic groups gave $1,324. In all, only about 10 percent of the group's money came from people outside of Arizona, with only one $200 contribution from an out-of-state business, a Maryland corporation called Performance Systems.

-- By contrast, close to 20 percent of Pearce's $230,000 in donations came from out of state.

-- Challenger Jerry Lewis, meanwhile, raised $68,000 – all but $475 of it from Arizona and the vast majority from that hotbed of liberal dissent, Mesa.

As the election has neared, several other anti-Pearce independent campaigns have popped up:

--Campaign Money Watch entered the scene last week, with $23,000. Campaign Money Watch is a project of Public Campaign Action Fund, which opposes Pearce because of his opposition to Clean Elections. Campaign Money Watch did not disclose its donors, but Federal Election Commission records show it gets major funding from the American Federation of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees, Service Employees International Union and Moveon.org.

-- Promise Arizona in Action kicked in $29,000 – virtually all of it from the Washington DC-based Campaign for Community Change and Unite Here, a New York group advocating for immigrant workers.

-- Finally, a third group, Citizens for a Sane Arizona, put in $1,200, all but $50 from Arizonans.

So at least we know who's coming after to Pearce. Meanwhile, the schemers who set up a stooge to help their hero eke back into office have gone to ground.

As for Cortes, she's left holding the (tea) bag.

The recall is about politics!!!!!

But from this letter to the editor it seems like his recall was all about politics. These socialist folks (Democrats) didn't like his Nazi agenda (Republican) so they recalled him.

Source

Snow: Pearce recall effort sends a message

Posted: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 11:09 am

Guest commentary by Chad Snow | 9 comments

As the Chairman and co-founder of the Recall against Senate President Russell Pearce, I feel compelled to respond to the many distortions, personal attacks, and outright lies that have been circulated about our historic effort, including the recent piece by State Senator Andy Biggs.

Many people have asked those of us who organized the Recall, why a recall? Why now? Let me start by saying that Citizens for a Better Arizona is a coalition of Arizona citizens who are concerned about the direction our state politics has taken in terms of priorities, civility, and Arizona’s national reputation. Our committee is made up of several Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. When Russell Pearce was elected Senate President in December of 2010, our concerns were heightened because of Pearce’s history of being a divisive, ideologically driven legislator. [We don't like his political views! ] On the first day of Pearce’s Senate Presidency, members of CBA delivered a letter to him telling him that the priorities of everyday Arizonans were education, economic growth, health care, and job creation. [ We recalled him because he doesn't support our socialist views ] He was put on notice that he would be held accountable for the placement of these priorities during the legislative session.

It quickly became apparent that as Senate President, Pearce did not share these priorities. The first weeks of the session saw extreme legislation such as “birther” bills, bills allowing guns on school campuses, bills calling for nullification of federal laws, bills turning teachers and doctors into immigration agents, and other social-issue legislation that did nothing to improve our schools or economy. Under Pearce, we had an official state gun before we had a state budget! [ Even though I dislike Russell Pearce I do agree with some of these views. Nothing wrong with disobeying unconstitutional Federal laws, or supporting the 2nd Amendment! ]

When the budget finally came, it included hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to education and health care, while at the same time increasing funding for the private prison industry that had contributed so heavily to Pearce’s campaigns. We felt that a message needed to be sent that legislators who placed their pet ideological agendas ahead of the well being of the state would no longer be tolerated - and so on January 31, 2011, we pulled petitions to initiate the recall of Senator Pearce. We felt that our state, which had dropped into the lowest rankings of the states in terms of education, housing foreclosures, and economic forecasts, could not withstand another year of Pearce’s failed leadership.

Senator Pearce’s actions during this campaign have only underscored our contention that he is unfit to lead our state.

His claim that he was unaware of the sham candidacy of Olivia Cortes, even as his family members and staunchest supporters were propping up her campaign, would be laughable if it weren’t such a brazen display of dishonesty from the man who has been called the most powerful politician in Arizona. He has launched scurrilous and untrue personal attacks about the organizers of the recall, the 10,300 voters of his district who signed the recall petitions, and the decent man who was drafted by Mesa Republicans to run against him. Pearce claims that the recall is the work of “outside far left forces” who have “raised millions of dollars to remove” him from office. However, the recent financial filings of the parties in the recall belie that claim, and expose Pearce himself as the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from monied special interests. Pearce raised more money just from PAC’s and lobbyists than our organization took in total. I can assure the voters of Mesa that the recall has been the work of everyday Arizona citizens from across the political spectrum, and that no outside special interests are involved.

Whether Pearce is removed from office or not, we hope two messages are sent loud and clear to our elected officials in Arizona. The first is that ordinary citizens are paying attention and will no longer sit idly by while you pursue your personal agendas at our expense. The second - and perhaps more important - is that extraordinary things can be accomplished when people from various political beliefs come together, find common ground, treat each other with civility, and work hard to seek pragmatic solutions to our problems.

Chad T. Snow, Chairman

Phoenix

Cortes wants prosecutors to back off

Cortes wants prosecutors to back off

It is, he says, a “unique campaign finance situation.”

I’ll say.

Olivia Cortes is the first candidate I can recall who can’t disclose who paid to circulate the petitions that put her on the ballot. This, because she doesn’t know who paid to circulate the petitions that put her on the ballot in next Tuesday’s recall election. She also, by the way, doesn’t know who paid to put up her Si, Se Puede signs or even who put out one of her press releases – the one that essentially called you a racist if you questioned whether her candidacy was legitimate.

Now, Cortes finds herself in hot water because her secret admirers (so to speak) have abandoned her, leaving her to explain to prosecutors why she can’t disclose who paid for her signatures, as required by state campaign finance laws.

Her attorney, Anthony Tsontakis, has asked Attorney General Tom Horne (and presumably Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores, who will handle the investigation) to treat the payments not as a contribution but as an independent expenditure. Tsontakis – who in October assured a judge that Cortes was a bona fide candidate – now says Cortes was “completely unaware” that the signatures that allowed her to qualify for the ballot were obtained by paid petition circulators.

“Ms. Cortes did not know and had no way of knowing that by accepting the petitions, she was accepting what might be an ‘in-kind contribution’,” he wrote in a letter to Horne last week, seeking "guidance" on the issue. “The crux of the matter is that there is no empirical distinction between a nomination petition circulated by a volunteer and one not – they look and feel the same.”

True. Just as there is no empirical distinction between a candidate who is really a candidate and one who is a phony, put up by Russell Pearce supporters solely and only to fool voters so that he can slide back into the Senate.

The difference, of course, is that a real candidate would at least know who was paying to put her on the ballot.

The problem, for Cortes, is that an independent expenditure requires the expenditure to be just that – independent of the candidate’s campaign. The moment Cortes’ campaign manager, East Valley Tea Party Chairman Greg Western, filed those petitions they were no longer an independent effort. They were an in-kind contribution, one she must account for or face a fine.

One would think that the tea party people and others who so believed in Cortes that they abandoned their support for Pearce would stand behind her now.

The fact that they don’t is just more evidence of what little regard they hold for voters – or Latino voters anyway.

Spending $250,000 for a crummy $24,000 job??

"the Lewis campaign ... had spent $239,594 ... the Pearce campaign ... have spent $262,531.

I suspect they don't want to get elected for the measly $24,000 salary the job pays, but because once elected they can legally steal money from us serfs and give it to the special interests that helped them get elected.

Source

Groups' spending continues in Pearce recall Funds from corporations, labor unions used to support, oppose effort to oust Sen. Pearce

by Alia Beard Rau - Nov. 5, 2011 08:32 PM

The Arizona Republic

With two days until the state's first recall election of a sitting state lawmaker, outside political groups continue to spend money in hopes of influencing the outcome.

Senate President Russell Pearce on Tuesday faces fellow Republican and political newcomer Jerry Lewis in the Legislative District 18 recall election.

Under a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, corporations, unions and other organizations may now spend an unlimited amount of money to support or oppose specific candidates as long as the money doesn't go directly to a candidate's campaign, and the group doesn't collaborate with the candidate.

As of Friday, the Lewis campaign and various groups that either support him or oppose Pearce had spent $239,594 this election cycle, according to reports filed with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. The Pearce campaign and various groups that support him have spent $262,531.

The Arizona Republic last week reported some of the expenditures that the groups made. Here are updated totals for groups that either spent additional money in the past week or that had not yet been mentioned.

Campaign Money Watch has now spent $34,325 campaigning against Pearce, including $5,385 on mailers this past week. This Washington, D.C.-based group supports campaign-finance programs such as Arizona's Clean Elections. The group is part of the Public Campaign Action Fund, whose website lists MoveOn.org and the Service Employees International Union among its donors.

Citizens for a Better Arizona, the group that got the recall on the ballot, has now spent $3,670 campaigning against Pearce. In addition to individuals, most of them from Arizona, the group got money from the Communications Workers of America union in Phoenix, the Arizona AFL-CIO and various Arizona democratic groups.

The Promise Arizona in Action Political Committee has not had any expenditures expressly for or against one of the candidates, but its website supports Lewis and opposes Pearce. According to the campaign-finance report the group filed with the state, it has spent $4,584 this election cycle on things like events, food, gas and fliers. The group got $20,000 from the New York-based union organization Unite Here, as well as $8,958 in labor from the Washington, D.C.-based group Campaign For Community Change.

Paying $250,000 for a $24,000 job was worth it?

Source

Legislators' pricey trips make a comeback

Despite reforms, 2011 is busy year for junkets

by Fredreka Schouten - Nov. 6, 2011 12:00 AM

USA Today

WASHINGTON - Four years after Congress imposed restrictions on travel funded by outside groups, federal lawmakers are frequent fliers again, taking 415 privately funded trips between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 - a nearly 75 percent jump in the number of trips they took during the same period in 2010, records show.

The value of the trips exceeds $3.1 million, making it the most expensive year of travel since Congress enacted ethics rules in 2007 aimed at clamping down on lobbyist-funded trips, according to a USA Today review of congressional travel records compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine.

Big-ticket items include travel by more than 80 lawmakers to Israel, much of it courtesy of the American Israel Education Foundation, a charity affiliated with the influential pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The average cost: $18,120.

In August, four lawmakers took a 10-day excursion to South Africa and Botswana, funded by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, a charitable group with ties to several environmental groups.

Accommodations included two nights at South Africa's Shamwari Game Reserve, described on its website as the "pinnacle of private game reserves," with the chance to view elephants, lions and other wildlife during game drives through its nearly 61,800-acre property. Three lawmakers had their wives accompany them.

Ethics rules approved four years ago bar lawmakers from taking trips longer than two nights at the expense of corporations, unions and others that employ lobbyists. The changes were prompted by lobbyist Jack Abramoff's 2006 admission that he provided gifts and luxury trips to lawmakers and other government officials in exchange for official favors. However, the House and Senate imposed few limits on travel funded by non-profits, which now are funding dozens of lawmaker trips each month.

"These are the travel junkets of yore," said Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen, which lobbied for the 2007 travel restrictions. "It's a recurring situation. You get some good reforms on the books, and after a few years, people start trying to get around them."

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., has the biggest travel tab so far this year for any lawmaker, more than $47,000, according to MoneyLine's data. It includes three trips sponsored by the non-profit Aspen Institute to San Juan, Puerto Rico; Barcelona, Spain; and Banff, Canada. Topics included energy-security issues and "policy challenges in the Muslim world."

"The meetings were not at taxpayer expense," Cooper said in a statement. "They were working meetings about issues important to the nation."

The price tag on the South Africa and Botswana trips ran as high as $30,000, records show.

The travel to southern Africa gave Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., the chance to learn more about the economic, political and health conditions of the countries, along with conservation programs to help "future decision making on Capitol Hill," Crenshaw's spokeswoman, Barbara Riley, said in a statement.

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, "is interested in conservation" and the trip allowed him to see "actual efforts in the field" to protect wildlife and natural resources, his spokesman John Stone said.

Carter, Crenshaw and a third lawmaker, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., were accompanied by their wives on the southern Africa trip. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., also joined the trip, but did not travel with a relative, congressional records show.

Congressional rules allow other relatives to travel with lawmakers.

Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., for instance, was joined by his brother, William, during an August trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo funded by the global anti-poverty group CARE.

Travel and accommodations for the two men cost the group more than $29,370, according to documents Payne filed with the House.

Payne's aides did not respond to requests for information. Asked about his participation, William Payne, a former New Jersey state lawmaker, told USA Today he was not his brother's guest. "I was invited by the CARE organizers to go along with the rest of the delegation. I have a long history of being involved with social issues," he said.

JoDee Winterhof, a senior adviser to CARE who helps organize the tours, had a different account. "When we invite people, we ask whether they'd like to bring a guest," she said. Donald Payne "asked to bring his brother, and that was fine with us."

Winterhof called the travel "tremendously valuable" to lawmakers who are "voting on issues that directly impact people's lives."

"These are not some of the glamorous trips," she said. "These are trips where there's dust on their shoes when the day is done."

Historic Pearce recall race impacts political landscape

Historic Pearce recall race impacts political landscape

Posted: Saturday, November 5, 2011 1:00 pm | Updated: 12:45 am, Sun Nov 6, 2011.

By Garin Groff, Tribune

Without a single voted counted yet in Tuesday's recall election of state Senate President Russell Pearce, political observers say the historic race is impacting Arizona's political landscape.

The virtual tie in polls between Pearce and fellow Republican Jerry Lewis reveals how much voters have turned on the politician who sponsored popular illegal immigration law SB 1070.

Many voters have come to see Pearce as a symbol of politicians who fight each other at the expense of championing issues more important to their daily lives, said David Berman, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University. Others have been turned off by the campaign and a suspected sham candidate believed to help Pearce, he said.

The election is the first time in Arizona's 99 years that a legislator has been recalled.

"The fact that this is so close is significant because it does send a warning shot to other people in power as to what might happen to them," Berman said. "This is a weapon that's sort of been silent. Nobody's ever thought of it much. Now people have said this is something we can do."

Lewis was leading Pearce by 46 percent to 43 percent, according to a Nov. 1 poll commissioned by The Arizona Capitol Times and ABC 15 (KNXV-TV). That's within the margin of error.

The tightness shows voter frustration with the extreme wings of both parties, said Earl de Berge, a pollster with the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center. De Berge said the recent polls changed his belief that Pearce is invincible because of his incumbency and the Republican-leaning base of legislative District 18.

"If he loses, it will be a sea change in the state. It should embolden moderates and liberals to get more active," de Berge said. "This is a test of whether or not at the grass roots level people can overcome the old-time machinery."

Of the district's 70,835 voters, 37 percent are registered Republicans and 26 percent are Democrats.

Lewis was 5 or 6 points ahead in a poll conducted a month ago by Tucson-based pollster Margaret Kenski. About 22 percent were undecided, Kenski said.

Pearce has made the recall about his signature issue of illegal immigration. But Kenski said the election is about different things to different people.

Her recent polls have found that voters are more concerned about the economy, jobs and education. Those issues have edged out illegal immigration as the former top issue, Kenski said.

Even when looking at illegal immigration, polls have found voters aren't as strident as Pearce, she said. They almost all want a secure border but there's more acceptance for guest workers, the notion that Americans won't do some jobs and some version of the Dream Act.

For some voters, it's about the perceived focus of Pearce and the Legislature.

"A lot of it has to do with style and balance and trying to get things done," Kenski said. "I look at the national data and I look at state data and people want to see problems solved and I think they're kind of tired with a lot of the intense partisan bickering in politics and with the parties."

Pearce still has the advantage because virtually all GOP politicians in the state have backed him and he's raised more than three times his opponent, Berman said.

"If he screws up, it's his own fault because he has all those things going for him," he said.

He believes Pearce lost some support by labeling critics "far left anarchists" and with the brief candidacy of Olivia Cortes, who did virtually no campaigning and did not know who posted signs on her behalf. She was backed by Pearce's relatives and a tea party activist who previously supported Pearce, raising allegations she was placed on the ballot to split the votes.

"They were doing what they thought politicians do, what comes naturally," Berman said. "They probably were a little surprised at how the people reacted to it."

Political observers said a Lewis victory could make recalls more common. Voters could use it to fight politicians embroiled in scandals or those who have strayed too far, they said. And in the state's numerous legislative districts dominated by one party, the minority party might put up stronger campaigns instead of figuring a dominant party is unbeatable, de Berge said.

"The majority of voters in this state are either moderate or leading to soft conservativism rather than being hardcore right-wing, as Pearce is," de Berge said. "If somebody in Pearce's district can be really, seriously challenged by this, they have to ask, ‘What kind of politics do we really want here and is that reflected at the Legislature?' It also casts light on whether the fear of running in these districts might be overcome by the strength of organization."

• Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com

Fate of Russell Pearce, Lewis now in voters' hands

Fate of Russell Pearce, Lewis now in voters' hands

by Gary Nelson - Nov. 7, 2011 10:23 AM

The Arizona Republic

It has been by all accounts the strangest and most intensely watched political campaign in Mesa history. That it could happen at all seemed wildly improbable as the year began.

It is a campaign that pits warring factions of the Republican Party, conflicting visions of what America is and should be, and neighbor against neighbor not just in Mesa but also in the politically powerful Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was only last November that Russell Pearce, lionized by some and vilified by others as the driving force behind a tough immigration law called Senate Bill 1070, batted away two young challengers to win his sixth straight legislative election from west Mesa.

Immediately after the election, Pearce's Republican colleagues anointed him as Arizona's Senate president, giving him immense power over the budget and the legislative agenda. With a surging "tea party" movement embracing his brand of ultraconservative nationalism, Pearce looked like the ultimate force in Arizona politics.

Even then, however, cracks were appearing in his base.

Late last year, District 18 Republicans met to elect their delegates to the state party committee. Pearce would have seemed a logical shoo-in, but he faced a home-turf rebellion spurred by dissatisfaction over his political priorities and hard-nosed style.

He was elected to the state committee, but just barely.

Then, in January, two groups launched efforts to force Pearce into a midterm recall election. One, Arizonans for Better Government, was allied with Somos Republicans, which represents Latino Republican interests.

Their reasons? Pearce's "overt disdain for the United States Constitution" and "history of action on immigration issues."

In time, that group allied itself with Citizens for a Better Arizona.

To force a recall, the organizers needed 7,756 valid petition signatures from registered voters in District 18. Few pundits gave them a chance; no Arizona lawmaker, and no Senate president anywhere in the country, had ever been recalled.

But throughout the winter and spring, Pearce's political problems mounted.

- The Senate rejected five new immigration bills that he was pushing.

- Pearce rushed to the early defense of state Sen. Scott Bundgaard after a highly publicized roadside altercation between Bundgaard and his then-girlfriend in February.

"I'm sure the press misquoted things as usual," Pearce said shortly after the incident. "He was on his personal time ... and I understand the assault was one-way." [ Pearce sounds like the typical Mormon cave man who believes the only place for a woman is as a man's servant. ]

That turned out to be false.

- An internal investigation revealed that Pearce received $39,347 worth of trips and game tickets from the Fiesta Bowl, which was enmeshed in a scandal over political contributions and financial misconduct. As of July, Pearce had repaid $1,417, but he said the trips were necessary to help promote Arizona's football industry.

Citizens for a Better Arizona submitted its petitions right on deadline, May 31, and in July election authorities validated enough of the 18,315 signatures to trigger the recall.

Until then, nobody had stepped forward as a candidate to challenge Pearce. Four did:

- Tommy Cattey, a minister and audiologist.

- Michael Kielsky, a Libertarian lawyer who had run for other offices.

- Jerry Lewis, a Mormon leader and executive at Sequoia Schools, who said he had joined the race reluctantly after persistent urgings by fellow District 18 Republicans.

- And, mysteriously, Olivia Cortes, who was supported by Pearce family members and allies and was widely regarded as a sham candidate whose purpose was to dilute the anti-Pearce vote.

Pearce's allies, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit to have the recall nullified. A judge rejected all their claims and the Arizona Supreme Court upheld his ruling, standing on legal precedent.

Cattey and Kielsky withdrew, throwing their support to Lewis. But by September most of the attention was focused not on Pearce the incumbent, not on Lewis the anointed challenger, but on Cortes, whose petition circulators admitted that her purpose was to help Pearce win the election.

Lawyers working with Citizens for a Better Arizona filed a lawsuit to force her off the ballot. In her only public appearance, testifying in court on Sept. 29, Cortes defended her candidacy as legitimate. A judge allowed her to remain in the race.

The next week, however, those lawyers claimed to have uncovered new evidence implicating Cortes and Pearce's supporters in election fraud. Cortes quit the race on Oct. 6 rather than face another court hearing the next day.

In a forum that same night, sponsored by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Pearce and Lewis barely differentiated themselves on matters of taxation, education, government regulations and economic development. [ sadly Jerry Lewis seems to be a carbon copy clone of Russell Pearce. And Olivia Cortes is almost as bad as Lewis. This elections is kind of like Hitler running against Stalin and we are supposed to pick the lessor of the two evils. ]

Lewis drew the sharpest line when it came to immigration policy. Because of Pearce's tactics, Lewis said, "We are seen as a very unfriendly business state. We are seen as something akin to maybe 1964 Alabama."

Pearce has fought back with a vengeance, painting Lewis and his allies as un-American and even forwarding an e-mail written by a Mormon supporter who called Lewis a "Judas goat" in league with those bent on leading America to its doom. That letter was sharply criticized by another Mesa Mormon lawmaker, state Rep. Steve Court, who unsuccessfully called on Pearce to repudiate it.

In a news release sent after campaign finance reports were released, Pearce accused the recall campaign of drawing support from "liberal outside special interest groups" such as Common Cause, MoveOn.org and the National Education Association. [ Let's not worry about the facts, I will say anything I can to win the election. ]

None of those groups, however, appeared as donors on the report filed by Citizens for a Better Arizona.

Those same campaign finance reports, however, revealed that only 12 percent of Pearce's financial support came from within Mesa, while Lewis drew 59 percent of his support from the city.

Meanwhile, Pearce's campaign materials have focused more on jobs and education than on the immigration issue that catapulted him onto the national stage. But it was immigration that energized a crowd of about 300 largely tea-party Pearce supporters, most of them from outside District 18, in an Oct. 14 rally where Pearce was lauded by numerous politicians as the true defender of American values.

Lewis, for his part, has eschewed large rallies, preferring to work small gatherings and relying on shoe-leather campaigning to get his message out.

On Tuesday, it ends.

After all the court action, after all the bickering over campaign signs and all the accusations and insinuations, the voters in Mesa's District 18 will have their quiet say at the ballot box.

The Tyrant is Toast???

Russell Pearce on verge of historic loss in recall

by Art Thomason, Jim Walsh and John D'Anna - Nov. 8, 2011 10:31 PM

The Arizona Republic

Russell Pearce, one of the most influential state politicians in the nation and a powerful voice on illegal immigration, was on the verge of losing his Senate seat in Tuesday's unprecedented recall election.

Pearce appeared resigned to defeat, saying "if being recalled is the price for keeping one's promises, so be it."

If the vote totals hold, Pearce becomes the first sitting Senate president in the nation and the first Arizona legislator ever to lose a recall election. He would be required to step down immediately once the results become official.

The results were not official late Tuesday, and elections officials said they still needed to count thousands of early and provisional ballots, meaning final results might not be known for more than a week.

Nevertheless, Lewis supporters were ebullient Tuesday night. More than 300 people crowded into the home of Lewis backer John Wright and cheered loudly vote totals were posted on the Maricopa County elections website.

"We pulled off a historic upset," Lewis said. Saying his campaign took the high ground, Lewis told the crowd that his victory brings "a fresh voice to Mesa and a civil tone to politics."

"We now have an opportunity to heal the divide in Mesa," he added.

At the Pearce camp, the mood was somber.

"It doesn't look like the numbers are going my direction on this, and I'm OK with that," Pearce said. "I'm grateful for the friends, families and patriots who have stood by me."

Earlier in the evening, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a longtime Pearce ally, said he did not believe the recall would spell the end of Pearce's political career. "He's a fighter," Arpaio said. "If he does lose, there's another election next year."

100,000 signatures

Pearce critics gathered more than 10,000 signatures to force the recall, which was seen as a referendum on whether Pearce's get-tough posture on immigration issues still resonated with the 71,000 registered voters in west Mesa's District 18.

The largely conservative blue-collar district includes downtown Mesa and Arizona's first Mormon temple, but it also has Mesa's poorest neighborhoods and lowest performing schools.

Many residents, both White and Latino, have chafed for years over the effects of immigration and the federal government's inability to deal with it, and many early on applauded Pearce's sponsorship of the controversial Senate Bill 1070 immigration legislation.

Critics, however, began to express disillusionment with Pearce's increasing hard-line stance, and some supporters began to feel conflicted when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began advocating a more humane and moderate approach to the immigration issue.

In Lewis, they would get a man who like Pearce is White, conservative and Mormon, but who repeatedly contrasted himself to Pearce by saying his vision of leadership is to bring all sides together to find solutions, rather than ruling by fiat.

On virtually every other issue, Pearce and Lewis agreed, and in their only debate last month, they echoed each other's positions and used each other's examples to illustrate their points.

During his campaign, Lewis, a charter school executive and former accountant, pledged to take the high road, a pledge he largely managed to keep despite what he called campaign dirty tricks employed by Pearce backers.

A no-gifts pledge

Lewis also pledged not to accept any gifts or special favors, particularly from lobbyists, a reference to the fact that critics skewered Pearce for accepting nearly $40,000 in free trips, hotel stays, meals and college football game tickets from the Fiesta Bowl.

Bruce Merrill, a veteran political scientist and pollster and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, said that most people thought the race would be very close, but Lewis "seemed to be getting a little bit more momentum" at the end.

"If Lewis holds on and wins this thing . . . it sends a message not only to people in Arizona but outside Arizona that everybody is not a very strident right-wing anti illegal immigration person," he said Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, Glen and Louise Arky walked out of a central Mesa polling place and discussed their support of Pearce.

"I saw no reason not to vote for him," said Glen Arky, 75, a semi-retired aircraft mechanic.

Arky said his support of Pearce never wavered after they read news accounts of Pearce's connections to the Fiesta Bowl scandal.

However Evan Balmer, 33, countered that he thought Lewis would work to improve Arizona's schools.

"Immigration is part of the reason I voted the way I did, but education is the bigger thing for me," said the part-time customer service representative for Lowe's and graduate student at Arizona State University.

Lewis ran his campaign on a shoestring compared to Pearce and enlisted a grass-roots door-to-door effort to meet voters one-on-one.

Pearce, meanwhile, often boasted that he had never lost an election and had some of the biggest names in Arizona politics, including Arpaio and Gov. Jan Brewer, working on his behalf. He raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars and outspent Lewis by a 3-1 margin.

The race has generated controversy from the start.

Even before the recall was official, Pearce's supporters erected signs attacking the recall, then were forced to take them down after city and state officials ruled that they were placed illegally.

Pearce supporters tried to paint Lewis as an outsider and a tool of liberal special interests, even though Lewis raised most of his money from Mesa, while the vast majority of Pearce's war chest came from outside the district.

They also accused Lewis of stealing donated items from homeless children at one of the charters schools for which Lewis works. The charge not only failed to stick, but it enraged former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams of Mesa. Adams, who criticized the attack last week.

Bizarre tactic

One of the most bizarre tactics, however, involved a Mexican immigrant named Olivia Cortes, whom Pearce supporters admitted helping to get on the ballot in the hopes of draining votes away from Lewis.

Pearce denied any knowledge of how Cortes came to be a candidate, but his supporters, including two of his nieces, carried nominating petitions for Cortes, and several paid petition circulators told signers they were trying to get Cortes on the ballot to benefit Pearce.

Cortes' name appeared on the ballot even though she officially pulled out of the race. Cortes received roughly 250 votes out of more than 20,000 cast.

Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, said the result did not surprise him.

"I feel bad for Russell from the standpoint that it was the worst-run campaign I've ever seen," Crandall said. "I've never seen more miscues in an election than what happened to him."

Sen. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, will be one of several candidates to replace Pearce as Senate president.

"I am profoundly disappointed that he (Pearce) didn't win," he said.

Biggs said the Cortes election flap turned many voters against Pearce and could have cost him 4-5 points in the election. "That was a startling miscalculation," he said.

The county expects to verify the election results by Nov. 16, and the Secretary of State's Office must then certify the results, along with the governor and attorney general.

Matt Roberts, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said the official canvass would likely take place Nov. 21.

Gary Nelson, Mary K. Reinhart and Christina Leonard contributed to this article.

Unofficial results show Pearce ousted in historic recall election

Unofficial results show Pearce ousted in historic recall election

Posted: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 8:10 pm | Updated: 9:43 pm, Tue Nov 8, 2011.

By Garin Groff, Tribune

West Mesa voters have ousted state Senate President Russell Pearce in a historic recall election.

On Tuesday night, with early ballots and all precincts counted, unofficial results showed challenger Jerry Lewis with 53 percent of the vote in a race that's being watched nationally.

If Lewis' lead in legislative District 18 holds, it will represent the first time in Arizona history that voters ousted a state elected official.

Unofficial results showed Lewis with 53.4 percent of the vote and Pearce with 45.36 percent. Olivia Cortes had 1.24 percent even though she had withdrawn from the race.

Pearce's defeat represents a blow to the more conservative wing of the Republican Party, which portrayed the recall as a liberal effort to take down the author of the illegal immigration bill known as SB 1070. Pearce raised money from across the nation as conservatives rallied around the lawmaker.

Pearce told Capitol Media Services that he was disappointed, saying he will spend some time "with my family and my God'' before deciding what to do next. He has not ruled out another run -- including to get his old seat back.

He noted that this was an unusual race, with no primary. That allowed all voters, including the district's Democrats and independents, to make the final decision.

"This is going around the primary process,'' Pearce said. "Jerry Lewis could not win in a (Republican) primary.''

Mesa city councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, who represents about half of District 18, said at the Lewis campaign party he wasn't surprised by Lewis' lead. The district is politically diverse, he said, especially among independents.

Pearce and SB 1070 were popular when the law was passed in 2010, but criticism grew this spring when Pearce pushed a new round of anti-illegal immigration legislation. The Republican supermajority in the Senate couldn't muster enough support for the bill. And the bill triggered a letter from the CEOs of some of Arizona's largest companies urging the Legislature to put a hold on new immigration laws.

In an interview with Capitol Media Services, Pearce said he would not have done anything any different since he was first elected to the Legislature in 2000. That includes not only his high-profile sponsorship of bills aimed at curbing illegal immigration but other issues where he has helped get legislation approved.

"We're No. 1 in the nation in Second Amendment liberties,'' said Pearce, who helped push through laws allowing any adult to carry a concealed weapon. "We're one of the top in the nation in laws that protect the unborn.''

"So what else would I do differently?'' he asked. "I'm pretty proud of that record.''

Lewis said SB 1070 went too far, but neither he nor recall organizers made that a major issue. The charter school executive and recall organizers criticized Pearce for focusing too much on a single issue instead of the economy, jobs and education funding.

Lewis, too, drew fire for saying some viewed Arizona akin to 1964 Alabama.

Pearce raised nearly $230,000 compared with Lewis's total of about $68,000. Lewis' support came primarily from individuals in Mesa, while Pearce enjoyed money from political action committees and people outside Arizona.

Lewis said he'd do more to work on the economy, jobs and education funding, and that he would listen to people involved before acting. But he offered few specifics during the campaign.

Pearce supporters portrayed the recall as a liberal effort, as it was led by Randy Parraz, a Democrat who doesn't live in Mesa. Parraz's Citizens for a Better Arizona had included Republicans.

Parraz said Tuesday night that the results weren't surprising after talking to voters and hearing they were upset with education cuts and issues beyond illegal immigration.

"We didn't build this overnight," Parraz said. "We've been working for 10 months. "Russell Pearce ignored us for most of that time."

Recall volunteer Brenda Rascon cried Tuesday night, saying she objected to Pearce using the term "invasion" to describe illegal immigrants. Rascon said her parents were immigrants.

She also objected to the Legislature cutting funds for organ transplants. Her mother's kidneys failed before she died.

"We took down the most powerful politician in Arizona," she said, "and all we had to do was talk to people."

Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.

Author of Arizona immigration law Pearce loses recall fight

Author of Arizona immigration law Pearce loses recall fight

By Stephen Ceasar Los Angeles Times

November 8, 2011, 9:21 p.m.

Russell Pearce, the controversial president of the Arizona state Senate, conceded to Republican challenger Jerry Lewis late Tuesday in the first recall of a sitting lawmaker in state history.

Lewis had a 53% to 46% lead over Pearce, with all precincts reporting in their suburban Phoenix district. There were about 1,600 votes separating the two.

“It doesn’t look like the numbers are going in my direction on this, and I’m OK with that,” Pearce said during a televised speech in Mesa.

Lewis, an assistant superintendent of an Arizona charter school chain and a former accountant, entered the race after Citizens for a Better Arizona, led by Democratic labor organizer Randy Parraz, turned in about 17,000 signatures in May to recall Pearce, arguably the state's most powerful politician. More than 10,000 were validated by county election officials. The group needed at least 7,756 to qualify for the ballot.

Recall backers argued that Pearce's focus on illegal immigration — he wrote the state's controversial immigration law known as SB 1070 and a host of others — has distracted him from the needs of his district and damaged the image of the state.

"We pulled off a historic upset," Lewis said, according to the Associated Press. "We ran a clean and civil campaign."

Dethroned: How Russell Pearce lost race

Dethroned: How Russell Pearce lost race
Host of factors helped oust Senate president

by Gary Nelson - Nov. 10, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Political experts will spend years analyzing how a political novice emerged from obscurity in west Mesa to knock off Arizona's most powerful lawmaker in Tuesday's unprecedented recall election.

But analysts and people involved in the fierce campaign pointed Wednesday to an array of factors in Jerry Lewis' improbable upset victory over Senate President Russell Pearce.

Those factors include:

The nature of the recall itself, which allowed Democrats and independents to vote in what amounted to an "open primary" election pitting two Republicans against each other.

The influence of outside groups, some aligned with liberal causes, that allied with the conservative Lewis to knock off the even more conservative Pearce.

Political blunders by Pearce and, more spectacularly, by his supporters.

Dissatisfaction with Pearce's tone, style and priorities.

Unhappiness among Mormon voters over the image that Pearce, a Mormon, had cast on their religion.

Lewis himself, described by backers as the "perfect" candidate to challenge a politician of his own religion and party.

Open election

Under the recall provision of Arizona's Constitution -- a century-old vestige of the Progressive Era -- any number of candidates can run, and all voters in the electoral district can cast ballots.

Pearce campaign officials said that created a situation where Democrats and independents could vote in what would, under other circumstances, have been a Republican primary election.

Pearce campaign manager Chad Willems said recall organizers deliberately set out to create that kind of race, announcing early on that their preferred candidate would be a White, Mormon, Republican conservative -- all of which describe Lewis.

"They knew they would split the Mormon vote and split the Republican vote," Willems said. In the meantime, Democrats would be almost certain to vote against Pearce; recall organizer Randy Parraz said on Election Day that Democrats turned out in large numbers.

Outside influence

Most of Pearce's campaign cash, and a great deal of his high-profile support, came from outside the district in the nationally watched campaign.

Lewis got outside help as well. In addition to his own campaign committee, which was run largely by Mesa residents with little political experience, Citizens for a Better Arizona -- the group that launched the recall drive to begin with -- was a powerful force for Lewis once the actual election campaign began.

Other groups weighed in as well.

Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees International Union, said Wednesday that his group worked to get out the Hispanic vote in District 18, and Petra Falcon, executive director of Promise Arizona in Action, said her Phoenix-based group used 300 volunteers to do the same thing.

"Mr. Pearce has always had his enemies, and by default they became Jerry's friends," said John Giles, a former Mesa vice mayor and one of Lewis' campaign chairmen.

Political mistakes

Pearce already was in some political trouble as the year began, nearly losing a seat on the state Republican committee.

In the spring he rushed to the premature defense of a Senate colleague involved in a domestic-abuse incident; he was found to have received almost $40,000 in benefits from the scandal-scarred Fiesta Bowl; and Republican senators helped defeat five of his immigration bills last session.

As the recall campaign kicked in, Pearce allies committed blunders that may ultimately have cost him his job.

A phony Twitter account in Lewis' name tried to falsely paint him as an advocate of open borders and lawlessness. Campaign signs were erected in violation of state and city law.

Then a Mexican immigrant named Olivia Cortes emerged as a candidate, and Pearce supporters admitted helping her get on the ballot in an effort to siphon votes away from Lewis. She survived one court challenge, but withdrew before a second. Her name stayed on the ballot, and she earned 1.2 percent of the vote.

Then, the Saturday before the election, Democratic voters got a "robocall" from someone with a Hispanic accent saying both remaining candidates were Republicans and suggesting voters enter write-in candidates.

Michael O'Neil, a Valley consultant and pollster who supported Lewis, said the Cortes matter was particularly damaging for Pearce.

"For the first 30 days of this election, he was completely off-message" as he dealt with allegations about Cortes, O'Neil said. "It wasn't offense for him. It was total defense."

Even Willems and Pearce spokesman Ed Phillips said some of the pro-Pearce schemes were boneheaded.

"You could make the argument that it could have been death by a thousand cuts," Phillips said. "It's sad the campaign centered on Cortes when it should have been about how Senator Pearce has helped get this state back on a sound footing."

"I think Russell was not successful last night because of friendly fire," Willems said, adding that the accented robocalls probably only reminded Democrats that there was an election Tuesday.

Launching the recall

Parraz, a Scottsdale Democrat, said he and his allies had been wary of Pearce but became alarmed last fall when he was elected Senate president.

Pearce was "already extreme in his own party," Parraz said, and "now had risen to one of the most powerful positions in Arizona."

Early in the new legislative session, Parraz said, Pearce "was focused on nullifying federal law, changing the Constitution, putting guns on campuses, gutting education, cutting off people who were waiting for organ transplants."

Parraz's group wrote Pearce in January asking him to change his priorities. Pearce ignored it, and the recall drive was launched three weeks later.

Lewis, who reluctantly agreed to run weeks after the recall was certified, did not participate in the recall drive or sign a petition. He differs little from Pearce on most issues, but said immigration is only one problem that must be addressed.

Lewis favors border enforcement but also reforms that would accommodate illegal immigrants already in the country. Pearce favors legal sanctions and deportation to deal with the issue.

Lewis' view is in line with a majority of Arizona residents, according to a statewide poll that was released Wednesday, the day after the election.

"On many levels, there was support for a change that permeated the district, and there were warning signs that have been flashing and ignored for months, if not years," said Lewis campaign co-chair Dea Montague.

Question of religion

The candidates' membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meant the campaign always would have elements of a Mormon family fight, and observers were cautious in discussing that.

But the religion issue really flamed late in the campaign when Pearce distributed an e-mail from a supporter who claimed divine inspiration in calling Lewis a "Judas goat" -- a highly charged term in Mormon quarters -- insinuating that Lewis was a tool being used to lead the Mormon faithful to political slaughter.

Regardless of whether that tipped Mormon votes in one direction or the other, Giles said Mormons knew which candidate most closely comported with church views.

"His enforcement-only approach to immigration is contrary to the LDS church's official position," Giles said.

'Perfect' candidate

Lewis, Giles said, "is a political novice but on the other hand he was a heavyweight in other categories that most candidates can really only dream about."

Giles noted that Lewis learned Spanish because "he was a church leader over a Spanish-speaking congregation ... he became their champion and they came out for him."

"Until you got a Jerry Lewis to be the candidate, (the recall) is a truly bad idea," Giles said. "It was doomed to failure. I don't know who else could have pulled this off."

Russell Pearce has many options, analysts say

Russell Pearce has many options, analysts say
Still wielding political clout, his career is far from over

by Ginger Rough and Mary K. Reinhart - Nov. 10, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

This week's stunning recall of Senate President Russell Pearce is a setback but not the end of his political career, supporters and colleagues said Wednesday.

Political analysts and insiders say the unapologetic architect of Senate Bill 1070 -- a legislator who has become synonymous with hard-line immigration policies -- has a wealth of options available to him.

"He has a tremendous amount of support throughout the country. The question becomes, what does he want to do?" political strategist Chuck Coughlin said Wednesday of Pearce, a Mesa Republican. "Do you want to go back to the (state) Senate? Do you want to run for office in some other venue? Could you start a national political-action committee? Could you go on the speaker's circuit and travel the country?

"I talked to him , and I don't think he's answered that question yet."

Pearce did not return messages and e-mails seeking comment on Wednesday. He has conceded the legislative District 18 seat to political newcomer Jerry Lewis, though the Secretary of State's Office will not complete certification of the election results until Nov. 21.

After results came out Tuesday night, Pearce said he would reassess his political future after talking it over with his family.

Those close to Pearce said they are encouraging him to take his time before making decisions about his political future, noting he still has a solid base of support, widespread name recognition and strong fund-raising capabilities.

"This was a unique situation. It was not your typical defeat," Pearce campaign manager Chad Willems said. "I don't think you can count Russell Pearce out and gone."

Long service record

Pearce, 64, is an Arizona native, with long ties to the west Mesa district he represents. He and his wife, LuAnne, have five children and 13 grandchildren.

Pearce, whom fellow lawmakers and political observers have described as "gruff" and "abrasive," has been a public servant almost his entire adult life. [government tyrant would be a better word]

He worked for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for 21 years, starting as a deputy and moving up to chief deputy under Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Pearce was shot in the line of duty in 1977.

"He has a heart," Arpaio said Wednesday. "Not a lot of people look at it that way, but when you get right down to it, he does. [if he has a heart it is made out of stone]

"I hope he doesn't leave public life and disappear." [I hope he does disappear]

Before becoming a lawmaker, Pearce served as a justice of the peace and director of the state Motor Vehicle Division.

Gov. Jane Dee Hull fired him from the MVD in 1999 after state officials accused Pearce and two aides of altering the drunken-driving records of a Tucson woman so she could keep her license. Pearce denied involvement in the incident, which the Attorney General investigated. The office ultimately determined it was a personnel issue and not a criminal matter.

Pearce served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008, then moved to the Senate in 2009.

GOP colleagues elected him Senate president last year.

Pearce's tenure as leader of the Senate has been fraught with controversy, from limiting media access and allowing senators to carry firearms on the Senate floor. He has been widely criticized for taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of free trips and game tickets from the Fiesta Bowl.

But Pearce is best known for being the sponsor of SB 1070 and a national spokesman for illegal-immigration enforcement.

Weighing the options

Critics charge that Pearce's views on immigration were draconian and extremist, and contributed to his loss, noting that opponent Lewis had taken a more moderate stance.

But political analysts said Wednesday that Pearce will actually benefit from being so closely associated with tough anti-illegal immigration policies.

"Unless there is some major change in the next couple of years, I think there is a big base in Arizona that probably likes Russell Pearce," said Bruce Merrill, a veteran political scientist and pollster and professor emeritus at Arizona State University. "He could run for something at the state level. I think he'd be a real potential contender."

In fact, the recall is the first election Pearce has lost and it came despite his ability to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from local and national contributors in only a few months.

Willems said Pearce would not seek the Maricopa County Sheriff's seat so long as political ally Arpaio had the job, and Pearce is unlikely to run for the county Board of Supervisors, in part, because he really enjoys "making laws."

"I think he likes structuring the future of Arizona, and you can really only do that by being a legislator," Willems said.

But the ongoing redistricting process could complicate that.

Under a draft map of the state's 30 legislative districts recently released by the Independent Redistricting Commission, Pearce would be in the same district as fellow GOP Sen. Rich Crandall.

Others speculated Pearce would be warmly received as a paid professional speaker, or as the leader of a newly formed political-action committee.

Gov. Jan Brewer said she believes whatever Pearce does, he will work to improve the state.

"I don't think he's going to melt away into the sunset," Brewer said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I think he's going to be active and keep working in this state. He loves Arizona."

Reporter Alia Beard Rau contributed to this article.

Senate GOP searches for new leader

Pearce recall: Senate GOP searches for new leader

by Mary K. Reinhart - Nov. 10, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Senate Republicans meet this morning to choose a new leader, while county elections officials sort out more than 3,200 ballots from Tuesday's historic recall election.

Senators at the closed-door meeting, including Sen.-elect Jerry Lewis, will choose between three top contenders vying to replace Russell Pearce as the next president.

Lewis led Pearce by more than 1,600 votes among about 20,000 cast in west Mesa's District 18.

Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell said counting would resume today and should be finished by noon Friday.

Most of the uncounted ballots were mail-in ballots dropped off at the polls on Election Day. But 943 were so-called provisional ballots cast at county polling sites, an unusually high number, Purcell said.

Those ballots may have been cast by people whose names or addresses didn't match the voter rolls, or who had already voted by mail, which would disqualify their vote at the polls.

Once the election results are certified by the county recorder and approved by the Board of Supervisors, they will be submitted to the Secretary of State's Office. The official canvass by the secretary of state, the governor and the attorney general is expected to take place Nov.21.

Pearce's campaign said he was conceding the race even with thousands of ballots outstanding.

"People were confused about the concession speech," campaign spokesman Ed Phillips said of Pearce's public comments Tuesday night. "He said the numbers don't look good. I think the unsaid was, all the remaining votes out there can't make up the difference."

While Pearce took the day to consider his future, the three likely candidates for the top leadership job -- Majority Leader Andy Biggs of Gilbert, Majority Whip Steve Pierce of Prescott and Steve Yarbrough of Chandler -- counted their votes.

To be elected, a senator needs a simple majority of the chamber's 21 Republicans, which could take two or three secret ballots as it did when Pearce was elected.

What lies ahead for Pearce? Campaign reimbursement? Sheriff run?

What lies ahead for Pearce? Campaign reimbursement? Sheriff run?

Posted: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 5:16 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services | 6 comments

Arizona voters may not be quite done with Russell Pearce.

Questions of Pearce’s political future aside, a little-known provision of the Arizona Constitution requires the Legislature to act to reimburse any recalled public official his or her “reasonable special election campaign expenses.’’

Only thing is, no one knows exactly what that means — or how it works. That includes Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is the state’s chief elections officer.

“Our office has no statutory authority to determine the provisions for providing reimbursement of campaign expenses,’’ said spokesman Matt Roberts. He suggested checking with the Senate.

But Wendy Baldo, the Senate chief of staff, said how the statute might work remains an unexplored issue.

The question goes beyond who determines what is “reasonable.’’

There also is the fact that the approximately $260,000 Pearce spent in his unsuccessful effort to defend his seat all came from donors. That raises the question of whether he would have to give that money back if the taxpayers pick up the tab.

Arizona history provides no guidance, either, as this was the first-ever recall of a state elected official.

A recall campaign was launched against Evan Mecham after he became governor in 1987. But there never was an election, as the Legislature impeached Mecham and removed him from office first.

Despite that, Mecham requested reimbursement of more than $828,000 for both his campaign expenses and well as what it cost him to mount his unsuccessful impeachment defense. In the end, lawmakers approved — and Mecham accepted — $405,000 to settle both claims.

Pearce was not giving interviews Wednesday. And Chad Willems, his campaign manager, said the question has not come up.

But Willems speculated that Pearce won’t force the issue.

“I don’t know if that’s a path he would want to go down,’’ Willems said. “It would be taxpayer money.’’

Further down the road is what will now become politically of Pearce, who is 64.

A former chief deputy sheriff, Pearce has made no secret he would like to become Maricopa County sheriff. But he also has indicated he would not try to unseat incumbent Joe Arpaio who has been a political ally, even standing with Pearce at several campaign events in the recall.

But Pearce also said that if he lost the recall he would consider trying to reclaim his seat from Jerry Lewis.

Pearce has never lost a race since he was first elected to the Legislature in 2000. But in each case, he first won a GOP primary in his heavily Republican Mesa legislative district, making him a virtual shoo-in over any Democratic foe in the general election.

In a recall, however, there is no primary, with all registered voters getting a voice. Pearce said that enabled Lewis to win with Democratic support, something he could not get in a 2012 Republican primary.

Only thing is, Pearce may not get the chance: Draft maps adopted by the Independent Redistricting Commission actually put Pearce and Lewis in two different legislative districts. Instead, Pearce would be in the same district as another GOP incumbent, Rich Crandall.

The two are not political allies, though, with Crandall having opposed some of Pearce’s immigration measures and supported Lewis in the recall race. But Crandall has said he is unconcerned about such a race, speculating that Pearce may choose to take the opportunity to do something else — something that pays more than the $24,000 a year legislators get.

As architect of some of the first — and the toughest — state laws aimed at illegal immigration, Pearce also has gained something of a national reputation he could parlay into a new role. That is the route taken by former Congressman Tom Tancredo, also a supporter of tough new immigration laws, who formed a political action committee to help elect politicians of a similar mindset.

Senate GOP to meet Thursday to pick Pearce's successor as president

Senate GOP to meet Thursday to pick Pearce's successor as president

Posted: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 5:27 pm

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services | 0 comments

Tuesday’s recall of Russell Pearce creates a legislative power vacuum, with three lawmakers already trying to line up votes to become the next Senate president.

The 21 Republicans — now including Jerry Lewis who ousted Pearce — meet Thursday behind closed doors to choose the new leader. If prior elections are any indication, no one candidate will get the necessary 11 votes on the first round, forcing a second vote between the top two vote-getters.

Thursday’s vote could have ripple effects, as it might then force Republicans to also choose a new majority leader and a new majority whip.

Andy Biggs

Elected to the House in 2002, the Gilbert resident he moved to the Senate last year. He is considered the closest of the contenders to Pearce, both personally and politically, being the only one to show up for his election night event. Biggs became majority leader earlier this year after Scott Bundgaard was forced out amid an ethics probe. He has been a leader in the fight against photo radar, calling the entire system of enforcement by cameras unfair.

Steve Pierce

Serving his second term in the Senate, Pierce was chosen by his colleagues as majority whip at least in part based on his reputation for getting along with all factions of the GOP caucus. That could help him gain votes now, with divisions that resulted last session over Pearce’s unsuccessful push to declare that children of illegal immigrants are not citizens. Pierce, a Prescott resident, also is the only contender from outside Maricopa County.

Steve Yarbrough

He was one of the leaders of the fight against Pearce’s “birthright citizenship’’ proposal last year, aligning himself with other senators who have taken a more moderate position on immigration issues. Yarbrough, from Chandler, is best known for championing state dollars for private and parochial schools and sponsoring laws designed to protect Christian groups against what he sees as discriminatory practices.

Does Russell Pearce recall portend a new Arizona?

Does Russell Pearce recall portend a new Arizona?

November 9, 2011 | 5:07 pm

To some, the ousting of Arizona Senate president and Republican stalwart Russell Pearce reflects a retreat from the hard-line conservative politics the state has become known for and is a direct backlash against his stringent immigration policies.

But to others, he is a victim of circumstance.

Pearce, who was arguably the most powerful politician in the state, lost in a recall election Tuesday to fellow Republican Jerry Lewis. The nonpartisan election, with no primary, allowed all voters, including independents and Democrats, to choose between two Republican candidates.

The recall election was forced through a petition drive by a group called Citizens for a Better Arizona, led by Democratic labor organizer Randy Parraz. The group argued that Pearce's focus on illegal immigration — he wrote the state's controversial immigration law, SB 1070, and a host of others — has distracted him from the needs of his Phoenix-area district. His policies, they say, have damaged the image of the entire state.

In an interview with The Times last week, Pearce acknowledged that the election could be “dangerous” for him and said Lewis would not beat him in a regular Republican primary.

“That’s why he’s going through the backdoor,” he said. “And that’s why he’ll be short-lived.”

Pearce’s defeat was partly the result of a wider variety of voters being able to vote and actually showing up to do so, said Bruce Merrill, a political scientist and professor emeritus at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Typically, races in Arizona are decided in the primaries, where a low percentage of voters turn out at the polls, Merrill said. “The ideologues all go to the polls and they elect ideologues — the Russell Pearces of the world,” he said.

The unusual voting environment, paired with growing discontent with the divisive Pearce, created an ideal situation for opponents to oust him.

An ethics investigation and underhanded tactics, including a candidate in the recall election who withdrew from the race after she was tied to Pearce, further sullied his campaign in the eyes of voters, observers say.

“I don’t see that this is a repudiation of Russell Pearce in terms of his position on illegal immigration,” Merrill said. “It was more that he became somewhat of an embarrassment.”

Andrei Cherny, the Arizona Democratic Party chairman, said that Pearce’s removal is a good start toward changing the caustic nature of politics in the state, but the heavily Republican-controlled Legislature has adopted the same divisive, in-your-face politics Pearce employed.

“The rest of the Russell Pearce clones in state government, from the governor on down to the state legislators, will continue his brand of right-wing extremism,” Cherny said. “But what this shows is the voters have had enough and is an opening for a more mainstream, common-sense kind of leadership in the state.”

Parraz, who led the recall, said that is too soon to say if this is part of a larger political trend in the state, but it does send a clear message.

“This shows that when politicians overreach, there is a way to hold them accountable,” Parraz said.

The group has set its sights on another controversial figure in the state, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is planning to seek a sixth term if he doesn’t run for the seat held by retiring U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl.

Arpaio, who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff,” has long drawn strong reactions in the state and nationally for his aggressive tactics in rooting out illegal immigrants.

The sheriff, who was at Pearce’s side during his concession speech, said in an interview Wednesday that the outcome was an anomaly and the result of this “strange” election was not representative of the rest of the state.

The group that spurred the recall can come after him if it wants, he said.

“If they think they’re going to intimidate me, I got news for them,” Arpaio said. “This is the sheriff you’re talking about, with a gun and badge that enforces the law. Nothing is going to stop me from cracking down on illegal immigration as long as the laws are there.”

Back to Common Sense at the Polls

Editorial

Back to Common Sense at the Polls

Published: November 9, 2011

It might have been “too much too soon,” a chastened Gov. John Kasich of Ohio admitted on Tuesday night, after his state’s voters overwhelmingly rejected his attempt to break public employee unions. He certainly was right about “too much,” an analysis that also applies to other examples of Republican overreach around the country that were kicked into the gutter: an anti-abortion amendment in Mississippi, a voting restriction in Maine, the radical anti-immigrant agenda of a politician in Arizona.

SNIP

In Arizona, voters recoiling from anti-immigrant stridency recalled the State Senate’s president, Russell Pearce, who was the main sponsor and public face of Arizona’s immigration law, which imposed sweeping police-state powers to harass and expel people without papers. The law, largely blocked in federal court, has done huge damage to the state’s economy and reputation, and voters in Mr. Pearce’s district clearly had had enough.

SNIP

Wouldn't it be nice to boot Sheriff Joe

And of course for the flushing the will of the people down the toilet on the medical marijuana issue it would be nice to recall Arizona governor Jan Brewer.

Source

After successful Pearce recall, groups may target other polarizing Arizona politicians

Posted: Thursday, November 10, 2011 5:22 pm

By Garin Groff, Tribune

One group behind the recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce says the victory has emboldened it to begin a campaign against Sheriff Joe Arpaio because of his strong support for Pearce.

And another group says the recall’s outcome has created a new generation of Hispanic activists that will target other lawmakers it deems out of ouch with mainstream Arizona voters.

Randy Parraz, a Democrat and key figure in the recall, said the election shows that it’s possible to oust politicians who’ve handily won past elections. When the politics get too extreme, he said, it can fire up people who run the kind of energetic campaign that ousted Pearce.

The Republican Arpaio is up for re-election in November 2012, so Parraz said his Citizens for a Better Arizona would criticize Arpaio in a general election rather than opt for a recall.

“A lot of folks are tired of some of the extremism out of Arpaio,” Parraz said. “We’re definitely looking to hold him more accountable.”

Parraz said his organization’s members will meet in December and January to draft more specific efforts that could involve other groups that worked to recall Pearce.

Arpaio said he’s not worried after surviving nearly two decades of criticism.

“They will not intimidate me. They will not threaten me because I’m still going to do my job,” Arpaio said Thursday. “Nothing has changed one bit with Pearce leaving.” [ But it sure would be nice if they get you fat pig *ss booted out of office ]

Arpaio said if critics don’t like the immigration laws like SB 1070 that Pearce introduced, they should try to change the laws. [ But Arizona law allows the people to recall government tyrants and a recall is one effective way to change the laws, by booting out tyrants like Russell Pearce, Sheriff Joe and Governor Jan Brewer. ] He said he only enforces what’s law, [ which includes the laws he makes up, like the law that having brown skin is a crime ] and that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will operate the same way unless state or federal immigration policies change.

Arpaio noted he’s amassed a campaign war chest of $6 million. He said Parraz should meet with him if he has concerns instead of launch a campaign. Apraio said he’s met with critics who are local and national figures. [ Talking to Sheriff Joe will only get you a bunch of hot air. Recalling the thug is a much better way to go. ]

“The Reverend (Al) Sharpton, when he led 10,000 people against me, I talked to him,” Arpaio said. “I talk to everybody.” [ You never shut up! You fool! ]

Parraz said the Pearce recall unearthed a groundswell of support for Citizens for a Better Arizona and other organizations that will fight what they describe as too conservative.

The campaign finance reform organization Public Campaign will work to defeat some Republican lawmakers in 2012, said John Loredo, a Democrat and former state House minority leader. Public Campaign believes several lawmakers are vulnerable next year based on polling information about what motivated voters to defeat Pearce, Loredo said.

“The issue that polled the highest for Republicans was money in politics and corruption,” Loredo said. “And there are a whole lot of Republican legislators who are in the same boat.”

Lawmakers who oppose Arizona’s Clean Elections system, who take substantial donations from lobbyists or who alienate Hispanics are vulnerable, he said.

New legislative districts will be in place in 2012, which will weaken the power of incumbency because so many voters will find themselves in new districts, he said.

“There are going to be people who are sitting ducks and we are intending to take full advantage of that,” Loredo said.

He said the Pearce recall has spawned a big group of Hispanics who will remain politically active through their lives. They’re energized by their success and have learned how to cobble together various groups into a larger cause, he said.

“It is a model that we intend to duplicate in 2012 at every level,” he said. “We are intending to take full advantage of that.”

• Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com

Lewis' lead over Pearce grows in recall race

Lewis' lead over Pearce grows in recall race

Nov. 11, 2011 10:27 AM

Associated Press

Jerry Lewis' lead over Russell Pearce has widened as vote counting in the recall election for Pearce's Arizona Senate seat nears a conclusion.

Lewis held an 1,800-vote lead over Pearce on election night, and the latest tally released has him with a lead of nearly 2,700 votes after most of the remaining ballots were counted Thursday.

That amounts to Lewis having 55 percent of the vote and Pearce 44 percent, with a candidate who withdrew from the race getting 1 percent.

Monday is the deadline for voters who received conditional provisional ballots to go to an election office with identification.

Pearce has already conceded defeat.

Lewis takes oath, replacing Pearce in Senate

Lewis takes oath, replacing Pearce in Senate

by Gary Nelson - Nov. 22, 2011 09:25 PM

The Arizona Republic

Surrounded by his large family and his colleagues in the Legislature, Jerry Lewis took the oath of office Tuesday as Arizona's newest state senator.

The Mesa Republican defeated Senate President Russell Pearce in a historic Nov. 8 recall election, riding a backlash against the veteran lawmaker's priorities and governing style.

Tuesday's brief ceremony featured the oath of office administered by Arizona Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch. When it was over, Lewis saluted the applauding crowd.

Senate President Steve Pierce and Sen. Steve Yarbrough then escorted Lewis to his desk in the back row of the chamber.

There, Lewis introduced his wife, Janet, six of their seven children and numerous other family members, and then reiterated his campaign promise to focus on jobs and education.

"We have to get people back to work," Lewis said.

"I think the voters have spoken loud and clear they want us to focus on those things which are most near and dear to them. And, right now, the economy and education are those things."

Meet Steve Pierce, the new Senate leader

Meet Steve Pierce, the new Senate leader

by Mary Jo Pitzl - Nov. 19, 2011 08:37 PM

The Arizona Republic

Steve Pierce has spent 2 ½ years sitting in the back of the state Senate chambers, quietly surveying the proceedings and rising rarely to weigh in with a floor speech.

Now, as president-elect of the Senate, he'll be at the front of the room and pressed daily for comment on everything from the budget to the hot-button bill of the moment.

"I have lots of new friends," the Prescott rancher told the crowd attending the Arizona Tax Research Association's annual conference Friday. "They all want to come in and see me. I don't know most of them."

Among those new buddies: GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Pierce, a Republican, is finishing the term started by Russell Pearce, who was removed from office in a recall election earlier this month.

In his first week on the job, Pierce has tried to highlight the similarities and differences between "S Pierce" and "R Pearce," as the two were referred to at the Capitol to dispel any confusion.

The new president signaled he'll stick to much of the course the controversial Pearce charted, namely a focus on the economy and holding the line on state spending. He's been gracious about Pearce, saying the Mesa Republican didn't deserve being voted out of office. [ Wow! This guy is starting to sound just as bad as Russell Pearce! ]

Steve Pierce is devoid of the bombast and rigid ideology that made Russell Pearce a rock star among "tea party" types but also a ripe target for recall.

Pierce sticks close to his rancher roots, sprinkling his speeches with cow jokes and decorating his office with Western memorabilia.

He lives on and runs a ranch in Prescott, a property that's been in the family since he was a kid. A Phoenix native, Pierce spent his early years on grain and cattle ranches in the Valley, before the family moved north to raise herefords and black Angus on the rolling meadows of the Las Vegas Ranch.

The family left a legacy: His father donated 20 acres to the city, which today is the home of Pierce Park at 46th Street and Thomas Road. The developer who bought the family ranch built a shopping plaza at 40th Street and Thomas and called it Pierce Plaza in homage to the ranching family.

One of the wealthiest members of the Legislature because of his ranch holdings (he has a second one near Payson) and related business ventures, Pierce, 61, said he's still a hands-on rancher.

"That's all I've ever done," he said of ranching work and selling cattle.

Yes, he rides a horse, he says as he plucks a framed photo of himself on horseback from a forest of pictures in his office.

And yes, he's been bucked.

"I've been dumped," he said. "I had one (horse) roll on me when I was young that gave me a brain concussion."

But he's not all boots and spurs. He recently saw the Ballet Arizona production of Cinderella and said he listens to opera on his drives to the Capitol from Prescott.

"I like Randy Travis, too," he said.

He and his wife of 38 years, Joan, patronize the iconic steakhouse Durant's regularly and have made the rounds of some of the trendier restaurants in central Phoenix.

He became a fan of then-Sen. Ken Cheuvront's wine-themed restaurant soon after joining the Legislature, and the two -- from opposite sides of the political aisle -- became friends.

Cheuvront said Pierce reminds him of the Arizonans he grew up with 40 years ago: pragmatic, hardworking and good for their word.

Pierce said he tries to stick to a credo of treating others as he wants to be treated, and he said he is open to working with all 30 senators, even though with a supermajority of Republicans, Democrats are an afterthought at the Senate.

Pierce said he isn't one for lingering at the Capitol.

"I like to have fun," he said. "I'd like to see us start at 8 in the morning and be done at 3 in the afternoon."

That's one goal, he readily admits, he's unlikely to achieve.

Money can't always buy you an election.

Source

Pearce outspent opponent 3-1 in recall election loss

by Alia Beard Rau - Dec. 8, 2011 04:16 PM

The Arizona Republic

The final campaign-finance reports are in for west Mesa’s Legislative District 18 recall election, and they show that money can’t always buy a win.

In the first recall election of a sitting state legislator, ousted Senate president Russell Pearce raised $261,844 and spent $259,310. His successful opponent Jerry Lewis raised $84,979 and spent every penny of it.

Lewis won the district’s Senate seat with 55 percent of the vote.

The majority of Lewis’ donors came from inside Mesa. Fewer than a quarter of Pearce’s donors came from within the city.

Outside groups threw hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race, mostly advocating for or against the controversial Pearce.

Campaign Money Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports campaign-finance programs such as Arizona’s Clean Elections, spent $47,115 campaigning against Pearce.

Citizens For a Better Arizona, the group that got the recall on the ballot, raised $141,024 during the recall. It spent all of its money: $15,412 of it was spent through independent expenditures directly against Pearce and $6,523 was for independent expenditures on behalf of Lewis.

Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall raised $72,766 and spent $69,979.

Arizona Deserves the Best, which lists a Laveen address that belongs to Republican political consultant Constantin Querard, spent $36,918 campaigning on behalf of Pearce.

The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona spent $5,520 on behalf of Pearce.

The American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C. group that advocates for school vouchers and scholarship tax-credit programs, spent $21,140 on behalf of Pearce.

Several outside political committees also donated money directly to Pearce’s campaign, including local fire fighter organizations, Republican groups and Team America, a group focused on border enforcement.

No political committees donated directly to Lewis.

This latest round of finance reports show a large number of smaller donations to both candidates. But both candidates also got money from some notable donors.

Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, gave Pearce $250.

Glenn Spencer, president of the American Border Patrol, a non-government group that does its own patrols of the border, gave Pearce $250.

Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley gave Lewis $250.

Ousted Russell Pearce to run for Arizona Senate - Again!!!!!

Pearce to run for Arizona Senate

Ousted president seeks to return as LD 25 legislator

by Alia Beard Rau - Mar. 19, 2012 10:13 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

Seeking a political comeback after his ouster from a top legislative post, Russell Pearce will try to return to the Arizona Senate this fall.

The longtime Mesa lawmaker, who authored the controversial immigration law Senate Bill 1070 and has since become a national spokesman for tough illegal-immigration enforcement, announced his plan to run in the new Legislative District 25 on Monday night before a roomful of "tea party" supporters.

Pearce lost his seat and the presidency of the Senate in November when Jerry Lewis beat him in a recall election. Recall supporters said they wanted a lawmaker who focused on the economy and education, not the controversy over immigration.

Foes of the bill contended it was racially divisive and targeted Latinos. Its major provisions have been put on hold as it makes its way through fedeal courts.

"I know my duty," Pearce said as he formally announced his run. "It's been a nice vacation, but it's time to go back to work. We have a sacred duty to this land."

Before the announcement, Pearce said that among the goals he hopes to accomplish upon his return to office are quality education, "real school choice," lower taxes and less regulation, and great jobs for a struggling Arizona economy.

More than a dozen GOP leaders, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, appeared with Pearce. They spoke not only of Pearce's leading role on SB 1070 but his work on gun rights and budget cuts.

Pearce's entry further muddies an already crowded Republican field for the district, which primarily covers east Mesa.

Lewis isn't an issue. Boundaries drawn during redistricting put Lewis into LD 26, which covers west Mesa and parts of Tempe.

Sen. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa, is the incumbent in Pearce's new LD 25. Rumors have been rampant about whether Crandall will run and in which district.

Pearce and Crandall are not friendly. Crandall, considered to be a more moderate Republican, was among those who helped kill several immigration measures in 2011.

Crandall told The Arizona Republic last week that he planned to run. But that now seems up in the air with a surprise announcement from a third Mesa Republican Mormon.

Bob Worsley, who founded and later sold the Internet retailer SkyMall, has announced he will run for the Senate seat as well.

"I have been involved in politics and charitable causes in Arizona for many years as a volunteer," Worsley said. "I have actively worked to support policies and organizations that promote religious freedom, strengthen families, and seek limited government involvement in our lives."

Pearce said that Worsley is a good businessman with great values but that all the issues he's promised to run on are ones Pearce has already championed.

Russell Pearce is a hypocrite who loves government pork????

Source

Give Worsley a shot at Senate seat

Apr. 5, 2012 12:00 AM

Russell Pearce has worked for state government for over 40 years.

For a man who claims to dislike government and government workers, he sure likes the paycheck and benefits.

I guess it's alright for Pearce to feed at the trough of taxpayer money for all these years but not alright for others.

Bob Worsley is a businessman with a proven track record. Let's give him a shot at the state Senate seat that Pearce is also running for.

-- Bill Acree, Phoenix

Other articles on Russell Pearce and the Recall Russell Pearce election.

More articles on police officer, congressman, senator and government tyrant Russell Pearce.