Salon.com > Russell Pearce

Anti-immigration hawk trounced

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:34:00 +0000

While Republican convention-goers fortify the ramparts of their Arizona-style immigration platform, SB 1070 standard-bearer Russell Pearce went down in an expected but still humiliating Republican primary defeat for a state senate seat last night.

Perhaps someone needs to inform the Republican convention: Russell Pearce has left the building.

"In less than one year, Russell Pearce has gone from being the most powerful politician in the state to being unemployed," said Randy Parraz, whose Citizens for a Better Arizona organization led last year's recall election of the former state senate president and played a key role in getting out voters in yesterday's primary election. "Not only did Pearce lose the historic recall election, he just lost the Republican primary by double digits. Russell Pearce's brand of extreme, divisive and hateful politics is finally over."

Inside the Russell Pearce recall

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:01:00 +0000

On a sunny day in January 2011 I found myself driving around a section of west Mesa, Ariz., looking for a meeting. I was from out of town and the address I was given was hard to find because the buildings were unmarked. I drove around the area several times before stopping on a side street and hitting my steering wheel in frustration. Then I noticed what appeared to be some kind of city utility building on the corner. There were a few cars in the lot, so I figured this had to be it and I drove in. I followed another late arrival into a conference room where about 20 people were gathered. They were there to meet about how to unseat Russell Pearce, the most powerful man in Arizona politics. I finally knew I was in the right place.

What happens in Arizona doesn’t stay in Arizona

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

MESA, Ariz. -- Almost a year to the day after he took power as the self-proclaimed "Tea Party president" and thrust Arizona's hard-line immigration and anti-federal laws into the national arena, state Senate president Russell Pearce watched in bewilderment yesterday as an extraordinary citizens campaign of Democrats, Independents and moderate Republicans dethroned him in a historic recall election.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era in Arizona politics," declared Randy Parraz, the co-founder of the Citizens for a Better Arizona, which spearheaded the recall campaign to great derision last January. "The reign of Senate president Russell Pearce has finally come to an end."

As the darling of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council and an influential ideologue in the nativist-tinged anti-immigrant movement, however, Pearce is not the only loser in the election upset. With more than 90 percent of his campaign funds coming from corporate lobbyists and out-of-district contributions, allowing him to vastly outspend his opponent, Pearce lost by a nearly 10 percent margin -- 53.4 percent to 45.3 percent -- to Republican newcomer Jerry Lewis, a moderate Mormon leader who largely ran his grass-roots campaign as a referendum on Pearce's extremist views.