Russell Pearce: the man who wants to be shadow governor also wants to be shadow dictator of every city in the state

Russell Pearce may deride the U.S. government, saying that "states' rights" supercede any central authority, but he doesn't hold the same for Arizona's cities and towns in their dealings with the central authority of the Arizona state government.

First, his SB1070 would have shanghaied municipal police officers into his anti-immigrant purging force, no matter what the elected leaders of those municipalities thought their employees should be doing (you know, like preventing or investigating crimes in their jurisdictions).  It may still do so, but the law is winding its way through the courts.

Then, perhaps feeling that the City of Glendale is lax in fighting against the encroachment of Native Americans upon the Valley (yes, that's sarcasm.  Native Americans of one tribe or another were here long before the first settler with European roots.  Pearce is a small "n" nativist, not a capital "N" one.), Pearce has tried to interject himself into Glendale's legal conflict with the Tohono O'odham over a proposed tribal casino next to that city.

Pearce doesn't represent any part of Glendale (of course, that's a minor detail, considering that he doesn't actually work to represent his "official" constituents in West Mesa), nor is the legislature or the state government involved in the fight, but he still wants to meddle in the affairs of Glendale and the Tohono O'odham.

Finally, this past spring, he pushed through a bill, SB1108, that allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit or even training.  Beside that, it included a provision requiring that legitimately confiscated weapons be sold to gun dealers, unless such action would violate "FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL LAW."

He thought he had ensured a steady supply of low-cost product for local gun dealers.

Until a number of municipalities started passing ordinances requiring that confiscated weapons be destroyed (the "local law" segment of the above provision).

Now, he decries the "loophole" in the law (a law that he wrote and was the sole sponsor of) that allows cities and towns to determine their own procedures and governance, and has promised to "fix" the law so that cities and towns have no option but to put forfeited weapons back into public circulation.


So the man who doesn't help Mesa, even though he has been elected to represent part of it,  wants to interfere in  the local affairs of *other* cities? 

It's time for the voters of LD18 to make a change and elect somebody who will actually represent them.

Vote for Andrew Sherwood for State Senate.