Recall Pearce turns in more than 18,000 signatures

Arizona had a good day today...and Russell Pearce had a very bad day.

Today was a "historic" day, as described by Chad Snow, chairman of Citizens for a Better Arizona.. 

For the the first time in Arizona history, a sitting legislator faces a recall election.

For the first time in US history (as far as anyone can find, anyway), a sitting state senate president faces a recall election.

Monday afternoon, hundreds of supporters, ages 8 to 80, of the Recall Pearce initiative gathered at the state capitol to help turn in the petitions circulated by more than 300 volunteers who gave up their weekends and evenings to work for a better Arizona.

Reports were that Pearce was at the Capitol Monday but didn't meet with the Recall supporters, nor did he answer media questions.

They turned over 18,000 signatures, more than the number of votes Pearce received last November.

Now the process of certifying the signatures begins.  My expectations are that Pearce and his allies, which include both the governor and the secretary of state, will do everything they can to derail the movement.

When this effort began in January, many skeptics (and I freely admit, I was one of the skeptics) didn't believe that Randy Parraz and the rest of the Citizens for a Better Arizona crew could pull it together and pull it off, but they did, and regardless of whatever games the Pearce and his friends play with the certification process, all of the Citizens for a Better Arizona deserve our thanks.

Arizona Capitol Times coverage here

Arizona Republic coverage here.

Phoenix New Times coverage here.


Some pics of the day today, courtesy Robert Hääscħ, via the Recall Pearce Facebook page -

Marching from the Senate building to the Executive Tower

Filling the entrance of the Tower

Randy Parraz explaining a chart showing the number of sigs gathered

Crates full of petitions

The story of the end of Pearce's political career, if this leads to that outcome, won't be titled  "For Who The Bell Tolls" (that's been taken already by some no-name hack :)) ), ir'll be "For Whom The Papers Riffle."  Not as profound a title, but it may have as profound a meaning...

Short Attention Span Musing

Just a few quick hits for a Saturday...

...Just how crazy/bad does a Republican have to be for Russell Pearce not to endorse him?  I don't know, but apparently Jack Harper does.

...Ben Quayle, one of the gaggle of R candidates jockeying for a shot at replacing Congresman John Shadegg in CD3, received a lot of press coverage this week.  And contrary to the popular saw, not all publicity is good publicity.

First, he denied, then admitted, to writing for a "racy" website, TheDirty.com (at the time, it was called "TheDirtyScottsdale.com").

Then he gained notoriety for airing what has to be the most content-free TV spot of the election cycle wherein he labelled Barack Obama as the "worst President in history."  At no point did he ever talk about CD3 or its needs...or why he would be the best one to serve those needs.

Of course, considering that he recently sent out a "awww, isn't he a great family man?!?" mailer showing him with his kids...only he doesn't have kids, this weeks screwups should have been expected.  Still, with his family name recognition and the vast amount of money from out-of-state contributors that he has access to, he may still pull of winning the R nomination in CD3.

No matter which of the many Rs running in CD3, Democrat Jon Hulburd stands firmly in their way.

...The Parraz campaign is touting some poll numbers in the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.  Their numbers show them behind Rodney Glassman by 3 percentage points, which is within the margin of error.  Those numbers are consistent with other polls, so that is not news.  What is interesting is the data that Latino voters are going for Parraz by a 6 or 7 to 1 margin.  And that Latino turnout is up.

Now, campaigns only release internal polling numbers when they show (or can be spun to show) their candidates' strength, so take the release with a grain of salt.

However, if it is true, especially the part about Latino turnout increasing, it shows a possible path out of the electoral woods for AZ Democrats. 

The Republicans' whole-hearted embrace of the nativist ideals of Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer to gain support in primary races could come to backfire on them in November.

Here's hoping....

...Finally, while the last of the three escapees from one of Arizona's privately-operated prisons is still on the loose (maybe in Montana, though by now he and his cousin/fiancee/drug mule for a white supremacist gang could be anywhere) and Terry Goddard, Arizona's Attorney General and a candidate for governor, has called for reviewing and revamping prison security in AZ, Governor Jan Brewer has been out picnicking "campaigning", with nary a word about private prisons, her administration's ties to private prison operators, or even hearings to look into the failure of the private prisons to protect the public from murderers.

Just another Saturday roundup in the desert...