Wednesday, June 27th, 2007...6:04 am
Please, Save Us From Our Poor Political Decisions!
One of the things that has continued to amuse me in our state’s politics is the tendency of folks in the buisiness community to continue to support some of the retrograde freaks that run our legislature, but then expect Democratic officials to ride in and stop these guys from pursuing policies that hurt their interests.
I mean, it seems like the simplest way to make sure these elected officials don’t make life difficult for them would be to cut off their money so they can’t get elected in the first place. But then again, what do I know, I’m just a dumb liberal.
Case in point: take a look at the pressure on the governor to veto the employer sanctions bill. Now, here is the funny part: these are some of the same folks who gave the bill’s author, Russell Pearce, campaign money. For example, the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona PAC gave him $1000. Now, you can look through their contributions, and you will see that they throw their money at many candidates, including many folks that eventually signed on to this bill. Heck, they gave some of these guys “Legislator of the Year” awards.
The thing that makes this so silly is that Pearce has made his reputation on anti-immigration legislation. This particular bill is one he has been pusing for years. Are they now suprised?
(By the way, the Central Arizona Homebuilders endorsed Janet Napolitano’s opponent in the last election. Given her support from other parts of the buisiness community, this made them a notable outlier.)
Ohters who gave to Pearce’s campaign but now want the bill vetoed include Joe Sigg with the Arizona Farm Bureau, Jim Norton with the Arizona Association of Industries and Michael Preston Green from the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Norton and Green, by the way, maxed out to Pearce’s campaign.
I understand their desire to support a Republican, but Pearce isn’t just a run of the mill Republican. His raison d’etre is keeping immigrant labor out of Arizona to the point of being nearly monomaniacal. What exactly did they think would happen? Oh, I’m sure they had no idea that he was serious about that.
2 Comments
June 27th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Russell Pearce doesn’t care about illegal immigration. His raison d’etre is keeping down Latinos, legal or illegal. And Jews…almost forgot them.
June 28th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
It serves them right! The Arizona and Phoenix Chambers have operated under the auspices of bipartisanship for the past five years. Yet the cadre of hard right republicans like Michael Green, Jim Norton, Wendy Briggs, Jay Kaprosy, John Mangum, Dick Foreman and Kevin Kinsall who populate their PAC boards have classified only the most conservative candidates as “business friendly”. State and local business leaders have lacked the wherewithal to question whether their interests are best served by blind ideologues. Further, it is poetic justice that the business community will suffer at the hands of their own chosen few.
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