Here is some propaganda put out by Arizona government tyrant Russell Pearce asking people not to recall him.

Not he is supported by numerous other Arizona government tyrants including Arizona governor Jan Brewer and the worlds worst police state Sheriff, which is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Recall Arizona tyrant Russell Pearce

Charter school executive Jerry Lewis announced Wednesday morning that he will challenge state Senate President Russell Pearce in the Nov. 8 recall election.

The Mesa Republican also filed election paperwork Wednesday, more than a week after signaling interest. Lewis said he would do more to promote economic and education polities if elected while working more closely with others. He said he was drafted by community members to challenge Pearce.

“I believe it’s time to restore a style of leadership to Mesa that its residents can be proud of,” Lewis said.

Lewis announced his candidacy to more than 200 supporters at the Wright House in Mesa, where he referred to Pearce as a friend. Both are Mormons and Lewis said he’ll run a positive campaign without making personal attacks.

“Our faith teaches us to treat each other with respect and kindness,” he said.

Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley said a groundswell of support has been building for Lewis and that the candidate is well known in Legislative District 18.

“He’ll restore sanity to the process instead of this concept that we’ll rule by fear,” Stapley said.

Supporters said they expect Pearce will dwarf the amount of money Lewis can raise, given Pearce’s national prominence on immigration issues. Already, a nationwide campaign has started to raise money for Pearce in what is Arizona’s first-ever recall of a lawmaker.

The campaign is Lewis’s only venture into the political arena. He is an assistant superintendant for Sequoia Schools, a Mesa-based charter school organization with 13 Arizona locations. He is a former certified public accountant and has been a vice president with the Grand Canyon Council of the Boy Scouts.

His campaign is headed by Mesa attorney Dea Montague, former Mesa Vice Mayor John Giles and attorney Clint Smith.

Lewis is the most prominent challenger but the third to enter the race. Mesa audiologist Tommy Cattey filed paperwork July 16 with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office. He’s an independent. On Tuesday, Republican Olivia Cortes filed papers to begin her candidacy. Candidates must gather 621 signatures to get on the ballot.

A likely challenger in the recall against state Senate President Russell Pearce filed a police report that a padlock was thrown from a truck and struck him in the groin.

Charter school executive Jerry Lewis was hit about 6:30 a.m. Saturday while jogging with another person near Brown and Harris roads, Mesa police said Tuesday. Lewis reported seeing a passenger stick his hand out of the truck.

"All of a sudden he feels himself hit in the groin. It hurts," Mesa police Sgt. Ed Wessing said.

After, Lewis's jogging partner found a padlock in the road.

Lewis described the truck as a white, lifted Chevrolet pickup with chrome rims. It was pulling a black trailer. The passenger was a man about 35 to 40 years old with short brown hair, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt. Police took the lock into evidence and will determine if they can recover fingerprints, Wessing said.

Lewis declined medical attention at the scene.

Lewis signaled interest in mounting a campaign more than a week ago and plans to make a formal announcement Wednesday morning in Mesa.

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.

-------------------------------------------------

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."

For more articles on government tyrant Russell Pierce
check out this site:

http://baseline-beating.tripod.com/russell_pearce_tyrannt.html

Russell Pearce is a liar, slander and hate monger?

Damn, why does that remind me of that alleged Libertarian creep David Dorn? Duh! Probably because I discovered that 10 years ago that asshole was spreading around lies about me telling people I was a government snitch. F*ck David Dorn!

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.

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.

Jerry Lewis - a Nazi Just like Russell Pearce

Olivia Cortes - a Nazi just like Russell Pearce
She is trying to get the Latino vote so Russell Pearce will beat Jerry Lewis

Bottom line - politics is corrupt!

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.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/09/20/20110920pearce-recall-investigation-of-candidate-cortes.html

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

Source

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 Channe

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

Source

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

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

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.

Russell Pearce Police State Thug

State will not remove Olivia Cortes from recall ballot

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

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 sham candidate in Russell Pearce recall election

Support the Police State - Vote Russell Pearce - Heil Hitler

Support the Police State - Vote Russell Pearce - Heil Hitler

Author of Arizona immigration law Pearce loses recall fight

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."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/11/08/20111108russell-pearce-recall-trailing-jerry-lewis.html

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, supporters of Jerry Lewis 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."

10,000 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.

This was like an election between Hitler, Stalin and Mao. It doesn't matter who wins the election the public gets screwed.

Russell Pearce is a racist police state thug who wrote Arizona's racist SB 1070 law.

Jerry Lewis is almost a carbon copy clone of racist police state thug Russell Pearce. Jerry Lewis thinks we should also boot all the Mexican's out of Arizona, but Jerry Lewis would do it in a kinder, gentler way.

Like Russell Pearce, Jerry Lewis also supports putting marijuana smokers in jail and wants to treat gays as third class citizens.