Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce and his political opponent Jerry Lewis squared off in a debate at the East Valley Institute of Technology Thursday night for a crowd of 500 District 18 voters.
The debate, sponsored by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, allowed Lewis and Pearce to voice their opinions on a variety of issues important to Arizona residents, ranging from illegal immigration to education.
Randy Parraz of the bipartisan activist group Citizens for a Better Arizona is the leader of the recall election effort. Parraz managed to collect more than 10,000 signatures on a petition promoting the recall of the Senate president.
Demonstrators showed up in front of EVIT to stage a rally in support of their candidates, with both Pearce and Lewis advocates drawing sizeable crowds.
Pearce, who is notorious for his radical conservative views, was the mastermind behind Senate Bill 1070 in addition to several other laws targeting illegal immigration. Although SB 1070 is assumed to be a large motivating factor behind the recall election, Lewis supporters do not cite immigration reform as their only motivation.
“It’s not only about SB 1070,” said Amy McMullen, a Lewis supporter and organizer of the rally at EVIT. “I think that it’s a ridiculous law and has hurt our state tremendously, but it’s also the fact that he’s cut $450 billion from education in this country and state and (Arizona) is also third from the bottom in terms of number of children without health insurance in the United States.”
Despite Pearce’s tough stance on illegal immigration, he has managed to draw quite a few supporters from the Hispanic community. Arthur Olivas, a Pearce advocate of Native American and Mexican descent, says he is a firm supporter of SB 1070 and Pearce’s illegal immigration policies.
“People say I’m a Mexican-American but I am an American,” Olivas said. “If you read SB 1070, it’s against illegal immigrants, the people that are coming in here and running our state dry. (The illegal immigrants) are over here asking for housing, food stamps (and) education. They’re asking for everything and we just can’t afford those suckers anymore.”
Despite the overwhelming majority of the demonstrators at the debate firmly endorsing either Pearce or Lewis, some demonstrators were present simply to protest Pearce and to support the recall election.
Should Pearce lose in the recall election on Nov. 8, he will be the second elected official in Arizona history to be removed through office in a recall election — the first being a judge in the 1920s.
Reach the reporter at doberhau@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
