When your winger relatives start to agree with you over the Thanksgiving dinner table, something is in the air, other than the warm scent of homemade bread. That "something" in Arizona smells like a recent outbreak of sanity. Consider this:
It was only one year ago that the following happened:
• Jan Brewer, a textbook example of the Peter Principle, beat Terry Goddard in the gubernatorial race. A Harvard graduate, Navy veteran, and lawyer, Goddard had a successful record as Mayor of Phoenix and State Attorney General. Brewer attended community college but didn't earn a degree, and nationally she was best known for the 16-second mind dump she took during a PBS debate. Riding the coattails of Russell Pearce's SB 1070, Brewer won handily.
• Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Sancho Panza, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, were busy laying the foundation of their police state. Thomas gave Arpaio and his cronies, like scumlord Chief Deputy David Hendershott, legal cover to detain, arrest, and indict just about anyone they wanted, including judges and elected officials who stood in their way. Arpaio was generally feared by politicians, the media, and people who sported a brownish hue.
• Russell Pearce, a man known to pal around with white supremacists, easily won a sixth straight legislative race in Mesa's über-conservative District 18. The author of SB 1070 and a steaming pile of other xenophobia, he was dubbed by the press as the "most powerful elected official in Arizona." Pearce's colleagues installed him as President of the Senate.
Flash forward one year:
• Governor Brewer's approval rating has dipped to 42 percent, partly because she continues to meddle with voter-approved initiatives, like the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC). Within the last two weeks she's been slam dunked twice by the Arizona Supreme Court. After Brewer removed Colleen Mathis as Chair of the AIRC, the Court reinstated her; after Brewer wrote the Court urging them to reconsider their reinstatement of Mathis, the Supremes told her to blow. While at the helm last session, Brewer gutted education a half billion dollars, the same amount she provided corporations in tax breaks. She kicked tens of thousands of people out of Arizona's once admired healthcare program, including 100 patients who had been promised life-saving organ transplants. In sum: the shit hole the state wallows in today was dug by the Governor and fellow GOP goobers. And most voters know it. Citizens for a Better Arizona, the group that successfully recalled Senator Pearce, is gearing up for a go at Jan Brewer.
• Sheriff Arpaio must be a lonely man these days. First, his sidekick Andy Thomas lost the GOP primary for Attorney General, even though he had the Sheriff's backing. Today Thomas is fighting for his legal hide after the Bar Association filed dozens of ethics complaints against him for the vindictive lawsuits he and Arpaio used to intimidate political enemies. Meanwhile, Arpaio's three senior deputies, including kingpin Dave Hendershott, are gone, kaput, nada, zilch. They were sent packing after another deputy released a scathing report about the Sheriff's Office, documenting cronyism, illegal campaign tactics, financial shenanigans, and other dickheaded goings-on. Also, the Feds are three years into a Grand Jury probe and DOJ investigation of Arpaio for racial profiling and abuse of powers. Even Arizona's milquetoast media isn't shy anymore about criticizing the old coot.
• Senator Russell Pearce's power began wilting during the first months of the legislative session. The public demanded that the legislature focus on jobs, yet Pearce introduced Birther Bills, an Official Weapons Bill, a Tea Party license plate, draconian abortion restrictions, and naturally more anti-immigrant nincompoopery. A tipping point occurred in March when both the business sector and the GOP-dominated Senate abandoned Pearce -- refusing to support five of his bills that one reporter called "SB 1070 on steroids." When Citizens for a Better Arizona launched their recall, Pearce laughed it off, bragging that he'd never lost an election. Then he ran a campaign that was obviously so full of lies and deceit that even conservatives who had supported him joined the recall effort. The "most powerful elected official in Arizona" was clobbered in the Nov. 8 election, losing by more than 12 points to a man who'd never held office. Both Governor Brewer and Sheriff Arpaio supported Pearce. Last year their endorsements might've meant something. Today, not so much.
Also during the year immigration and border crime fell significantly, robbing Brewer, Arpaio, Pearce, and other nativists of the cudgel they've used to clobber Obama ("He's not protecting us!"), as well as their main hair-on-fire argument for harsher immigration laws. A new ASU poll shows that nearly 80% of Arizonans favor a path to citizenship for undocumented workers (even 69% of Republicans!). Call it buyers' remorse or whatever, my righty relatives are weary of the fear-mongering, scapegoating, and lies. Even they would not vote for Jan Brewer again, are tired of Arpaio's bigoted buffoonery, and are glad to be rid of Russell Pearce.
Whenever someone posts here about Arpaio, Brewer, or any of Arizona's other GED-challenged brainpans, someone often asks in the comments, "Why do you keep electing these bozos?" There's still much to be done, but today we're giving thanks that soon we won't have to answer that question any longer.
UPDATE: Thanks for the recs, here's some more good news.
According to a new survey by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, Arizona Democrats might actually have a shot at beating Republican golden-boy Congressman Jeff Flake in the 2012 race to replace U.S. Senator Jon Ky. New Times