Phoenix Activist Randy Parraz Led a Non-Partisan Army to Take Down Nativist Russell Pearce
It’s a bit lengthy, but well worth reading in full at this link.. Don’t read the excerpts below, you’ll just have to read them again in context.
Pearce and his old pal Sheriff Joe Arpaio say sayonara to Pearce’s political career. AP Photo/Matt York
Democrats say the darnedest things.
In the aftermath of Russell Pearce’s defeat in the November 8 Legislative District 18 recall election, local Democrats have been trying to make it seem as if the former state Senate president’s stuffed head was a prize they could hang on their walls.
The day after Pearce’s downfall, ultra-lefty Democratic state Senator Kyrsten Sinema appeared on Keith Olbermann’s show Countdown, on Current TV, to analyze the outcome.
By way of introduction to the topic, Olbermann said, “I know you worked — and everybody there worked — very hard on this, but did you ever expect this would happen?”
Sinema, who never has had anything to do with the recall group Citizens for a Better Arizona [CBA] and did nothing to assist get-out-the-vote efforts in the waning days of the campaign, did not disabuse Olbermann of his misconception.
Nevertheless, her answer portrayed her own perception of a recall most Democratic leaders dreaded at the time it was filed in late January.
“In the early days, many of us just thought this was a political statement,” she said, “to try [to] hold Russell accountable for not just [Senate Bill 1070] but, really, many other pieces of legislation and controversies that have gone on in Arizona.
“But over time, as Russell continued to get embroiled in [more scandals] — and efforts by [opponent Jerry Lewis’] camp and Democrats and independents, unaffiliated groups, doing great field work — it began to seem that it was really a possibility, that this election would come out on top for Jerry Lewis.”
I remember speaking with Democratic Party insiders at the time Citizens for a Better Arizona filed its recall petition paperwork at the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. They were horrified by CBA and the group’s co-founder, failed U.S. Senate candidate Randy Parraz, whom Democratic muck-a-mucks saw as a dangerous pariah.
The recall idea was “doomed to failure,” they all said (off the record, naturally). And worst of all, they feared that the recall would “only make Pearce stronger” when it failed. They also feared retribution, that Pearce would retaliate against them, as he was known to do to any who crossed his shadow in the sun.
So it is amusing to sit and watch the Democratic bigwigs embrace publicly what they once privately loathed.
[…]
Rather, Parraz stressed the bipartisan nature of the victory.
Sure, Democrats, as individuals, worked like hell for CBA — first, to secure the signatures necessary to make the recall a reality, then on CBA’s well-organized get-out-the-vote effort — but so did Republicans.
“There are a lot of Republicans I love and respect because of what they’ve done,” Parraz said.
Indeed, there always have been many Republicans disgusted with Pearce’s Hispanic-bashing, his sleazy Fiesta Bowl payoffs, his banning people from the state Senate building, his high-profile politicking with neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists.
[…]
Parraz was enraged and began kicking around the concept of a recall with friend and Republican lawyer Chad Snow, who had worked with him against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in an organization Parraz fronted, Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability.
Snow, a Mormon, likes to joke, “It was Sheriff Joe that brought us together.”
In 2008, Snow attended a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors. He didn’t know Parraz, who had led a group of MCSA supporters to the meeting, demanding that the Supes address Arpaio’s various abuses of power.
Weirdly, Snow was placed in handcuffs briefly by Arpaio’s deputies, for no apparent reason.
He remembered an MCSO supervisor coming down a hall, ordering his release.
“‘You’ve got the wrong one, you’ll have to let him go,’” the supervising deputy said, according to Snow. “As they were walking me out, they were walking Randy back, under arrest.”
Parraz was falsely arrested for failing to obey a police officer, and a lawsuit against the county still is outstanding over the incident. Characteristically, Parraz has refused to settle.
That afternoon, Snow visited Parraz in jail and offered to defend him.
[…]
Based on my sources and my observations, Pearce, Willems, Coughlin, Querard, and all of Pearce’s goofy Tea Party worshipers were down from day one with whatever it took to assure Pearce’s survival. Ethical violations and alleged lawbreaking? No problem, as long as their candidate triumphed.
I’ve got to wonder if they learned anything. That is, that their shenanigans backfired, that they lost because of them.
I’m guessing not.
[…]