Russell Pearce is a Republican Arizona State Senator representing Legislative District 18, which covers most of western and central Mesa and small portions of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. He became President of the Arizona Senate when the Senate began its current term in January 2011. He previously served in the Arizona House of Representatives. Pearce is most widely known for sponsoring Arizona SB1070, a controversial anti-illegal alien measure, and for subsequently becoming the first state legislator in Arizona history to be removed from office via a recall election in November 2011. He is expected to officially leave office once the Arizona Secretary of State certifies the recall election results, which is anticipated to occur on November 21.

History

As a young man, Pearce joined the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. He served with the National Guard in Arizona during the Vietnam War. He served as a sheriff’s deputy for 23 years, including a stint as Chief Deputy Sheriff under Joe Arpaio. After an incident where he continued to pursue several gang members after being shot in the chest, he received a Medal of Valor from the Department. Pearce claims credit for one of Arpaio’s more publicized and controversial actions, that of housing jail inmates in tents. Following disagreements with Arpaio, Pearce moved to the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division.

In 1995 Pearce became the Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division. Three notable accomplishments during his tenure were: 1) bringing in IBM to create the first version of servicearizona.com, an online resource for Arizonans to update their MVD information, and 2) more controversially, Pearce enrolled Arizona in the then optional (at the federal level) National Drivers Registry program, making collection of social security numbers for drivers licenses mandatory at the state level to comply with the then optional federal program. This caused controversy at the time because he caused SSNs to be displayed on the face of the driver’s license, causing the state legislature to have to later take up legislation to obfuscate the SSN, replacing it with a “D” which is seen today. However, the SSN is still collected at the time of application or via SSOLV, and remains on the Arizona driver’s license file. Pearce oversaw the implementation of a law requiring that applicants for drivers’ licenses provide either a birth certificate proving they are United States Citizens, or documents proving they are in the United States legally.

Privatization a Success

Perhaps Pearce’s most notable accomplishment during his tenure as Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division was to bring about the program that allowed for the privatization of many MVD functions by private companies. MVD Business Partners are private individuals or companies that are authorized to conduct a variety of MVD services. One type of MVD Business Partner, known as an Authorized Third Party (ATP), provides an alternative means of receiving services that are transacted in MVD field offices. Revenues due to the State of Arizona for transactions must be remitted daily to MVD. A service charge or convenience fee may be collected by Third Parties in addition to the appropriate state fees. Individuals who request certification to work for an ATP must undergo a criminal history check and successfully complete training courses. Performance measures are compiled regularly to track the amount and type of work performed. Compliance auditors monitor the work for adherence to policies, rules and statutes. This alliance has been a resounding success, providing fast, efficient and competitive service that benefits all of the citizens of Arizona.

Pearce was discharged from the position of Director of the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division in August 1999 by Arizona Department of Transportation Director Mary Peters after an investigation revealed that two of Pearce’s subordinates had tampered with a Tucson Woman’s driving record. Pearce later said he was cleared of wrongdoing, but Peters told the Arizona Republic, “There’s a big difference between being cleared and choosing not to file criminal charges.”

He was elected to the Arizona legislature in 2000. Conservative tax activist Grover Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform, named Pearce a “Hero of the Taxpayers” for 2003.

Immigration Policies

In 204 Russell Pearce supported Arizona’s Proposition 2000, which requires individuals to produce proof of citizenship before they may register to vote or apply for public benefits in Arizona. Prop 200 was approved by voters as a ballot initiative in 2004. Proof of citizenship includes an Arizona drivers license issued on or after October 1, 1996, the date from which Arizona drivers licenses were required to contain SSNs on the drivers license data file.

Pearce was a lead sponsor of Arizona SB1070, which passed into law on April 2010 as the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. The measure attracted national attention as the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades within the United States. After the Obama administration challenged the law, resulting in a federal court ruling that most of the law was unconstitutional, Pearce told a gathering of conservative activists, “When you talk about jihad, that is exactly what Obama has against America, specifically the State of Arizona.”

In a recent story on NPR, he was quoted as saying, “I believe in the rule of law . . . I’ve always believed in the rule of law. We’re a national of laws.”; and “I will not back off until we solve the problem of this illegal invasion. Invaders, that’s what they are. Invaders on the American sovereignty and it can’t be tolerated.” In reaction to the federal government’s seeking of an injunction against enforcement of the law on constitutional grounds: “It’s outrageous and it’s clear they don’t want (immigration) laws enforced. What they want is to continue their non-enforcement policy,” Pearce said. “They ignore the damage to America, the cost to our citizens, the deaths” tied to border-related violence.

He has also sponsored Arizona SB1097, also debated in the legislature during the 2010 term, which seeks to quantify the impact of illegal immigration on the state’s K – 12 education system. The test of the bill states that:

School districts would be required to identify and count all students who are in the U.S. illegally.
The state’s Department of Education would be required to report annually on the impact and costs to state taxpayers of the enrollment of these students.
The state Superintendent of Public Instruction would be authorized to withhold state aid from districts that do not comply with the law.

CNN announced on June 15, 2010 that Senator Pierce is proposing a measure that would deny U.S. Citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants in an effort to thwart so-called “anchor babies”. The vast majority of legal scholars have stated that such a measure would be unconstitutional as the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

The endorsement of the Utah Compact by Pearce’s church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has resulted in accusations that Pearce opposes the social stance held by his own church on illegal immigration. Pearce addresses these accusations by reaffirming that he supports the principles in the Utah Compact such as the importance of the family and showing respect to immigrants. However, he disagrees with what he considers to be a deceitful purpose of the Utah Compact being used as a political vehicle for pro-amnesty activists. He disagrees with the compact’s failure to differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. The church’s adoption of compassion-based approaches to immigration issues has sharply divided Mormons, with an increasing number being opposed to Pearce’s immigration platform and desiring a solution more resembling the Compact.

Controversy

Pearce faced criticism in 2006 after he called for the renewal of a 1950’s immigration enforcement program, Operation Wetback, that deported or encouraged to deport 1.3 million illegal immigrants in less than a year. Hispanic groups said the use of the word wetback was derogatory.

In October 2006, Russell Pearce included the test of an article by National Alliance, a white separatist group, in an email to a group of supporters. The article, titled “Who Rules America,” contained allegations of Jewish control of the media and of multiculturalism being a Jewish anti-White conspiracy, as well as Holocaust denialism. He quickly apologized to supporters in an email, stating: “Ugly the words contained in it really are. They are not mine and I disavow them completely. Worse still, the website links to a group whose politics are the ugliest imaginable.” Pearce told reporters he did not agree with the anti-Semitic and racist statements in the article, and that he had copied it from an email forwarded to him by someone else after “the title and the first paragraphs about media bias appealed to him.”

Pearce was also criticized for his association with white supremacist J.T. Ready. Pearce endorsed Ready for Mesa City Council in 2006 and appeared with him at several rallies. In 2004 Pearce was photographed attending J.T. Ready’s baptism in to the LDS Church. Church documents reveal that Pearce ordained J.T. Ready into the LDS priesthood. Pearce has since claimed he was unaware of Ready’s neo-Nazi affiliations at the time he made the endorsement.

In April 2008, Pearce sponsored a measure, Senate Bill 1108, that would bar Arizona public schools from teachings that “denigrate[s] American values and the teachings of Western civilization,” and prohibit the formation of groups at public tertiary institutions “based in whole or part on the race of their membership”. Pearce said he didn’t want students indoctrinated with progressive ideologies. The Arizona Republic noted the measure could ban groups such as the Black Business Students Association at Arizona State University or Native Americans United at Northern Arizona University. Critics of the bill called it vague and predicted its implementation would have chilling effects.

As lead sponsor of Arizona SB1070, Pearce received assistance from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in drafting the text for the legislation. In December 2007, FAIR was identified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In the early 1990s, FAIR received funding from the Pioneer Fund, a eugenics society established in 1937 “to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences” that the SPLC has described as a neo-Nazi organization.

In October 2010, the SB 1070 bill, which Pearce sponsored in the legislature, came under criticism for benefiting private prison companies. Most of the language of the bill had been written as model legislation at a December 2009 meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where Pearce was joined as an attendee by officials of the company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA “executives believe immigration detention is their next big market” according to NPR.

In November 2010, Pearce launched a push to reject $7 billion in federal funding for Arizona’s Medicaid program, which serves more than one million people. When asked what those who rely upon this program for health care would do if it no longer has the funds to operate, Pearce said “They’ll probably be okay.”

2011 Recall

On May 31, 2011, Citizens for a Better Arizona turned in 18,315 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office to recall Russell Pearce. On July 8, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office officially verified that the recall petitions had sufficient signatures. On July 12, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer issued an order calling a special recall election in November. Pearce is the first state lawmaker in Arizona history to be recalled.

Mesa Republican Jerry Lewis announced he would stand against Senator Pearce. Independent Tommy Cattey also filed to become a candidate in the recall election. Pearce’s supporters recruited Republican Olivia Cortes to run in the recall election to split the anti-Pearce vote. Cortes later dropped out of the race; as of October 2011, several members of Pearce’s campaign effort are accused of Class 5 felonies for their in the sham candidacy.

On November 7, 2011, the night before his recall election, Mesa voters were flooded with robo-calls from Pearce’s supporters, informing them that both Pearce and his challenger Jerry Lewis were Republicans. The call then encouraged voters to protest this one-sided election by writing in their own candidate. Critics argue that this was a blatant attempt to dilute the votes of those wishing to remove Pearce from office.

On November 8, 2011, Pearce was defeated in the recall election by challenger Jerry Lewis. Among reactions: Lewis said, “We now have an opportunity to heal the divide in Mesa”; and Pearce said, “If being recalled is the prize for keeping one’s promises, then so be it.”