MESA, AZ (KPHO/AP) -Voters have ousted state Sen. Russell Pearce in an unprecedented recall election, a first for an Arizona legislator.
With a majority of the precincts reporting, the top vote-getter, Republican Jerry Lewis, steps into the District 18 legislative seat for the second year of a two-year term.
Lewis claimed victory at 9 p.m.
People on both sides of the debate said that removing Pearce would send a powerful message to the Legislature that uncompromising stances on immigration and other issues will not be tolerated by voters.
Pearce, a 64-year-old conservative Republican from Mesa, outspent his challenger by more than a 3-to-1 ratio and painted the recall advocates as liberal outsiders who targeted him because of his immigration stance.
The recall election was forced by a petition drive. Pearce had support from Gov. Jan Brewer and dozens of other elected Republican officeholders, but he was dogged by disclosures that he accepted numerous free trips from the Fiesta Bowl to out-of-state college football trips.
Football trips? That’s what got them pissed off? From care 2:
State Senator Russell Pearce, the force behind Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law SB 1070, was defeated in a recall election by challenger Jerry Lewis, marking another big defeat for a state that led the way in immigrant-bashing legislation.
Pearce lost despite holding a 3-to-1 fundraising advantage and a media willing to believe his tales of widespread public support for SB 1070. But ultimately it was his nativist views that did him in.
This was the first election of its kind for Arizona which in some way makes sense that it would involve Pearce. He openly campaigned with neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, denied the Holocaust in an email to constituents and has a resume marked with time spent mentored by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
since it’s a round number, i thought i’d mention that this is the raisin’s 1700th post.
Coincidentally, 1700 is the year Russell Pearce lives in.
i think it’s more like the 1930s and 40s, and in germany.
I really hope we won’t see a Republican equivalent of the mandatory yellow star…
if it was up to jan fist-like-a-fist brewer, that’s exactly what they’d have, but for hispanics.
Wow Nonnie. You’ve been busy. It’s a wonderful site with good stuff every day. I love the picture of Jan Brewer, btw.
thanks, maggie. i had to borrow some ‘parts’ from teh google for face-like-a-fist brewer. i swear she’s one of the ugliest women who ever lived.
:: hoots ::
Hoot! Hoot!
did an owl get in here?
😉
Congratulation Nonnie. I will be here for your next 1700 .You’r doing a great job.
thanks, pjevs! i am very happy that you’ll be here for poster 3400! 😀
p.s. you almost fooled me with the new name, but i knew i had seen that gravatar before. 😉
I found out that several people use the name Robert so I decide to change it to Pjevs which is the name of my first dog.
whatever name you use, i’m just glad you stopped by. by the way, i love when people use their dogs’ names (past or present) for their user names, because it reminds me of the dogs i loved who are no longer here. i just might get another one one of these days.
Do you REALLY want my wiseacre comments being entered under “Zingo The Red Dwarf”?
it would make me giggle. every time! 😆
Wow – 1700? Awesome!
Hopefully another glimmer, however small, of common sense starting to spread. With Mississippi voting down the “life at conception” and Ohio voting down the anti-emergency-worker (and anti-union) state bill 2, there may be hope for us yet!
my fingers have been worn down to mere nubs, john. 😉
while we celebrating the return to sanity, we have to remember that those rethuglican governors who got cocky and overreached still did a lot of damage to this country that still remains. the pendulum still has to swing back a long way. the good news is that face-like-a-fist brewer has lost big time. i suspect that pearce was the one really in charge. she doesn’t sound very smart, and she can never answer a question about the batshittery she says she supports. i don’t think she knows the answers, because they were not her ideas. i think pearce was the driving force, and now that he’s gone, she’s been neutralized to a large degree.
Congrats, Nonnie! I’ve been having a lot of fun on your blog–hope you keep it up for a long time to come!
I’m still in a celebratory mood over the results of yesterday’s elections. They’ve confirmed my suspicions that most Americans are middle of the road in their opinions and will reject complete insanity. And I’m getting gleeful satisfaction out of the fact that most rightie talk show hosts I listened to today have not mentioned these election results at all. They talked about Cain, OWS, their lunch, anything to avoid the subject. Stings when the people speak out, doesn’t it?
thanks bratty! the raisinettes make this lots of fun for me. 😀
i’m celebrating but keeping in mind that we still have a long way to go to get this country back to sanity.
so glad that the hate-talkers’ heads are ‘sploding. good thing they’ll always have acorn to kick around, even though it no longer exists. not only that, but they can take heart that the war on xmas will be starting soon.
Yep, and they’ve been talking about Obama’s Christmas tree tax already.
oy! because a xmas tree is such a necessity? shit, why don’t they worry about all those people who won’t be able to put any presents for their kids under a xmas tree, because they don’t have jobs?
Especially since the tax was proposed during…you guessed it…the W administration. The tree industry is working with the USDA and the money assessed will be used for a campaign to promote buying fresh Christmas trees. But now Obama is the Grinch…sigh.
oy. faux news and the rightwing haters will blame obama for everything chimpy did. it’s like a kid getting blamed for everything his older brother did.
He gets blame for everything W did and none of the credit for his own successes, like killing bin Ladin. It’s totally the other side of the looking glass, except it’s the irritating version.
that particular looking glass could use a 55-gallon barrel of windex, because it seems to be covered with bullshit.
roflmao!
Wow … 1700 … even more impressive is that you are still going strong!
Meanwhile, although the post is more about Pearce, I gotta love Gov Brewer on the poster! Keep cranking them out Nonnie! You are a gem!!!
thanks frank! the raisinettes make all the work worthwhile. i love you guys!!! ♥
Ewww, Brewer’s Arizona sun chest. Yuck.
But good riddance to rancid rubbish.
her chest?
2nd everything John E said +1700? you go girl!!
mmmwwaahhhhh, edgyleh!! ♥
Hey, edgy just seconds my comments and gets kisses, and I barely rate a think-you? Harrumph! HARRUMPH, I say!!
oh, jeez, don’t be so sensitive, john. you got a 2-paragraph answer. if i had known i could avoid all that typing and just sent a kiss, i could have saved all that wear and tear on my fingers.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Aw, now you got me all blushing and stuff! 😉 (Right back at ya, girlfriend!)
♥
I’m glad you’re paying attention to these nitwits. I’ve been busy following the GOP candidate circus, which stopped a few miles up the street from me.
Video clips from last night’s Republican debate
The consensus: Perry lost by shooting himself in the foot. Herman Cain should be very grateful.
Also, congratulations on the 1700th post. You’re a model of endurance and consistency!
thanks for the link to crazy eddie’s. i watched the videos, because i didn’t watch the debate. and thanks for the congrats. i guess i should start planning what to do for #2000. it’s only about 10 months away! 😉
So glad this neanderthal got kicked to the curb- HE was the bum that needed to be thrown out!
Funny-he thought his job was secure- & the Ohio Gov. said his was the “state to watch”- thought union busting was “Mission Accomplished”.
Think again!
1700 kudos to you for all those posts! You Rock!
pearce was worse than a neaderthal. he was a cancer. he was truly the worst of the lot in arizona. there are some bad guys there still, including face-like-a-fist brewer and arpaio, but without pearce, they are weakened considerably.
you rock, too, fran! hope you’re feeling better every day. 🙂
1700! You have come a long way from monkey management that was supposed to last a few weeks…all those clever MS paint posters….all those times nobody bothered to comment…!! Now you have become a renowned photoshopper, keen political wit, and somedays, the commentors just go on and on (warning: troll season dead ahead). Congrats. Now that this Pearce jackass has a lot of free time, he can hang out with his babynazi friends. They could even establish a Freicorp and raid across the Az/Mex border for guns and amphetamines.
who would have thought back in 2007 that the raisin would still be around more than 4 years later and that there would be a merry band of funny and smart raisinettes to hang out with? how lucky am i? 😀
I almost lost it yesterday when I read this from the Washington Post, “Personhood amendment, union defeat shows voters are resistant to change”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/change-wary-us-voters-reject-ohio-union-curbs-abortion-ban/2011/11/09/gIQAEPIx5M_story.html
NONSENSE, Niquette and Selway – your spin on the votes is just that – SPIN. People are sick of extreme views on issues that affect them and their neighbors. Deal with it.
Ha! Quite the spin… how about this instead:
“”Personhood amendment, union defeat shows voters are resistant to insanity.”
the washington media, just like the politicians, live in a bubble. they hear the memes repeated over and over again by the political parties, and that’s what they use to gauge everything that’s going on. instead of voters being resistant to change, i think a better explanation would be buyers’ remorse. they’ve had a look of what life is like under rethuglican extremists, and they don’t like it.
Nice graphic 🙂
thanks hansi! 🙂