AZ Policy Wonk

The Arizona Capitol Times made a mistake last week that caused confusion for many readers and minimized the life work of a tireless leader of the labor movement.

A story that referred to Dolores Huerta should have contained a fairer and more accurate description of her work as a community organizer who has spent decades fighting for the rights of farm workers and immigrants. Instead, the story relied upon an unverified statement by Tom Horne.

Horne, the state superintendent of public instruction, was testifying to the House Education Committee on Feb. 15 when he made a comment that reduced the life work of Delores Huerta into a trivial sound bite.

The Capitol Times repeated Horne’s comment on page 8 of the Feb. 19 edition. The mistake was regrettable, and it’s not worth repeating here. It’s more important to set the record straight.

Huerta’s work with the late Cesar Chávez to form the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 provides a glimpse at her life as a labor-rights activist, but she has been involved in numerous causes in addition to her work to organize farm workers.

Her political successes go back to 1960, when she worked to help pass a law in California that permitted people to take the driver’s examination in Spanish. She later worked to pass a law that ended the Bracero program, which brought contract laborers to the U.S. from Mexico.

Huerta is credited with coining the phrase “Si, se puede,” which means “Yes, we can.”

Huerta runs the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on community organizing and fighting for policies that benefit workers, immigrants, families, women and youth.

The 79-year-old has been arrested numerous times for participating in civil disobedience activities, and she was beaten with police batons in 1988 during a protest in San Francisco. The beating caused five broken ribs, the loss of her spleen and other injuries. When Huerta won a settlement with the San Francisco Police Department, she reportedly gave the money to organizations that assist farm workers.

Huerta is married to Cesar Chávez’ brother, Richard Chávez. She has 11 children.

Those who know Huerta describe her as a resolute and tough woman who doesn’t mince words. She certainly didn’t hold back when she spoke to Tucson high school students in 2006 and declared that “Republicans hate Latinos.” Her statement attracted criticism from students, parents, teachers, lawmakers and, most of all, Republicans.

The speech also started a movement to pass a state law to ban controversial speakers in public schools. Although that idea never became law, lawmakers have proposed an alternative this year.

H2281, the bill that Horne was talking about when he brought up Huerta, would ban classes that promote hatred against a specific race or promote the overthrow of the U.S. government. The bill passed unanimously, but before it did, Horne made the disrespectful comment about Huerta’s relationship with Cesar Chávez.

Huerta has a lot of critics, and some people downright disagree with everything she stands for. But, to many others, she is an iconic figure who has endured decades of struggle to improve the lives of disadvantaged people.

Horne, obviously, is free to say what’s on his mind, but the Arizona Capitol Times shouldn’t have repeated it. At the very least, it minimized the life of a woman who has devoted her life to bringing about changes that she believes in.

The bill moratorium is over, but senators still filed fewer bills this year than they did last year.

This year, 443 bills were filed in the Senate before the Feb. 1 deadline. The House still has another week before representatives are cut off.

That’s down from the 469 bills that were filed in the before the Senate’s deadline last year, while Senate President Bob Burns was enforcing a ban on non-budget bills. The moratorium was lifted this year, but it was replaced by a stern warning to introduce only bills that were of the highest priority.

Apparently, the senators listened.

Normally, the bill totals in the Senate are around 500. In 2008, for instance, 505 bills were filed before the deadline.

Everyone knows, however, that the bill deadlines don’t mean much. Bills that aren’t going anywhere can be re-written as strike-through amendments, and that happens quite a bit. And the Senate president or speaker of the House can give special permission to file bills after the deadline, which happens often when budget bills are introduced.

In any case, lawmakers were more prolific in at least one category this year: They’ve filed more memorials and resolutions than normal. This year, there are 70 memorials and resolutions in the Senate. That compares to the 52 miscellaneous bills filed last year and the 51 miscellaneous bills in 2008.