Strike Everything

The national spotlight that lit up Arizona when lawmakers passed SB1070 will be back sooner than some anticipated.

Sen. Russell Pearce and numerous out-of-state allies plan to unveil his birthright-citizenship bill during the first week of January in Washington, D.C. The model legislation will serve as a template for lawmakers in 14 states, including Arizona, which hope to force a U.S. Supreme Court case that would challenge the longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment and end the practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to illegal immigrant parents.

Daryl Metcalfe, a Pennsylvania state representative who is pushing the birthright-citizenship proposal in that state’s Legislature, said the model legislation will give anti-illegal immigration lawmakers a rallying point for the war against birthright citizenship and show unity among members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, which is what the group of lawmakers is calling itself.

“First we have to have the language formulated,” said Metcalfe, a Republican from Cranberry Township, Penn. “Then you have the process of rolling that out to various legislators across the country that are interested in working on the rollout project and then bringing a number of us together to actually announce the final working product, the final language that’s come out of our efforts.”

The high-profile rollout likely will rile Arizona lawmakers and members of the state’s business community who wanted birthright citizenship to take a back seat during the 2011 session, at least until the Legislature passes a budget and a jobs bill. Some lawmakers claimed Pearce pledged to put birthright citizenship on hiatus until those priorities were out of the way, though Pearce disputes the claims.

“I hope it doesn’t distract Senator Pearce from what our primary objectives are this session, in terms of budget and economic,” said incoming Sen. John McComish. “The first week of January (is) a very busy time for us.”

Senate Democratic leader David Schapira said the press conference will be a distraction for lawmakers who should have higher priorities.

“It appears that the focus of the leadership of the Legislature is going to be on this issue instead of on economic develoment and job creation,” he said. “I’m waiting to hear about Pearce’s announcement of a press conference on economic development and job creation. That’s a priority right now.”

Pearce did not return messages seeking comment. But his stalwart ally in the House, Rep. John Kavanagh, said the unveiling wouldn’t distract from the more immediate tasks of balancing the budget and putting the economy back on track.

“We’ll file the bill early,” Kavanagh said. “My understanding is we want to put the budget and the jobs bill to bed before we move on to this. But it will be this session.”

Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican, said the rollout will get some attention, but he doesn’t expect it to last long.

“I guess you can get a day (of coverage), but that’s hardly the 1070 tsunami,” he said.

Senator-elect John McComish’s gripes about his committee assignments earned him a tongue-lashing from Russell Pearce, who said his colleague needs to stop crying and get over it.

“I’ll buy him a box of Kleenex,” Pearce said of McComish’s complaints. “The whining’s got to stop.”

Pearce took umbrage with McComish’s complaints to the Arizona Capitol Times that the Senate president assigned him to only two committees, while every other member got at least three, and some Pearce allies got as many as five. Pearce denied that he used committee assignments to punish senators who didn’t support him in the Senate president’s race or that he gave less-favorable spots to new members who are moving over from the House.

The Senate president said he “bent over backwards” to give McComish preferable committee assignmenst and said he even created the Banking and Insurance Committee, which McComish will chair, based on McComish’s recommendation. McComish also will serve on the Economic Development and Jobs Creation panel.

Other senators who didn’t support Pearce for the presidency got key committee chairmanships, Pearce said. Senator-elect Rich Crandall will chair the Education Committee, Senator-elect Steve Yarbrough will chair the Finance Committee, and Senator-elect Nancy Barto will chair the Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform Committee.

“I have not punished anybody in this process,” Pearce said. “Don’t make up a story here. Don’t be giving credit to a pandering crybaby.”

McComish, a House member who was elected to the Senate in November, ran for Senate president but dropped out before the voting began. Pearce said that’s probably the source of McComish’s discontentedness.

“I was hoping he’d get over the fact that he didn’t win the presidency, couldn’t get out of the chutes,” Pearce said.

Pearce said McComish should have brought his complaints to him before airing them to the media. McComish told the Arizona Capitol Times that he sent Pearce an e-mail about the issue, but Pearce said he never received it.

McComish said he was disappointed that Pearce lashed out at him instead of addressing his complaints that he and other members will be “underutilized” during the upcoming session due to lopsided distribution of committee assignments.

“It’s unfortunate that Russell wants to make personal attacks. That’s not what I did. That’s not my intention. And it’s also unfortunate that he didn’t respond to the merits of my concern,” the Phoenix Republican said.

Some senators have too heavy a workload, McComish said. Sen. Andy Biggs, for example, will chair the Appropriations Committee while serving as vice chair of two other committees. Sen. Sylvia Allen will serve in leadership as president pro tem while serving on five committees.

McComish said Pearce appears to haved doled out better assignments to his allies.

“I’m not going to judge his motives. But if you look at the facts it would certainly seem that way,” McComish said.

Despite his harsh words, Pearce said he didn’t realize McComish had only two committee assignments and is willing to find another spot for him somewhere.

“I’ll fit him on Finance or another committee if I need to do that. I’m not opposed to that. But it seems like the nice thing John could’ve done is give me a call and let me know, instead of this approach,” Pearce said.

-Jeremy Duda

Arizona politicians reacted to today’s S1070 ruling as expected: Many Republicans were upset that federal Judge Susan Bolton halted the major parts of the law, and many Democrats were relieved that it was gutted before taking effect.

Here’s what they had to say:

Sen. Russell Pearce, Mesa Republican and sponsor of S1070:
“This law will go into effect.”
Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, Senate minority leader:
“Senator Pearce is not going to stop at this. He’s hell-bent on interpreting the Constitution as he sees fit.”
Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County sheriff:
“I don’t think the activists should be dancing in the streets yet.”
Rick Romley, Maricopa County attorney:
“The federal government needs to understand they have not just failed Arizona, they have failed the entire nation. This is a time for them to step up and seal that border.”
Rep. John Kavanagh, Fountain Hills Republican:
“This is the first of what’s probably going to be a 20-round fight. And given that the judge relied solely on the preemption issue, I think we’re in good shape to eventually prevail.”
Roberto Villasenor, Tucson chief of police:
“ I have a sense of relief that we will not be treating people in ways that we should not be treating them based on the literal interpretation of the law, but I think this is far from over.”
Lyle Mann, executive director Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board:
“(Local) officers will still work with immigration services on a daily basis, but whether this clarifies or makes a need for more clarification… I guess you could say we’re back to how it was in April.”
Rep. Ben Miranda, Phoenix Democrat:
“I know there was a lot of elation yesterday within the immigrant community. I just don’t mean to douse their fire, their celebrations, but it’s the status quo for me.”
Bill Montgomery, Republican candidate for Maricopa County attorney:
“While (Bolton’s) analysis resulted in the legal conclusions she came to, I don’t believe that federal preemption should prevent a state from defending its citizens. It’s a twisted application.”
Vernon Parker, Republican candidate in the 3rd Congressional District:
“I interpreted the decision as judicial activism, quite frankly. When you look at the decision it really gives me the impression we can’t even uphold federal law because when the judge is saying you can’t ask someone for their identification, the federal law requires that. It requires law enforcement to do that right now even without 1070.”