Russell Pearce
  Party: Republican
  Age: 64
  Full candidate bio...

  Jerry Lewis
  Party: Republican
  Age: 54
  Full candidate bio...

Incoming Senate President Russell Pearce will concurrently chair the powerful Senate Rules Committee, one of the most sought after chairmanship positions in the chamber. He also named the rest of the committee chairs for the Senate.

A full list of the 50th Legislature membership

Sen. Russell Pearce will lead the Arizona Senate next year after colleagues elected him to be president of the chamber during a closed-door meeting Nov. 3.

Republicans are targeting four Democratic-held seats in the 30-member Senate, a coup that would give them supermajority control for the first time in Arizona’s history.

For conservative Arizona politicos, especially those on the forefront of the debate over illegal immigration, connections to hate groups have become an embarrassing pitfall.

Groups whose racist or white nationalist views include vehement opposition to illegal immigration often seek to align themselves with politicians who lead the anti-illegal-immigration movement. But politicians who put themselves in league with such groups — mistakenly or otherwise — usually spend years dealing with the fallout and repairing their images.

Pearce, Russell
Party: Republican
Age: 63
Campaign Finance: Private
Full candidate bio...