Guillermo Luevano of Tempe explains to Diane Burns, left, why he won’t sign a petition to end affirmative action in Arizona. “I’d like to think discrimination doesn’t exist, but it does,” he said. Mary Ann Bellus, center, is training to work for Burns, who has tables set up outside the Gilbert Public Library.

Rep. Russell Pearce believes the Support Legal Arizona Workers initiative could qualify for the ballot without the use of paid signature gatherers.
But the hurdle for the proposed ballot initiative is high — 153,365 valid signatures of Arizona voters — and Pearce, author of the offered statute change, and committee chairman Don Goldwater aren’t taking any chances.
They both note that negotiations with national groups to secure substantial contributions are underway. The money would be used to add paid petition circulators before the July 3 signature deadline if necessary, and to wage public support campaigns, said Pearce.
But the volunteer force for the drive, which would replace the current employer sanctions law with a stricter measure, grows almost daily out of citizens’ alarm at legal moves against last year’s legislation and currently proposed amendments from other lawmakers, Pearce said.
“They’re pretty emotional over this and they’re not about to let it go unless they have some sort of comfort level that H2779 is not going to be weakened,” said Pearce.
Pearce, meanwhile, has introduced a bill this year, H2745, that seeks to clarify his 2007 law without weakening it.
Last year’s bill, signed into law last July by Gov. Janet Napolitano, mandates a 10-day business license suspension for employers caught knowingly employing illegal workers, and permanent license revocation for two offenses.
The Support Legal Arizona Workers initiative, if passed, would pull a business’ license on a first offense. Pearce said the initiative began as a “last resort” prompted by previous vetoes and failures of state steps to curb illegal immigration.
Without the pending appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake’s recent upholding of H2779, proposed legislative changes to the bill and a rival sanctions initiative presented by business interests, Pearce said he would be happy to halt the campaign.
And the campaign is being well-received, he said, adding “thousands upon thousands” of signatures have been collected by volunteers distrustful of business groups and lawmakers. Goldwater refuses to disclose how many signatures have been collected, preferring to elaborate only that his dining room is filling with boxes of completed forms.
January 31 campaign finance reports filed by Goldwater confirm the claims of the dedicated volunteer army — or at least rule out the use of paid petition circulators. The organization reported about $13,300 worth of activity, with almost $7,000 coming in as in-kind contributions. A little more than $800 has been spent, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
But Farrell Quinlan, a spokesman for Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, an organization comprised of business owners that sprang up to derail H2779, doubted assertions that challenges to the bill and proposed amendments were fueling the initiative’s progress.
The fervor over illegal immigration, or more accurately, the federal government’s failure to secure the borders and enact immigration reform, is responsible for the popular support of anti-illegal immigration measures passed in the state, he said.
“I think the passion is there regardless of the lawsuit,” said Quinlan, adding that local enforcement is not a “surprising, but a regrettable” testament to Congressional inaction.
And the proposed amendments to last year’s employer sanctions legislation are not designed to weaken the law, but to “make it work in the real world,” he said.
Legal employers already have conditions on hiring workers, and current regulations regarding federal I-9 hiring requirements are not “up to snuff,” as evident by the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, said Quinlan.
Business owners are in a position where they must navigate a fine line between employment discrimination and following the employer sanctions law.
“Businesses can’t be overzealous when it comes to the screening process because that can easily cross into discrimination,” he said. “It’s a tight-wire that businesses have to walk.”
Quinlan would not comment if the stiff penalties found in H2779 could have been averted if the state’s business lobby would have worked to support other state-proposed crackdowns on illegal immigration, other than noting the “prevailing view” has always held immigration enforcement as a federal responsibility, he said.
He noted that a rival initiative supported by business interests, the Stop Illegal Hiring Act, targets the underground “cash-under-the-table” economy that attracts illegal immigrants.
Quinlan, like almost all Capitol insiders, is paying close attention to the yet-to-be-heard challenge to the employer sanctions law that rests before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Pearce/Goldwater initiative’s language is nearly exact and would clearly be bound by the court’s eventual ruling.
Quinlan is confident the 9th Circuit will deliver a victory for business groups that oppose H2779. But the initiative, he said, was still being taken “very seriously.”
Stop Illegal Hiring
As of Jan. 31, the Stop Illegal Hiring committee, led by Chairman Andrew Pacheco collected $126,000 in contributions. The largest portion of that amount, $75,000, was contributed by business interests ranging from mortgage groups and developers to Southwest Gas and the Room Store furniture outlet.
Wake Up Arizona! has contributed $39,000 to the sanctions-related initiative, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Individual contributions to the effort amounted to about $13,000, with the majority of that funding supplied by Marion Magruder, a restaurant franchiser and member of the Wake Up Arizona! political action committee.
Pearce openly criticized the rival measure as a deliberate attempt to dupe citizens into making state enforcement against employers that hire illegal immigrants impossible.
“It is a bad, bad bill,” he said. “It’s employer amnesty for businesses, and it guts H2779.”
The group’s chairman did not return calls to the Arizona Capitol Times.
Qualifying for the ballot without the use of paid signature gatherers is unusual, but not impossible, said political consultant Ian Calkins.
“It’s rare in Arizona politics, but it can be done if it’s an issue that resonates with the masses,” said Calkins.
Progress and fundraising on other proposed initiatives, according to Jan. 31 campaign finance reports
Redistricting
A January 31 report filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office shows the Fair Districts, Fair Elections Committee led by former state House Rep. Ken Clark has collected $168,000 and spent $164,000.
A full $140,000 has been collected in individual contributions, and about $28,000 has been supplied by business groups. The effort’s largest contributor is former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Pederson, a Democrat who has given $135,000 of his personal funds and $25,000 from the coffers of his investment group.
Sin
ce May, paid and volunteer signature collectors have gathered 85,000 signatures and the group is confident it can ultimately deliver the signed approval of 280,000 voters to the Secretary of State’s Office by the July 3 deadline.
The proposal, a constitutional amendment Clark said will make more competitive districts in the state, will require 230,047 valid signatures of Arizona voters to be on the November ballot.
Medical Choice for Arizona
As of Jan. 16, the Medical Choice for Arizona Committee had collected $66,000 in individual contributions and spent $53,000. The group’s largest contributions have come from the Benjamin Rush League ($29,000) and Eric Crown, the CEO of Insight ($10,000).
The committee is proposing the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, a constitutional amendment to guarantee individuals the right to select their own health-care and insurance plans. At least 230,047 valid signatures are necessary to qualify for the ballot.
This group’s progress on signature collection is unknown. The chairman of the Medical Choice Initiative, Dr. Eric Novack, did not return phone calls.
Support Our Law Enforcement
Pearce’s ballot initiative committee has collected $11,400 in contributions, with $6,600 of that amount consisting of in-kind value. The group reports almost $5,000 in cash contributions and has spent less than $100.
The measure calls for illegal immigrants to be either prosecuted or turned over to federal authorities and permits greater information sharing between agencies relating to immigration status.
Signature collection is being done in tandem with the Support Legal Arizona Workers drive, according to Don Goldwater and Pearce.
Race-gender preferences
The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative to ban the use of racial- and gender-preference programs in the state has collected a single contribution of $10,000 from the American Civil Rights Coalition, its California-based parent group sponsored by Ward Connerly.
The drive has been using volunteer signature collectors for about a month, and paid gatherers began working on Feb. 12, said Max McPhail, the ballot initiative committee treasurer. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is the group’s registered chairman.
Stop Payday Loans
This measure, proposed by Tucson Rep. Marian McClure, R-30, would repeal and criminalize payday loans, effective Oct. 31, 2009. The ballot initiative committee reports contributions of $10,508, with in-kind contributions comprising $7,200 of that amount.
The vast majority of the in-kind contributions reportedly came from the Stop Payday Predators, a support committee financed by individual contributors ($7,000), business groups ($12,000), including the Pedersen Group and Farmers Investment Co. The effort has also been loaned almost $4,000 from the Strategic Issues Management Group.
As reported on Jan. 31, the Stop Payday Predators support committee has spent close to $11,000 and has $12,300 cash on hand. The Stop Payday Loans committee reported $3,300 cash on hand.
Progress on signature collection is not known. McClure has not returned phone calls.
Prop 13 Arizona
This measure presented by Lynne Weaver would roll back property taxes to 2003 levels and forbid annual increases greater than two percent. Maximum residential tax would be set at one-half of one percent, and other taxes on other property would be set at one percent.
The measure has raised a total of $1,500, and expended close to $550. Progress on signature collection is not known.
Arizona Tax Revolt
The Arizona Tax Revolt raised some $30,000 between November to December of last year in support of its Property Tax Levy Rollback initiative, including $18,500 in individual contributions and $11,300 in loans made to the committee.
The group also spent some $31,000 during the period, state records showed. The initiative will amend the state Constitution to require taxing entities return to 2005 levy levels.
This effort, led by Marc Goldstone, also has an accompanying proposal called the Property Tax Evaluation Rollback. This effort has raised more than $7,000 during the same period, including $3,600 in individual contributions.
The evaluation rollback also seeks to amend the state constitution. It would reset property values to 2003 levels.
Progress on signature collections is unknown.
Reporter Luige del Puerto contributed to this report.≠