Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Note to elected officials: Americans for Prosperity thinks it knows better than you how to run government. And they don’t seem to have much more respect for the intellect of working Arizonans.

Is it possible that Russell Pearce has a (gasp!) latent liberal side? A man known for his unswerving devotion to individual freedoms, the Arizona Senate president is showing that he can, under certain circumstances, embrace a bit of the nanny state and adopt a little of the collective-bargaining mentality.

Recently, five bills dealing with various aspects of immigration failed to be approved by the Arizona Senate. One of these bills contained provisions requiring hospital emergency room workers to verify citizenship. This and other provisions contained in the defeated bills would have certainly raised constitutionality questions at a time when the state is already burdened with federal litigation.

As if pending litigation and recall elections weren’t enough to choke Wisconsin’s government to a halt, state Republicans have decided to prolong the volatile Senate relations sparked by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill and antagonized by the Democrats’ multi-week stay in Illinois.

As any parent will tell you, doing the right thing for your kids is not always easy. Providing them with the support they need to succeed requires a lot of effort on our part as the adults. Making sure homework gets done or attending early morning parent-teacher conferences can be an inconvenience, but they are critical to our kids’ academic success. The same is true in education reform.

It would be very easy to avoid wasting my time howling in the wilderness and not bother stating why I agree with other lone wolves, namely, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and the members of the jury that returned a multimillion-dollar verdict against the Westboro Baptist Church.

Private-sector unions have a long history in America, and apart from occasional problems involving union violence, mob racketeering, and intimidation by union bosses of rank-and-file workers, they have often served as a legitimate part of the American workplace.

Fixing billion dollar budet deficits is difficult enough. It’s a whole lot harder when public officials are working on the political math of their re-election instead of on their duties to the electorate.

Bills are being introduced at a brisk pace at both the federal and state levels. While Congress focuses on President Obama’s recently enacted health care laws, many new labor and employment reform bills are being considered, including one sponsored by Congressman Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.

As part of an emerging pattern, another legal battle in Arizona soon will have the country buzzing again. This time, the attention won’t come from immigration policy, border security or John McCain. Instead, Arizona is about to affect the election law universe in a way that will ignite political pundits’ debates for some time.