For nearly a decade now, Arizona politics has been defined by the struggle to stop illegal immigration.

For the past few years, the focus has largely been on pushing for strong “internal enforcement” policies that would make it harder for illegal immigrants to continue living in the state.

SB1070 passed almost two years ago, but additional policies that would alter how schools and hospitals deal with illegal immigrants failed to pass through the Legislature last year.

This year appears to be different, with the focus shifting to the Mexican border in a new way.

A set of bills currently moving through the Legislature would aim to put a volunteer militia on the watch near the Mexican border and begin the enormous project of building a new fence on our southern border.

SB1083 is the bill that would fund a volunteer border militia.

A law created last … Read More »

At just about every meeting of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, at least one of several attorneys representing a group called FAIR Trust sits among the audience.

They take notes, make public recommendations to the commission and occasionally talk privately with commissioners.

FAIR Trust’s attorneys say they want to help the commission adhere to the legal requirements that govern the high-stakes, once-in-a-decade political remapping process, and the group’s name suggests it is interested in fairness.

But what FAIR Trust’s attorneys refuse to say is that they’re actually representing a group of incumbent Republicans from Arizona’s congressional delegation and the state Legislature.

The legal arguments FAIR Trust makes aren’t presented to the redistricting commission as serving the interests of those politicians, but the recommendations they’ve made would create safe districts for the four Republican members of Congress who will seek re-election in 2012: U.S. Reps. … Read More »

It was a Saturday gathering that started with a sizzling race for chairmanship of the Arizona Republican Party, climaxed with a bare majority for the winner, then ended with the smiles and sounds of unity.

But now comes the hard part: the charting of the future of a party apparatus that boasts of electoral victories, but falls short in fundraising.

And with Tom Morrissey — late entrant in the race for the chairmanship, former U.S. marshal, Tea Party activist — now in charge of the state party, questions abound as to whether Republicans can overcome the growing can’t-be-too-far-right mood that mocks moderates and scares off big-money contributors.

A Tea Party chairman might encourage the continuation of diverting campaign money around the party structure and cause moderate Republicans to be boxed out of the party campaign machine in favor of more rigid Tea Party … Read More »