Despite the fact that the Arizona SB1070 law was created by white supremacist Russell Pearce, Arizona got caught with their hands in the donations cookie jar holding funds from the racist American 3rd Position Party for their defense of the Federal government’s law suit against them.
Now word has it they are frantically sifting through their donor cache to find this donation with the intent of returning it to the group.
Pueblo Politics: Hate donations to 1070 legal fund prompt inquiry
Rhonda Bodfield | Posted: Thursday, July 15, 2010 9:56 am
Gov. Jan Brewer’s office is poring through thousands of donations to the legal defense fund she set up in the wake of challenges to the state’s new immigration law, looking for contributions from hate groups.
The search is coming after the white supremacist group, American Third Position — whose mission statement says it “exists to represent the political interests of White Americans because no one else will” — announced on its website that it made a “triple-digit donation” to the fund.
“We support all constructive endeavors by private citizens, businesses, local governments — or in this case a sovereign state — to stem and reverse the browning of America,” the site states, adding Arizona’s statute represents the best opportunity to reduce this number.
“We will reject any funds from racist organizations,” said Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman, adding the governor has dedicated several staff to the effort and hopes to complete the search “as quickly as possible.”
The difficulty, of course, is ferreting those donations out, since the roughly $1.2 million in funding has come from 24,000 individuals from nearly every state.
Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers said he’s not surprised at the reported funding. “For people to suggest there’s not some sort of prejudice and hate faction out there that’s enjoying this immigration debate is ridiculous,” he said. “That’s not to say everyone is like that, but certainly there are hate groups that are part of the immigration debate.”
He said that’s why it’s incumbent on mainstream Republicans to speak out against hatred, especially since he added “the tea party has been problematic in this area as well,” although he clarified the local tea party has been “pretty tolerant.”
Bob Westerman, the head of the local GOP, said it’s a stretch to say those elements are a natural outgrowth of the legislation. It’s clearly a fringe group, he said, that is “not indicative of the main body of Americans who support 1070. It’s something both parties have to be aware of and it sounds as though the governor is working to identify those donations to take care of that.”
The amusing part of this whole ordeal it that the SB1070 law was created by white supremacist Russ Pearce!
Let us look at some of Pearce’s history:
Controversy
In October 2006, Russell Pearce forwarded an email from National Alliance, a white separatist group, to a group of supporters.
The email titled “Who Rules America” criticized black and white intermixing and Jews in the media for promoting multiculturalism and racial equality, for depicting “any racially conscious White Person” as a bigot, and for presenting the Holocaust as fact.
He quickly apologized. The article reports, “He does not agree with the sentiments in the article, but that the title and the first paragraphs about media bias appealed to him. He said the article had been forwarded to him by someone else and he would not have sent it if he had read it in its entirety.” He stated in one of his apologies, “Ugly the words contained in it really are. They are not mine and I disavow them completely. Worse still, the website links to a group whose politics are the ugliest imaginable.”
Pearce was also criticized for his association with white supremacist J.T. Ready.
Pearce endorsed Ready for Mesa City Council in 2006 and appeared with him at several rallies.
Pearce has since indicated he was unaware of Ready’s neo-Nazi affiliations at the time he made the endorsement.
In April 2008, Pearce sponsored a measure, Senate Bill 1108, that would prohibit students of Arizona universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or part on the race of their membership. Pearce said he didn’t want students indoctrinated with progressive ideologies. Critics have stated that the bill would ban groups that serve minority interests such as the Mexican American study program and the Black Business Students Association.
(Addendum: SB1108 did pass and has been sign by Gov. Brewer)
As an added note, Pearce, like many other white supremacists is a wife beater:
Russell Pearce “is possessed of a violent temper,” according to a 1980 court document signed by his wife LuAnne.
“Further, the husband, RUSSELL KEITH PEARCE, is possessed of a violent temper, and has from time to time hit and shoved the wife, the last time being on February 3 [1980], when he grabbed the wife by the throat and threw her down.”
We reported on the American 3rd Position Party’s recruitment of olympic gold medal winner Bob Richards in an earlier post
