Arizona politics takes a turn with latest voting - AZRepublic article (Phoenix: public schools, universities)

[azriverfan.]

Business opposition doomed Arizona immigration bills

"Arizona's approval last year of the get-tough illegal immigration law, known as SB1070, produced protests, boycotts and court fights. The business CEOs cited concerns in a letter hand-delivered to lawmakers on Tuesday that more of the same would come from new legislation, with possible economic fallout to tourism and the hosting of industry conventions."

"The Legislature and the people ... are also suffering from immigration fatigue," said Sen. John McComish, a Phoenix Republican who voted against the bills. "We're totally distracted and it's divisive."

To paraphrase this article, it suggested the Arizona senate rejected anti-immigration measures due to businesses in the state fearing another 1070 backlash. I guess those who thought the backlash from 1070 wouldn't impact politics in this state were just proven wrong.
It should be noted that BOTH Republican and Democrats voted this down so you can't blame partisanship on this issue. It also shows that Arizona is truly more of a libertarian state than a conservative Right Wing state. If we were a Right Wing state these measures would have passed. I think the Arizona legislature essentially sent a message saying they wanted to tone down the anti-immigration rhetoric because it was hurting our economy.

[ji603]

A bunch of worthless sell-outs, all of them. I hope the voters will remember this come next election time, but everyone knows the public has a short memory.

Of course cheap labor and unchecked immigration = lower overhead and a larger customer base, both of which appeal to big business. Again, it's the little guy (ie the taxpayer) who gets short shrift.

Crooks.

[Ponderosa]

It's good to see business instead of the ideologues calling the shots again. It's our saving grace and why the state flourished in spite of our backward legislature. Any notion that the state is less right or more open to illegal immigration because of this is utter nonsense, though. If these bills ever came up for vote of the people they would all pass by a landslide.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

It's good to see business instead of the ideologues calling the shots again. It's our saving grace and why the state flourished in spite of our backward legislature. Any notion that the state is less right or more open to illegal immigration because of this is utter nonsense, though. If these bills ever came up for vote of the people they would all pass by a landslide.

The sad thing is the measures proposed by these bills were actually meaningful and would have directly and positively impacted residents in this state. Asking for verification prior to enrollment in public schools, universities, drivers license etc. would have forced even more illegals to go elsewhere. The sad thing is if these bills had passed a year ago, there would be much less backlash against this state than 1070 since these measures didn't require profiling and simply demanded that all people who enrolled in these services were required to show identification. It's truly sad that our legislation didn't introduce this a long time ago.

At the same time, to suggest that businesses and the politicians who voted for this are somehow a separate entity from the people is ridiculous. Those businesses comprise of people in Arizona and the legislature themselves were tired of the banter and didn't want the state to suffer like it did with 1070. A true Right wing Southern state would have passed this easily and wouldn't have cared about the economic backlash. People in Arizona might care about these issues but not enough to the point they want our economy to suffer.

[MikeJune]

John McComish hit the nail on the head. The economy sucks, jobs aren't being created, the state retirement system is not working, etc. The people want to see our elected officials work on ALL the issues that matter, not just the immigration one. For us moderate republicans out there, Russell Pierce is shooting himself in the foot by only focusing on one thing. (Yes, his Senate did pass a budget, which they spent a whooping 8 hours on...)

The one thing I've learned in life is nobody will follow an extremist, or somebody who appears to be an extremist. By focusing on only one issue, Pierce is starting to be viewed as an extremist, which is why his own party turned on him with these bills.