Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, has finally spoken out against JT Ready, a Mesa Republican first identified more than 14 months ago as a white supremicist who holds a low-level elected office with the county party. Pearce’s critics, who favor Republican Kevin Gibbons in their primary contest for a state Senate race, has been attacking Pearce’s potential ties to Ready for more than a week.
In a written statement released today, Pearce says in part,
“I fully agree with the letter that Congressmen Franks, Shadegg and Flake sent to the Maricopa County Republican Party this week. We have no room for hate speech or hate groups. … The most radical groups I have ever been associated with are the Boy Scouts of America and the Fraternal Order of Police, and I confess I still associate with both of them. So it goes without saying that I completely disavow Mr. Ready and the groups he associates with.”
Actually, no, Pearce did need to say it. And if he had refuted Ready’s views a long time ago, instead of appearing in photos with Ready with wide smiles at illegal immigration rallies, Pearce would find it easier to fend off claims that he also harbors racism.
Pearce’s statement came a day after Flake sent a second letter to Maricopa County Republican Party Chairman Tom Husband, again demanding Ready’s immediate removal as a precinct committeeman instead of waiting until the Sept. 2 primary (Ready isn’t on the ballot for re-election). Flake also included links to media stories and photos outlining Ready’s own racist statements and an appearance at a neo-Nazi rally to demonstrate there’s no doubt about Ready’s agenda.
On a related and somewhat ironic note, Gibbons is one of several privately funded Republican candidates who filed a new lawsuit Friday against the state’s campaign public funding system. Gibbons and the others are trying to stop candidates who take Clean Elections money from getting additional matching funds when private opponents spend more, Capitol Media Services reported.
Pearce had been a vocal critic of Clean Elections after he got in some trouble with regulatory commission while using state campaign funds in 2002. At the time, Pearce told me he never would touch state money again for a campaign. He changed his mind this year and signed up for Clean Elections when he realized he couldn’t raise nearly as much privately as Gibbons, who had the support of various business groups that don’t like Pearce’s heavy push on illegal immigration. Now, Gibbons wants the federal courts to cut off Pearce from matching funds that he’s eligible for because of Gibbons’ fundraising and also because of two independent expenditure committees that also have campaigned against Pearce.
 Pearce seeks to end attacks about ties to white supremicistAugust 22nd, 2008, 4:35 pm · 3 Comments · posted by Le Templar3 CommentsLeave a Reply
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Please no more voting for people full of hate. Pearce needs to go NOW. Are all you other wife-beating “compassionate conservatives” listening?
I have a Ph.D. and I do not support Russell Pearce. He would like to do away with the several of the amendments in the Bill of Rights. He wants to take away the direct election of US Senators from the people of Arizona (HCR 2061 and SCM1002). He has used the illegal immigrants as scapegoats to achieve power and he is so obsessed with “getting rid of them” that he did not do his job as he sat on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Because of his complete lack of statesmanship, Arizona with a Republican legislature is sitting with a Democratic governor’s budget. Thank you Russell Pearce for your lack of vision and your myopic efforts that are going to hand this state to the Democrats on a silver platter. If Maricopa County doesn’t figure it out soon we are going to be a Democratic state and for that we can thank Pearce and like-minded people. I am a fifth generation Arizona native Republican and my grandparents (both state Republican legislators) would have disavowed Pearce.