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Political Musings - Another World

Randy Pullen's push to turn police into 'La Migra' yanked from ballot, while local Latino leader endorses a Republican congressman.

Elias Bermudez, executive director of Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras, has been taking some heat from others in the immigrant advocacy "Movimiento" since Arizona media started reporting he had endorsed Republican Sen. Jon Kyl’s re-election.

Other activists said that Bermudez, who founded Immigrants Without Borders, has lost his credibility because of the Kyl endorsement. Without Borders was a primary organizer of the March and April marches that surprised lawmakers and Arizona residents with turnouts of 20,000 and 150,000.

Bermudez says he wants to set the record straight: "That’s misinformation that I endorsed Kyl. I did not endorse Jon Kyl’s election. I told him I would wait until Oct. 1 and (see) where he stood on immigration reform, and then decide whether or not to endorse him."

He says that although he voted for Kyl in the past, based on the Arizona senator’s speech on the floor of Congress on Sept. 21, he will not be endorsing Kyl. Instead, he will give his endorsement to Jim Pederson, Kyl’s Democratic challenger. Pedersen, a developer, and Kyl are locked in a close battle.

Kyl backed a Republican bill that would make a border fence the backbone of an immigration reform plan. Bermudez says he believes without a guest worker program, immigration reform coming out of Congress will fail.

Bermudez emphasized that supporting Republicans doesn’t go against what the Movimiento stands for. Immigration reform goes beyond partisan politics. "This country is in a national crisis over illegal immigration, and we support what will work. A border fence alone won’t solve it."

TOP HOTS
Two of the most important races for Latinos to watch are the campaigns for secretary of state and for state superintendent of public instruction.

If successful, Israel Torres would be the first Latino secretary of state. The other two Latinos who held office at the executive level were former Democratic Gov. Raul Castro and Republican Jaime Molera, who was appointed to the superintendent’s office but lost it to the current office-holder, fellow Republican Tom Horne.

"Israel is a quality candidate, and will give Jan Brewer a strong challenge," says one local Republican pundit. "This will be an opportunity for Latino voters to prove they can make a difference."

Democrat Jason Williams was a pure dark horse, coming out of nowhere to beat favorite Slade Mead and shocking forecasters in the Democratic Party.

Horne is vulnerable due to his so-called AIMS "secret deal" with the Department of Education; a deal that federal officials denied existed. Analysts say that Williams needs to take a high profile if he wants to unseat Horne.

POLICING PULLEN

Legislator Randy Pullen is steaming over the shelving of his Proposition 405 to make Phoenix cops into La Migra.

At Latino Perspectives press time, Pullen had filed an appeal with the Arizona Supreme Court hoping to overturn a trial court ruling that knocked his initiative off the Nov. 7 ballot.

Last month, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that a city charter provision granting proposition backers 10 extra days to secure the needed signatures conflicts with state law.

Pullen’s Protect Our City Now proposition would have required Phoenix to enter into an agreement with the United States Department of Homeland Security to designate police officers as immigration officers.

Phoenix police opposed Prop. 405, saying any such law would scatter immigrant witnesses and Latino support to the wind. Latinos were worried it would lead to racial profiling.

Pullen intention’s were – if successful in Phoenix – to take the initiative to Tucson and Mesa next.

New Mesa Police Chief George Gascón, a former assistant chief at the Los Angeles Police Department, says that Pullen’s initiative would lead to the alienation of the immigrants, and that, in his experience, could lead to police corruption. Gascón investigated the drug dealer rip-offs by dirty cops in L.A.’s Ramparts police division in the late ‘90s.

"Those officers used the INS like a weapon against the immigrants. They were terrified of the local police. They did not report the police misconduct …We need the immigrant community to tell us when the bad guys are around," Gascón says.

Political observers say the soonest Prop. 405 could get on the ballot is March. Since fewer numbers of voters will turn out for a March election, Pullen’s proposition would probably be defeated.