Controversial Arizona legislator Russell Pearce is now without a job after the recall election meant to kick him out of office succeeded.
The now-former Arizona State Senator Pearce lost the recall election against fellow Republican Jerry Lewis in Phoenix Tuesday night, with 53 percent of the votes going to Lewis.
Pearce was the main author of Arizona’s controversial immigration law known as SB 1070, and while many across the country support the law, some voters were becoming increasingly frustrated with Pearce’s focus on undocumented immigration, especially when the state, especially the Phoenix area he represented, was facing an economic crisis.
Pearce’s ethnics were often called into question as well, as many believed he had ties to white supremacists, while others claimed he did not push SB 1070 to take on immigration, but rather to put money in the pockets of the privately-run prisons that both he and Gov. Jan Brewer were connected to.
Back in May, those in favor of a recall election gathered 17,000 signatures to get the recall on the ballot. Though only about 10,000 were deemed valid, only 7,756 signatures were actually necessary.
