Surprised? Probably not. A few weeks ago Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA), a group of citizens who have had their fill of the bigotry, homophobia, and blustering hatred that defines Arizona's Senate President, Russell Pearce, submitted enough signatures to force a recall of the Republican wackadooddle. Pearce of course is the author of SB 1070 and a long, long list of other bills and policies that have undermined the state's educational and healthcare systems -- not to mention driven the economy into a very deep cesspool. If there's a bill that is anti-Hispanic, anti-GLBT, or anti-choice, you're sure to find Pearce's name on it, if not at the top as lead sponsor. And since becoming Senate President last session, he's run the place like his Neo-Nazi friends: creating a blacklist to keep protestors out and banning the public from his press conferences.
The co-chair of CBA is Chad Snow, a white Mormon lawyer from Pearce's district, hardly the outside agitator, anarchist, or socialist that the Senator and his nativist bootlickers make the recall organizers out to be. The bullying blowhard Pearce is, in fact, an embarrassment to many fellow Mormons, who do not wallow in the mean-spirited, anti-immigrant filth that Pearce is drenched in. In a letter to Governor Brewer, one 5th-generation Republican Mormon even referred to the Senator's kind as "knuckle dragging closet racists."
Not only has Pearce and the rightwing blogosphere been lying about the make-up of the recall group, now they're alleging a "massive" registration fraud in the collection of signatures. And smearing an American citizen in the process -- who just happens to have a Hispanic name.
If you google "Benita Lantigua," you'll likely see a number of articles in rightwing blogs, from the Southwest to Florida. The story started in Arizona's Sonoran News website in a June 15 article titled "Pearce Recall Petitions Indicate Massive Voter Registration Fraud" by Linda Bentley. Stephen Lemons at Phoenix's New Times knows her well:
Bentley has a history of being a rabid nativist, a committed birther (even after President Obama released his long-form birth certificate), and a stalwart defender of state Senate President Russell Pearce. New Times
None other than Orly Taitz reprints Bentley's articles on her website.
Although Bentley's recent voter fraud story is constructed from an outright lie that smears a legal resident, her allegation of "massive" registration shenanigans appeared in righty blogs and websites across the land. The Maricopa County GOP and Arizona Republican Party even printed the full story without checking with the elections department.
To prove her "massive" fraud charge, Bentley offered two examples from more than 18,000 signatures collected. Here she describes one case of "fraud":
"One man signed and printed his last name 'Peterson' quite legibly. Due to Peterson being somewhat of a common name, it made more sense to look him up by address.... However, the address revealed the registration of a man whose last name was spelled 'Pederson.'" Sonoran News
Call out the FBI! The guy wrote T instead of D. He must be an open border socialist, he must be a criminal, nullify the recall!
But the really sick-ass "proof" of fraud involves a woman from Russell Pearce's district in Mesa, who Bentley names and even lists her address. According to the article, Benita Lantigua committed fraud because her name is listed three times in the County Recorder's Office. Bently does not say Lantigua signed the recall petition three times, and in fact Lemons called the County to check:
But county elections director Karen Osborne says Lantigua did neither of these things, that she did nothing wrong.
"I did have staff research it," Osborne told me of the Bentley allegation. "[Lantigua] was on the files [in three places], but she had never voted in the inappropriate name and had not signed the petition dually. ... I asked Osborne about the allegation of "massive voter registration fraud." She called that characterization "inaccurate," based on what she's seen of the petitions. New Times
So, Lantigua signed the recall petition once, which she and the elections director both verify, nor does Bentley even argue that she signed thrice. So where is the fraud, massive or otherwise? Evidently Lantigua was listed in the elections record more than once because she had divorced, changed her name and address, and then remarried. She's listed three times but she signed once, yet the article gets plastered across kookyland as proof of "massive" fraud.
Wait, it gets slimier. In a followup June 22 editorial praising Bentley's investigative journalism, the publisher of Sonoran News, Don Sorchych, wrote:
Even though elections is saying the requisite number of votes have been approved for the recall, a serious investigation would likely show there are not enough legal voters to trigger a recall. Bentley found a Mexican woman who has voting rights under three different last names at the same home address. She is likely an illegal also, in which case she has no right to vote. If she is legal, she has a right to vote once, not three times. Sonoran News [my emphasis]
Lantigua is not an illegal and she signed once dickwad. Lantigua has lived in Arizona for more than 20 years, and she is a permanent resident alien who went through the right steps to become so. Today in fact she appeared at a press conference with CBA, holding her passport. Co-chair of the recall group, Randy Parraz, said of Bentley's article:
"Out of 18,000 names to pick from and you can't even get it right? ... You end up picking someone who is registered to vote, who lives in the district, and you [label this] 'massive voter fraud' and use her as the poster child of this?" New Times
There's your "massive" registration fraud. Lantigua said she is considering a lawsuit against Sonoran News. Please tell me where I can send a donation. Funny, I checked but I haven't seen this story plastered throughout the rightwing blogosphere.