There's lots of folks banging on here and across the Net like Brewer is the anti-xist or Shaitan or something and the legislators are her minions. In this case, you'd have that right. That and the facts of the case, like how many of these legislators were actually born and raised in AZ might be germane to the argument for endemic stupid in AZ. Au Contraire mon amis! Ms. Brewer appears to be an import, though her skin is quite dry and the wrinkles deep enough to have soaked up some serious ray time in AZ. But, there once was someone, Much worse than she is. I grew up with his kids, went to school with them too. We were neighbors, though they lived in Tbird Estates and we were in Deborah Homes i.e. the cheap seats. We didn't do church together in our little farming town as you had Catholic, Methodist and LDS and we were not LDS. So, who was this man Ev Mecham, who, like a lot of strange bedfellows, got into the damn bed by splitting a ticket. And then, well, things began to unravel in a Very weird way.
He was elected by a 40% "mandate" though no one is sure of what. He was to the far right of Goldwater and McCain at the time. Think we have a wingnut in Brewer? Throw the orange........I dare ya!
Ev Mechem was a car dealer and failed politician who just kept running and running. He finally made the top spot when he was able to face a split ticket. He also became an object lesson in how dangerous split tickets are. His first act as governor was to repeal the MLK holiday the prior governor had signed into law. Then he went on to more and more ugly things.
Claims of prejudice were made against Mecham after he defended the use of the word "pickaninny" to describe black children, claimed that high divorce rates were caused by working women, claimed America is a Christian nation to a Jewish audience, and said a group of visiting Japanese businessmen got "round eyes" after being told of the number of golf courses in Arizona. In response to claims that he was a racist, Mecham said, "I've got black friends. I employ black people. I don't employ them because they are black; I employ them because they are the best people who applied for the cotton-picking job."
Then the paranoia began to set in when a local gay right activist, Republican (yes, you read that right) Ed Buck began a recall petition against the governor. Mecham then sent out 25000 letters to prominent R's all over the nation to move to AZ and support him. When the petitions were turned in, there were 388,988 certified, about 40,000 more that the votes Mecham had been elected with!
It's about to get MUCH more interesting. See, the gov had an ongoing fight with the press, the legislature and his own people. And he wasn't being paranoid enough it seems, we really were watching him like hawks. On January 8, 1988, the grand jury issued indictments against Evan Mecham and Willard Mecham, the Governor's brother and campaign finance manager, charging three counts of perjury, two counts of fraud, and one count of failing to report a campaign contribution. Mecham and his brother faced 22 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Now came our real conundrum, one that had to be decided by our Secretary of State, the next in line to the "throne" even. You see, because AZ has both referendum and recall, we can petition for a recall any time as long as the sigs are good. We wanted him out, and, amazingly, so did the legislature. He had become a blight and embarrassment to the state and he was going out one way or the other, but our state constitution was hung up in the debate now.
They decided to impeach him but leave the recall open until final word was sent on that bit of business. So, on January 8, 1988, the grand jury issued indictments against Evan Mecham and Willard Mecham, the Governor's brother and campaign finance manager, charging three counts of perjury, two counts of fraud, and one count of failing to report a campaign contribution. Mecham and his brother faced 22 years in prison if convicted on all charges. He was convicted under the impeachment, so we called off the recall.
He was sent to jail for a bit, one of those country club ones. And got out and tried to get back into politics to not much avail. His tin hat couldn't protect him from his "voices". AZ is a backwater, chock full of those who don't live there year round or are simply there for the retirement amenities. But, some of us are awake and doing something to change it. Don't let old Ev fool you or Brewbie either, they will get sat down and talked to eventually. I hope it's REAL soon.