Mormons and Latinos Kick Russell Pearce Out

I like stirring the pot, so proceed with caution.

Those of you may know that I am no fan of Russell Pearce, the Republican who crafted the Arizona immigration law. Apparently neither do the Mormons in Arizona. And the Latinos, but that was already obvious. What is cheery is that the Mormons were frustrated with Pearce's character and the general tone that he expressed. I am not Mormon, but I will gladly be the only non-Mormon in the party if this is true. I wish my fellow Baptists had this kind of demand for civility.

The recall of Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce, a Republican who crafted the state’s immigration law, SB 1070, was one of the biggest headlines out of Election Day Tuesday night.

A post-election survey in Pearce’s district found a major erosion among two groups who have typically supported the lawmaker: Mormon (or LDS) voters, and conservatives in general.

The survey, conducted by Project New West with Myers Research, found that Pearce won LDS voters by a 16-point margin – which is “a lot of erosion” from his previous support in that group, said Andrew Myers of Myers Research.

The reasons for this departure were not immigration or a particular political issue, the survey found, but about character.

A full 42 percent of LDS voters said they based their decision on issues like a “personal shortcoming” of Pearce’s or “his dishonesty or corruption," said Jill Hanauer of Project New West.

LDS voters often focus more on character than other constituent groups, Myers said, but even so these results were striking.

And since LDS voters make up a full 34 percent of the district’s electorate, Hanauer said, that’s quite a population to lose ground with.

The survey found that conservatives in general, too, jumped ship from Pearce to Lewis.

“When you look at the fact that three in 10 conservatives sided with Lewis, that’s a pretty stunning number,” he said.
Overall, Myers said, the message is clear: voters don’t like the tone of politics lately.

“Throughout the West … what we’re seeing is this independence sort of emerge,” he said. “The level of rhetoric right now – it’s pretty clear that overreaching, bitter partisan divides – voters are pretty frustrated with it right now.”

UPDATE: One other interesting point from the poll:

Immigration may not have been a motivating factor for most white voters, but Pearce is clearly not popular with Hispanics and that was a lynchpin to Pearce’s defeat. Lewis and Russell split the white vote, but Hispanics--13% of voters--broke against Pearce by a better than 3-to-1 margin.