The mass shootings in Arizona over the weekend that killed six and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) in critical condition after being shot in the head hardly marks the first time the state has been under scrutiny for its tense political atmosphere and somewhat off-the-rails policies. In April, TPM took a microscope to the state in the wake of its incredibly controversial immigration policy.
So it’s time to ask again, what’s the matter with Arizona?
As TPM reported back in April:
What happened to Arizona? Wasn’t it, briefly, an unlikely swing state trending purple in 2008? Wasn’t it the place where even John McCain’s name on the presidential ballot couldn’t stem the rising tide of Democratic registrations?
The short answer is, it’s complicated. The state may not ever have been as swingy as people thought — despite polls that showed things to be closer, McCain won by 9 in the end. Arizonans are leaving both parties in droves to become independents, though they’re leaving the Democratic side faster. Some Democrats say that’s because people were turned off by the partisan rancor back in Washington; others say the party is sorely missing superstar Gov. Janet Napolitano, who left to become President Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security. Republicans say the Democratic surge died with the stimulus, health care and climate debates, which they say turned off Arizona’s right-leaning base to the Democratic message.
Arizona’s proximity to Mexico has created an atmosphere of fear in the state over illegal immigration — and laws enacted in the name of security have caused the state’s swinginess to swing in the direction of right-wingery. Most significantly, in April Gov. Jan Brewer signed a harsh immigration law that makes it a crime for anyone to be in the state illegally, and requires law enforcement to demand immigration papers from anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” is in the country illegally.
Fear about illegal immigrants is frequently used as a political tool. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is notorious for using tactics aimed at intimidating illegal immigrants. The Arizona GOP sent out a mailer in October against Dem state Rep. Rae Waters, who voted against the immigration law, accusing him of “[inviting[] drugs and violence into our neighborhoods, schools and communities,” and using a picture of a bullet-ridden stop sign to drive home the point.
McCain was pressured to flip-flop on his immigration stance and emphasize border control in his reelection campaign last year — a cause that most famously resulted in his “complete the danged fence” ad. Gov. Brewer repeated the erroneous claim that “law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded,” in order to justify the immigration law. She later admitted she was wrong.
In April, the Arizona Department of Education started telling schools to remove teachers with “heavily accented or ungrammatical” English from classes where students are learning the language. In May, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law restricting ethnic studies programs in schools.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: On The Ground In Arizona: TPM Retraces Shooting Suspect’s Steps]
And then there are the gun laws. Arizona is known for having some of the most lax gun laws in the country. It’s one of three states — other than Vermont and Alaska — to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. As Versha Sharma reported in September 2009, Arizona passed a law to allow people to carry guns into bars, as long as the gun owner isn’t drinking. Former state senator Pamela Gorman (R) sponsored a bill to allow guns on school property.
Inevitably, guns have permeated politics as well. Giffords herself, a Democrat, is pro-second amendment rights.
Gorman, who also ran for Congress in Arizona’s 3rd district in 2010, released an ad to show that her policies are “always right on target,” by featuring her firing several different kinds of gun. Watch:
Jesse Kelly, who opposed Giffords in the 2010 election, held an M16 shooting event advertised as: “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office.”
And then there were the twelve people packing heat at an Obama event in August 2009 in Phoenix. Chris Broughton had a semi-automatic rifle, and attends a church run by a fundamentalist pastor who would pray for Obama “to die and go to hell.”
Two other events in Arizona that summer saw people carrying weapons.
Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said this weekend that Arizona has “become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” But state political leaders don’t yet seem to be to changing course. The leader of the Tuscon Tea Party said her group will not be changing its rhetoric anytime soon: “I think anytime you start suppressing freedom of speech, I think it’s wrong. I live here and I didn’t hear anything [in the 2010 campaign] that concerned me in terms of inciting violence.”
And both Democrats and Republicans say that even in the wake of the shootings, stricter gun control laws in the state will be a non-starter — and that there are likely to be more guns at political events.
Additional reporting by Evan McMorris-Santoro.
