November 09, 2011 07:28 PM UTC

Recalled Arizona Senator "Will Be Back," Says Tom Tancredo

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• by: Colorado Pols

One result from last night’s off-year elections around the country we’ll be talking about in the coming months was the successful recall of Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, the chief architect of that state’s controversial anti-immigration law SB-1070. Reuters:

A powerful Republican state Senate leader who championed Arizona’s controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants lost his office on Tuesday in a historic recall election, returns showed. Russell Pearce’s defeat is a message to the GOP, say some analysts, that jobs and the economy should be a higher priority than illegal immigrants…

The recall movement was galvanized mainly by Pearce’s role as chief architect of a state law that required police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain and suspect is in the country illegally.

Enactment of the measure, signed by Governor Jan Brewer in April 2010, ignited a furor among Latino and civil rights activists, including calls for an economic boycott of Arizona, and sparked a court challenge by the Obama administration.

Be that as it may, 2010 Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo has a confident prediction, noted by the Washington Times yesterday:

“If he is recalled, he would only be out of office for 11 months because he would be overwhelmingly reelected the following year,” said Tom Tancredo, the former GOP congressman from Colorado and Pearce ally on immigration issues. “Everyone I talk to down there, even his opponents, agree that’s the likely scenario, that Russell Pearce will be back in a year.”

The choice would seem to be up to Sen. Pearce at this point: his concession speech didn’t give any indication one way or another as to whether he intends to run again, but if he did he might be quite competitive in the GOP primary. Most Arizona residents we know, on both sides of the aisle, would rather he did not; hopeful that his recall might begin the process of undoing the economic and reputational damage done to Arizona by SB-1070.

As for Tancredo, well, he spreads rational decisionmaking everywhere he goes as you know.