Tea Party darling Russell Pierce seen here with J.T. Ready, who happens to be one of Arizona's leading neo-Nazis.
In a spectacular defeat of the anti-immigrant wing of the Tea Party, Russell Pierce has lost the recall election. Arizona Central reports that with 100% of precincts reporting, Pierce lost the election to his opponent Jerry Lewis 53% to 43%. Via The Christian Science Monitor:
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 [sic].
If you recall, Russell Pierce was a darling of many in the Tea Party, in large part because of Pierce’s extremist stance on immigration and ties to neo-nazis: