You shure did your part in your state tonight --- both Hayworth and Graf lost.
shure = sure
Graf ran in a liberal district and the National Republican party pulled out all support to him,it was pretty rotten.One could say either his loss was a statement that Arizona didn't care about illegals and amnesty,or they could say that a Republican with little money and no financial or moral support from National,hammered at by Dems,who saw he was vulnerable,was doomed by his own party.
Hayworth was totally identified with Bush although toward the end he seemed to be disengaging. And if I am not mistaken he only came to a get-tough position regards illegals somewhat late in the game. Prior to that the media crowed about his ties to Abramson and said he had received big bucks from him which I believe did a lot of damage. His ads at the end stated he had only received a small amount since 1999 and that amount was given to charity. Several people asked me what he had done before 1999 with Abramson and I didn't know.
He was also a very committed Christian and I am wondering if that was not what hurt him most.The Marriage Amendment seems to be going down which is really shocking and makes me sick and scared. He represents Tempe and parts of Scottsdale and there are many liberal elites in his district. I don't know if they redistricted or what happened because I was shocked to find he was my Congressman,maybe I've been sleeping.
But back to the climate vis a vis immigration and illegals in Arizona. All four propositions on the ballot that involved immigrants,legal and/or illegal demonstrated that the voters want a stop to the flow. English only won,no bail for illegals with a felony charge,no access to state supported services for non residents and no punitive damages for illegals involved in law suits all passed with comfortable ease.
So you can see that Arizonans are not averse to getting tough on illegal immigrants,or should I say being fair about them. I think the problem either involves Hayworth's Christianity or his support of Bush and the war in Iraq and has very little to do with immigration.