National secure-borders group aids with publicity on Web site

Mary Jo Pitzl and Scott Wong
 

Pearce for Congress, no, wait, for state Senate . . . Russell Pearce is turning to a national secure-the-border group for help in raising the $5 contributions he needs to qualify as a publicly funded candidate on the November ballot. Nothing too surprising there, though Glenn Spencer, the Sierra Vista man who runs the American Patrol group, has earned a name for himself as staunchly anti-Mexican. He has been known to warn that the Mexican government is trying to "re-colonize" the U.S. through immigration.

But the group is of only limited help in Pearce's bid for the state Senate seat representing west Mesa. That's because $5 donors must live in the legislative district Pearce hopes to represent.

In a "gentle request for help," Pearce makes that clear. He also makes clear that he believes his opponent can outpace him in fundraising"I have been told that the cheap labor crowd, along with the open border crowd and other organizations . . . are going to generously fund a candidate to run against me and in fact will spend whatever it takes to remove me from office," Pearce wrote on the site, www.americanpatrol.com. Pearce doesn't name him, but that opponent is Mesa attorney , brother-in-law of U.S. Rep. .

There's another twist to this online request for help: It's wrongly listed under a banner of "Russell Pearce for U.S. Congress."

Um, that would be last year's effort. In 2007, Pearce launched an exploratory bid for Congress, hoping to knock off a GOP incumbent who, Pearce felt, sinned by pushing for comprehensive immigration reform. That candidate? Jeff Flake.