Can a Latina Tea Party "Favorite" Save an Anti-Immigration Senator in Arizona?

 MESA Ariz.--Her “Si se puede” signs are all over the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. She’s a Mexican immigrant, a Republican Mormon and she’s entered the historic race on Nov. 8 to recall State Senator Russell Pearce the architect of SB 1070, one of the harshest anti-immigrant laws in the nation. 

But whether Olivia Cortes is in it to win or to help Pearce stay in power by splitting his opponents’ votes is another question--one of the many she won’t answer. Were opponents to prove this intention, though, she could be forced off the ballot.

Strangely, for a political candidate, Cortes has no website and has granted no interviews to media in the two months since she emerged, including multiple requests from New America Media. 

Cortes is getting advice not to talk to the media from Greg Western, president of the East Valley Tea Party, which sympathizes with Pearce’s political stance. Cortes did, however, send an e-mail to Arizona weekly New Times to refute claims she is a planted candidate to help Pearce.

Whether she solicited it or not—another question she won’t answer--Cortes also received help and signatures from Pearce supporters to be on the ballot.

Cortes’ 1,200 Tea Party Signatures 

“This is my friend that is running and I’m helping her,” said Western who personally submitted close to 1,200 signatures to get Cortes on the ballot last week. He denied the Tea Party is endorsing her.

Cortes’ intention to run became public almost two months ago, after Republican Jerry Lewis, a former Mormon bishop and school superintendent, entered the race. At the time there was an informal consensus among Pearce opponents that the best candidate to defeat the senator would be a Mormon and a Republican given that demographics of District 18. 

Responding to an e-mailed question, Lewis said, “One reason I am in this race is to pursue a climate of civility and respect in Mesa’s politics. This political stunt designed to deceive voters is a symptom of our caustic political climate.”

When Lewis announced he was running, Democrats, such as Andrew Sherwood, who ran against Pearce in 2010, decided to stay out. 

“This is highly unethical. This is Pearce supporters intent to defraud the voters,” said Sherwood. “It’s a disservice to the Mesa voters.”

On Sept. 9, the deadline for Cortes to file her petitions to get on the ballot, a controversial recording surfaced in which a petition gatherer solicited signatures outside the Mesa Public Library.

In the recording, provided by Sherwood, a woman tells a Pearce supporter, “The whole point of [Cortes’] running is to split the vote so he does stay in office.”

Reporters from New Times and the Arizona Republic reported hearing or being told similar statements from petition gatherers. “We have no control of what they say when they’re collecting signatures,” said Western in response to the media reports. “People volunteer to get them for whatever their motives are, I have no idea.”

Tea Party Denies Ploy

Western who calls himself an advisor to Cortes said he doesn’t know who paid for a firm to circulate the petitions.

But among the petition circulators for Cortes were Pearce supporters, such as Franklin Bruce Ross--a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the validity of the recall effort that was tossed out by the Arizona Supreme Court this week. Ross could not be reached for comment.

New America Media spoke with Western--who didn’t returned earlier phone calls--outside a weekly gathering of the East Valley Tea Patriots in Mesa. He declined to confirm or deny that Cortes is in the race to split the anti-Pearce vote. Instead denied Pearce engineered the Cortes candidacy, stating, “Russell Pearce is not behind this, nobody come from Russell Pearce.”