Last night, rather than allowing a vote on the resolution, the Maricopa County Republican Party tabled it, keeping the issue alive and postponing the vote for at least a month. The sudden and abrupt end to the matter was orchestrated by County Chairman Lyle Tuttle and is being hailed by supporters of the LAW initiative as a major triumph, while supporters of the GOP-backed legislation HB2779 view it as a direct rebuke of their work. At the Capitol, Republican lawmakers are shaking their heads at the lack of support their work is receiving from the County Party. The resolution, which praised HB2779 as reflecting the will of Arizona voters, was to serve notice that the County Party supported the bill and did not want anyone to interfere with its implementation, whether such interference should come from the Governor, any legislators who wanted to water it down, or ballot initiatives such as LAW or the threatened initiative from WakeUp Arizona.

Tuttle, and others on the County Committee who are active supporters of the initiative, are indicating that they do not trust the legislature to implement HB2779 and that they believe that without the initiative, weak-kneed GOP legislators will work with the Democrats and Governor Napolitano to gut the bill. Proponents of the resolution felt that Tuttle and his brethren could still work on the initiative if they wanted to in their personal capacities, but that the Republican Party should be on record as supporting the bill passed by the Republican majority at the behest of prior resolutions passed at State GOP meetings.

“It is hard to believe that the County Party is telling its own legislators that they don’t trust them or don’t think they have the guts to do the right thing” said one Capitol insider, who remarked that “With the business community threatening to primary Republicans who voted for it [HB2779] you would think that the Party would be moving to protect these guys for voting for it, instead of hanging them out to dry.”

We’re pretty sure this isn’t the last of this issue that we’ll be posting about here on West Washington.

The full text of the proposed resolution is as follows:

Motion of the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee in Support of HB 2779

 

WHEREAS, the citizens of Arizona overwhelming support employer sanctions in all polls conducted to date;

 

WHEREAS, the federal government has failed to enforce the immigration laws of the United States;

 

WHEREAS, the Arizona state legislature passed and the governor signed into law HB 2779, the Fair and Legal Employment Act;

 

WHEREAS, the Fair and Legal Employment Act is a tough but fair employer sanctions law, which prohibits employers from knowingly employing an unauthorized alien; and based on polling, is overwhelming supported by Arizona voters; and

 

WHEREAS, Arizona voters support technical corrections to the law in order to clarify how employers would comply with the law provided the corrections do not change the intent of the law nor the penalties; now therefore be it

 

RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee that HB 2779 represents the will of the citizens of Arizona, as well as making such legislative technical corrections as may be necessary to insure its implementation; and it is further

 

RESOLVED, that any citizen initiatives or legislative effort that would modify or weaken the intent of HB 2779 are counterproductive to the implementation of HB 2779 and are not sanctioned by the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republican Committee.