Gov. Evan Mecham - a cautionary tale

When Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law a new bill touted as fighting the scourge of illegal immigration in the state, it set off the predictable contretemps along party and ideological lines, with liberals and centrists (believing the law to be a draconian effort that is wholly unconstitutional) facing off against conservatives, who defend the law as necessary in the absence of federal action to stem the flow of illegal immigration from Mexico. Arizona Senate Bill 1070, a.k.a. the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, may not survive a test case in the courts, but its very passage (and vocal defense by various reactionary entities) speaks volumes about where this nation stands, a decade into a new century and facing demographic change in its population that will virtually remake what it means to be “American.”  I’ll spare you dear readers a lengthy excoriation of this bill, but I must register how fundamentally undemocratic and, yes, un-American this new law is. No one is disputing the burden placed on border states by federal inaction on controlling illegal immigration and Arizona (with approximately 460,000 illegal residents) is particularly vulnerable. However, rather than expand existing legislation that penalizes the employers who hire (and exploit) illegals, the state has chosen to usurp the Federal Government’s authority in immigration matters and placed its police officers in a very dangerous position – dangerous to our country’s ideals of liberty and civil rights, protected by the Constitution.

Alan and Gabe have already posted cogent arguments against this bill, so I will focus on something that immediately popped into my head when I heard of the bill’s passage – this is history repeating itself. Recent history, at that, which makes its passage all the more curious.

Evan Mecham was a successful owner of car dealerships and newspapers before his surprise win in Arizona’s 1986 gubernatorial election. Mecham won on his fifth try for governor, winning support for his platform of tax cuts and battling federalism. Mere days after taking office in January 1987, however, Mecham made a decision that would have catastrophic consequences for his state and his governorship – he cancelled the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday as a paid holiday for state employees. Though the establishment of the holiday in the state was barely a year old and was being disputed by the state’s own Attorney General, Gov. Mecham made this a national issue with statements to civil rights activists and black organizations in the state like “King doesn’t deserve a holiday” and “You folks don’t need another holiday. What you folks need are jobs.”

I remember visiting Arizona that year on a family vacation and reading about how Gov. Mecham was proudly intractable on his stance on the MLK holiday. There was also a growing sense of embarrassment among the native Arizonans we encountered – mostly about the negative publicity the Governor had brought on the state, not necessarily a show of support for the holiday. My young mind, though unfettered by the liberal indoctrination that was to come, knew then that, whatever the merits of his decision, Mecham was wading into a forum with which he was not at all familiar or equipped to handle.

Mecham’s wholly political decision carried a big price for his state in the months and years that followed. By November 1987, the state had suffered hundreds of cancellations of conventions, costing the state millions in tourism revenue. Most notably, the N.B.A. cancelled an event in Phoenix and stated the MLK holiday as the reason. Beyond tourism, however, Mecham’s decision drove corporations looking to build new facilities out of the state, scared off by the Governor’s tone-deaf approach to race relations (he was fond of calling black children “pickaninnies”).

Gov. Mecham was not long for his office - he was in office barely six months before a recall effort officially began and, by January 1988, he was impeached by the state House and convicted in the Senate for obstruction of justice and misusing government funds, stemming from a loan Mecham gave his auto dealership from public funds and his attempt to block an investigation of one of his appointees for making a threat to a government official. Mecham was removed from office in April, but the controversy over the MLK holiday was far from over.

A 1990 ballot initiative to establish the holiday was rejected by the voters in Arizona, leading to millions lost in tourism, trade and entertainment revenue. Super Bowl XXVII (we all remember that sterling, nine-turnover effort by the Bills to lose a squeaker to the Cowboys, 52-17) had been slated to be played in Phoenix by vote of the owners in 1990, prior to the voters’ rejection of the holiday. In response, the owners reconvened and decided to move the game (and its $150 million in revenue to the host city) to Pasadena. In sum, the cancellation of the MLK holiday by Gov. Mecham and the subsequent failure of the ballot initiative to reinstate cost Arizona over $350 million in convention business and did as much damage to the state’s image and reputation across the nation. The economic boycott finally registered with the voters who, in 1992, approved the holiday. They were quickly rewarded the following year when the NFL voted to stage Super Bowl XXX in Tempe.

Less than twenty years later, the state is facing another economic boycott due to unpopular action by its elected officials. While the new law has strong support among the state’s voters, it is driving a new round of criticism and outrage from individuals and organizations who vote with their pocketbooks. Gov. Brewer (who just happens to be facing election in November…hmmm) seems as steadfast and resolute as her car dealer predecessor and determined to institute her Sun Belt Sicherheitspolizei in spite of the uproar.

As a first-generation American born to immigrant parents, this bill is a particularly ugly slap in the face. The thought that I, or a Hispanic, or Asian, or any minority that doesn’t jibe with an officer’s idea of “legal” could be stopped and detained if I don’t have proof of citizenship while walking down the street is an abomination. We have marked the upward progress of our nation with the expansions of rights and opportunities, not by reactionary legislation designed to presume a class of people guilty by appearance. We should embrace diversity, not criminalize it.