Arizona state senate president Russell Pearce has conceded defeat in his recall election (link), a victory for those who seek to profit from illegal immigration. Pearce has been on the front lines against illegal immigration and is the author of Arizona's SB 1070. The winner, Jerry Lewis, will take his place.

This is a win for those who say things like this:

Political analyst Chris Herstam, a Republican lobbyist and former legislator, said Pearce was repudiated by voters who believe the economy, jobs and education should be the first priority - not immigration.

As in the case of Tim Kaine, immigration is a vital, fundamental issue that has a negative impact on all three of the things that are supposedly more important than it. Massive illegal immigration increases spending, impacting the economy. Massive illegal immigration obviously affects jobs: millions of illegal aliens are in the U.S. doing jobs that Americans could be doing. Increasing immigration enforcement would have a net benefit to the U.S. once all factors are taken into consideration. And, educating illegal aliens or their children increases state spending and takes resources from American students.

This is a victory for those like Chris Herstam, and crooks (why mince words?) who want to profit from illegal immigration in one way or another: crooked politicians (demagogic Democrats or "business-friendly" Republicans), crooked banks, crooked businesses, and crooked governments.

It's unclear what role immigration played in the race and there were no doubt other factors involved. Pearce being closely associated with the tea parties and taking very conservative positions on other issues probably didn't help him. The fact that those in the tea parties sphere are low-wattage and exclusionary types with fringe ideas means that they weren't able to support him effectively or oppose his detractors effectively. Idiocracy has a price.

Since SB 1070 was popular in Arizona and illegal immigration isn't popular there or in the U.S. as a whole, it will probably turn out that Pearce's strong conservatism on other issues was the deciding factor.