Anti-Immigrant Tea Party Senator Loses in Arizona

"Karma!" exclaimed Tim Carpenter, national director of Progressive Democrats, at the stunning 53-45% defeat of Maricopa County's Senator Russell Pearce, self-styled "Tea Party President" and author of the anti-immigrant SB 1070 legislation.

In another sign that voters oppose the Tea Party extreme, conservatives voted for Jerry Lewis, an SB 1070 opponent, in a recall against Pearce, the powerful state senate president. Pearce's defeat in a Republican district was similar to the recall defeats of two Wisconsin senators in safe Republican districts earlier this year.