News Details

Democrat Sen. Eric Stewart criticizes AZ Illegal Alien Law

Posted on Aug 02, 2010 - 11:59 AM by Admin

Democrat Sen. Eric Stewart criticizes Arizona illegal alien law and attacks anti-illegal immigrant legislators.

(Murfreesboro, TN) – State Sen. Eric Stewart (D-Winchester) has issued a statement condemning Republicans for showing support for Arizona’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. Stewart’s comments come the same week in which a poll shows that 72% of Tennesseans believe we should enact a law similar to that of Arizona.

“Eric Stewart thinks law enforcement should not be able to ask criminals if they are here legally,” said Jimmy Evans, Chairman of the Republican Party of Rutherford County. “He is out of touch with the people of Winchester and all of southern middle Tennessee.”

Seventy-two percent of voters in the state say they would support enacting a law that would require people stopped by police to prove they are in the country legally. Such legislation would be modeled after an Arizona statute that lets police charge people who cannot prove their citizenship status under the state's criminal trespassing laws.

“While Eric Stewart criticizes Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Joe Carr for leading the charge to stop illegal immigration, he represents a district with sky-high unemployment caused by illegal immigrants,” said Tim Rudd, State Executive Committeeman, District 13 (Lincoln, Marshall, Maury and Rutherford Counties). “Stewart and the Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue and they know it - which explains why they chose to have someone not up for re-election as their messenger on this issue.”

In addition to his comments condemning Republican support for Arizona, Stewart accused legislators of irresponsibly handling taxpayer dollars. Ironically, an ethics complaint against Stewart is anticipated because he received a “show cause notice” from the TN Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance after an audit of his 2008 campaign finance reports revealed nine substantial violations. “This is simply shameful.” said Rudd.

According to the audit:

Stewart failed to report contributions received during his 2008 campaign.
Stewart failed to report $13,893.35 that he received in the 2008 campaign.
Stewart’s campaign records overstated his reported contributions by $4,200.
Stewart did not maintain his campaign records to verify the existence of contributions and expenses reported and compliance with campaign finance statutes.
Stewart did not follow Registry rules for bookkeeping and failed to maintain a campaign account properly.
Stewart failed to report campaign activities and failed to provide support for the location of campaign assets.
Stewart failed to report $30,909.89 in campaign expenditures during his 2008 campaign.
Stewart’s campaign records indicated that he overstated his reported expenses by $1,217.88.
Stewart removed $21,887.80 from his campaign account without reporting the related disbursements on his campaign financial disclosure statements.
Stewart failed to provide supporting documentation for $34,700.96 in expenditures reported.