By Julia Shumway | Arizona Capitol Times
Protesters escorted out of a Senate hearing last week announced on Tuesday they will be filing an ethics complaint against the committee chair who ordered their removal.
The complaint from Living United for Change in Arizona alleges that Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, committed a “gross violation” of Senate rules when he stopped the testimony of the group’s lobbyist and ordered chanting protesters out of a Senate Judiciary hearing last week.
The Senate has not yet received a copy of the complaint, Senate Ethics Committee Chair Sine Kerr and a GOP spokesman said.
At issue is a heated hearing Feb. 13 over a piece of legislation that would enshrine part of the controversial 2010 immigration law SB1070 in the Arizona constitution. A LUCHA lobbyist, Hugo Polanco, referred twice to the measure as “racist,” and Farnsworth informed him that he was done speaking after the second time.
Polanco continued trying to speak, and LUCHA directors Alejandra Gomez and Tomas Robles followed him to the microphone to begin their own testimony. Farnsworth said he was done accepting testimony, and asked his vice chairman to move the bill.
LUCHA members then began chanting “let the people speak,” and Farnsworth recessed the committee.
