Bitter politics of Arizona loom over shooting

[IDemo]

By David Schwartz
Sat Jan 8, 2011 8:36pm EST

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Even before the shooting of a U.S. congresswoman on Saturday, the state of Arizona was in the throes of a convulsive political year that had come to symbolize a bitter partisan divide across much of America.

The motives of the alleged shooter, who wounded Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people in Tucson, are not known and they may not be political. But politics nevertheless loom large in the wake of the shooting.

The spark in Arizona's political firestorm was the border state's move to crack down on illegal immigration last summer, a bill proposed by conservative lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer.

The law known as SB 1070 "superheated the political divide more than I've ever seen it in Arizona," said Bruce Merrill, a longtime political analyst and pollster at Arizona State University.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7080AB20110109