ARIZONA

Rep. David Stringer facing new calls to step down after saying African-Americans, others ‘don’t blend in’

Maria Polletta
The Republic | azcentral.com
Rep. David Stringer, R-Prescott, was filmed saying immigration is an "existential threat" that will change the face of the United States because "there aren't enough white kids to go around."

Community groups and at least two legislators revived a call for Republican Rep. David Stringer to resign from office Friday after recordings of racist comments he made to university students Nov. 19 were published by the Phoenix New Times.

Among other remarks, the Prescott lawmaker can be heard saying "African-Americans and other racial groups don't … blend in" after coming to the United States and that, unlike immigrants of European descent, they "always look different."

The recordings surfaced less than six months after Stringer was pilloried for saying there weren't "enough white kids to go around” in the state's public schools and calling immigration an “existential threat” to the country. 

The Prescott representative ignored a bipartisan push for him to step down at the time and won re-election in the November midterms.

Reached by phone Friday, Stringer said he was not prepared to comment on the new recordings and likely would issue a statement Monday. He did, however, accept a request from incoming House Speaker Rusty Bowers to give up his position as chairman of the House Sentencing and Recidivism Reform Committee. 

"His remarks don’t reflect the sentiments of the Arizona Legislature, the constituents we represent, and the policies we enact," Bowers said in a statement issued hours after the recordings came out, calling the statements "vile."

"These comments render him incapable of performing his duties as (committee) chair," Bowers said. 

'That lawmaker shouldn't have a seat'

Arizona Anti-Defamation League spokesman Carlos Galindo-Elvira called Stringer's comments "racist, "bigoted" and "outrageous" on Friday, saying they raised "serious questions on (Stringer's) fitness for office."

Josselyn Berry, co-director of progressive coalition ProgressNow Arizona, also issued a statement saying Stringer "continues to be a disgrace to Arizona" and "should resign immediately."

State Rep. and incoming Minority Whip Reginald Bolding said in an interview that he believes "100 percent that (Stringer's) removal of himself from committees is not sufficient," and that formal censure and removal "have to be on the table."

Bolding said he believes many of his colleagues "would absolutely recommend such measures."

"David Stringer has obviously shown a pattern of his prejudice toward people of color here in this state, and he is someone who I believe should not be representing the state of Arizona in any form or fashion," Bolding said.

ROBERTS: Stringer was ripped for his racist comments. But where's the call to resign?

"The people of Arizona want to make sure that they have people who are receptive and responsive to them no matter what they look like, and if a person's race or appearance is going to influence the way a lawmaker speaks to them or treats them, then that lawmaker shouldn't have a seat in our House of Representatives." 

Democratic Rep. César Chávez, who represents Maryvale, said on Twitter that Arizona is "enriched by (its) diversity and cultures" and state government "has no room for individuals such as David Stringer."

"We must look to move forward from this divisiveness," he wrote. "I believe in order to do so, he must resign or the (Legislature) should take actions for expulsion." 

Gov. Doug Ducey, who had pushed for Stringer to resign earlier this year, was on a trade mission in Mexico on Friday and did not immediately react to the controversy.

Spokesman Patrick Ptak said, "As the governor has previously stated, this type of rhetoric should disqualify someone from serving in the Legislature."

State Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Lines issued a statement describing the remarks on the recordings "racist commentary which can only be attributed to a perspective that is out of touch with reality." But he stopped short of reviving his own June call for Stringer to step down. 

Stringer: Spanish-speaking students a 'burden'

The students who debated and taped Stringer are part of a political-history and leadership club at Arizona State University, according to Stephen Chmura, the 19-year-old sophomore who provided copies of the recordings to The Arizona Republic.

As Stringer was speaking to the club, members began researching him and read about the comments he'd made in June, Chmura said. They decided to challenge his views to see whether his positions had evolved.

"We were itching to talk to him about it," Chmura said. "We knew what we were up against."

In the recording, Stringer says "diversity in our country is relatively new" and that when Europeans immigrate to the United States, "after the second or third generation, everybody looks the same, everybody talks the same."

"But that's not the case with African-Americans and other racial groups, because they don't melt in, they don't blend in," he says.

MONTINI: Rep. David Stringer isn't the problem. This is

When the students ask whether looks matter, he responds that "it seems to matter to a lot of (white) people" who flee cities with large populations of racial and ethnic minorities."

At another point, he says: "The difference between the Polish-American immigrant and the immigrant from Somalia is the second-generation Polish immigrant looks like the Irish kid and the German kid and every other kid. But the immigrant from Somalia does not."

When the students ask about Stringer's immigration plans, he says he doesn't "have a solution" and is "just pointing out the problem."

"It's producing tensions, and it's producing burdens on our system," he says, mentioning the numerous Arizona public-school students who primarily speak Spanish. 

"It costs a lot of more to educate a child who doesn't speak English as a native language," he says. "So that's a burden on the taxpayers. It's a pretty significant burden."

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