So says the Arizona Republic:

Heading into the 2012 election season, illegal immigration is no longer the red-hot political issue it was just a few years ago.

This month's recall of Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce shows the subject has peaked, according to some analysts.

Pearce rode voter concern over illegal immigration to national prominence by championing enforcement-only measures to crack down on undocumented immigrants in Arizona. Those measures were emulated by elected officials around the country.

But his steadfast devotion to immigration enforcement was not enough to keep him in power, in part because illegal immigration is down significantly, border security has improved and voters have moved on to more pressing issues, analysts say.

Russell Pearce has a long track record of being a dubious human being in general. It is entirely possibly that his own personal record of misconduct, poor ability to express himself and many questionable associates did him in as much as anything else; however, here at MoE we would like to think that the vast majority of people who are decent but not politically motivated realized what a scumbag of a human being they had on the public payroll and what a bad idea these immigration laws are, and removed him for that reason.

Elections, especially local ones, are often carried by loud, obnoxious minorities pushing their pet issue. We can only hope that is the case in Arizona with Pearce, and that we see a backlash as the voting public at large rejects these excesses.