Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at Democratic Diva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is refusing to appear at a Senate hearing to defend S.B. 1070, the controversial state immigration law she signed in 2010. Brewer is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., on April 24, the day the hearing is scheduled, but will be sending former state Sen. Russell Pearce to testify in her place.

The reason Brewer won’t be at that hearing is obvious to anyone familiar with Arizona politics. Despite her national image as a tough-as-nails politician, bolstered by her recent memoir, Scorpions for Breakfast, the last thing Brewer ever wants to face is hard questions. She rarely grants interviews and dodges reporters wherever she goes. At the one-and-only debate she agreed to do with her opponent in the 2010 governor’s race, Brewer’s performance was an unmitigated disaster. If you’ve seen the HBO film "Game Change," you’ll have a good sense of Brewer from the portrayal of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. They’re two of a kind. There simply aren’t enough 3x5 cards in the world to prep Jan Brewer to be grilled by the likes of Chuck Schumer at a Senate hearing and Brewer’s handlers know it.

Russell Pearce, on the other hand, is adept at demagoguery on anti-immigrant policies, so he’ll do fine at the hearing. And Pearce has lots of time on his hands these days, since he is no longer Arizona state Senate president. He’s no longer a senator, for that matter, because he was recalled last November by the voters in his district. Pearce is often described as the author of S.B. 1070, which is partly true since he contributed to it, but the law was the product of several individuals and organizations, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

When I blog about immigration here, I tend to get replies from people who support tougher enforcement of illegal immigration. Fair enough. There are certainly legitimate legal, economic and labor market discussions to be had around the issue. But what you should know about S.B. 1070 is that it was never intended to address the problem of illegal immigration. It was a scam concocted to get Republicans elected in Arizona in 2010. Brewer and Pearce sailed to easy election victories in Arizona on the strength of it, along with nearly every other Republican running for election in 2010.

What you should know is that the business community of Arizona was mostly silent about S.B. 1070 throughout the entire debate on the bill and the election season. The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry took an officially “neutral” position on S.B. 1070, which was in stark contrast to their fierce opposition to previous bills imposing employer sanctions. Business leaders had every reason to support the Republicans. They had cut a deal with Pearce to strip out an important employer enforcement provision. The original introduced version of S.B. 1070 allowed prosecutors to subpoena documents and take witness statements. Those things would be crucial to making a case that an employer knowingly hired undocumented workers for the purpose of yanking their business license. The very first amendment to the bill took that language out. The article, published April 23, 2010, in the Arizona Capitol Times is behind a paywall, but here's what it said about the deal:

As the largest business association in the state, the Arizona Chamber has considerable lobbying power. Even though Pearce was unable to gain the group’s support, he neutralized an influential opponent that otherwise would have used its lobbying efforts to convince lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Although it’s unclear whether business interests, acting alone, could have killed [S.B.] 1070, the Arizona Chamber is closely aligned with a handful of state senators who could have shattered the fragile Republican majority in that chamber. All 12 Democrats in the Senate had lined up against the bill, which meant that three opposition votes from Republicans would have kept the bill from advancing.

Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber, said the smart move this year was to seek changes to the bill rather than oppose it. By removing the provisions that would have caused the most problems for businesses, Hamer averted another confrontation with Pearce that would have further damaged relationships within the Republican Party.

The Arizona Chamber rewarded the Arizona GOP by being decidedly not neutral in the election of 2010. It endorsed every single pro-S.B. 1070 Republican statewide candidate, from governor down to state mine inspector, in addition to many of the pro-S.B. 1070 legislative candidates. It's been rewarded handsomely with tax cuts and corporate-friendly ALEC bills since the Republicans took over in a clean sweep, largely credited to S.B. 1070.