Arizona: One More Unlucky Star

By Sally B. Donnelly/Phoenix

The state reptile of Arizona is the ridge-nosed rattlesnake, but voters might be forgiven if they occasionally confuse the reptile with some of their politicians, who have been slithering past the law since the days of Congressman Charles Poston. Known as the "Father of Arizona" for his campaign for territorial status, Poston set a bad example for later generations of politicians when he set out for Washington to claim his congressional seat in 1864 but took a scenic detour -- through Panama -- at a cost to taxpayers of $7,000.

Modern times have not altered the tradition much. In the past three years, the state has seen the impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham for misuse of state funds; the arrest of seven legislators on bribery charges; allegations that Arizona's two Senators were involved in the Keating Five influence-peddling scandal; and the conviction of a prominent savings and loan chief on 17 counts of securities fraud. "It seems we have an unlucky star over our heads," said former Governor Bruce Babbitt, the state's cleanest political light. "Now we'd all like it to pass over the horizon."

Last week Republican Governor J. Fife Symington became the latest candidate for rogue in Arizona's political gallery. Symington, along with 11 other % former officials of the Southwest Savings & Loan, based in Phoenix, was named in a suit filed by the Resolution Trust Corporation alleging "gross negligence" in connection with the thrift's collapse in 1989. And the FBI is conducting its own investigation into possible criminal charges relating to the thrift.

The suit focuses on seven investments made by Southwest that accounted for more than $140 million in losses, including $30 million-plus in the 1983 Camelback Esplanade hotel-and-office-building project. Symington, who served on Southwest's board of directors from 1972 until early 1984, was primarily a real estate developer; it was in the latter capacity that he first urged the thrift to invest in the Esplanade project. The RTC suit claims that Symington failed to get the necessary advance approval from federal agencies; that the purchase price was misrepresented to Southwest; and that the deal was unsafe and unfair to the savings association because it alone provided nearly all the money.

Symington, who won election last February in large part on his record as a successful businessman, called the suit politically motivated and "pure garbage." In a point-by-point rebuttal during a 90-minute press conference in the pink stucco-and-granite Ritz-Carlton Hotel that is part of the Esplanade, Symington denied any wrongdoing and called the RTC an example of "government run amuck."

What has more Arizonans worried is that their populist political culture has run amuck. "It's the Wild West at its best," says Republican Senator Jan Brewer. "We don't stymie folks here. But that sometimes brings problems." That rugged individualism wreaked havoc in the 1980s on a state that was determined to maintain its boom economy. The fortunes that were once extracted from gold mines were now found in real estate and land development. But an economic downturn combined with a more involved electorate has brought an end to that freewheeling past.

The charges come at a particularly inopportune time for the Governor, who has watched the state's economy continue to stumble, along with his own political fortunes: one new poll placed his approval rating at 29%, down from 40% in July. "The Symington suit puts Arizona in a political holding pattern," wrote Arizona Republic columnist Keven Willey. "Seems to me we've about run out of gas. Have we crashed yet?"