HUFFINGTON
05.19.13
CHARLES NORFLEET/GETTY IMAGES
LOVE AND HATE
der to help a non-profit group
stock stations set up to supply
migrants who may be planning to
cross the border with food, water,
and basic supplies. “However you
might feel about immigration, the
desert is starting to get hot this
time of year,” Badal says. “This is
about preventing deaths.”
Badal has also set up a council
of border mayors, made up of the
heads of towns in Cochise County,
Ariz., and towns in Mexico, aimed
at promoting tourism, cooperation,
and border management. “There’s
so much history between these
towns. And we’ve found that a lot
of times we have more in common with these towns than we do
our state capital,” Badal says. “So
there’s a lot to be gained from cooperation, and working together
toward economic development.”
This all may at first blush sound
like a hippie heaven — or, say,
Rush Limbaugh’s version of hell
— but the ethos in Bisbee feels
more libertarian. Stanhope, who
became active in the civil union
debate after he’d heard conservative groups were planning to bus
protesters in from out of town —
once flirted with running for president as a member of the Libertarian Party. Badal points out that
“Some people I’ve known
for 40 or 50 years, they just
became so hateful.”
Bisbee doesn’t just forge its own
path on social issues. The town
also recently attempted to opt out
of a state water initiative that required towns and cities to pay into
a state fund, whether they wanted
to or not. Bisbee lost that fight, but
it reflects more a spirit of localism
than traditional progressivism.
“Phoenix is always saying to
D.C., ‘Leave us alone,’” Badal says.
“But it’s a lot of ‘Do as I say, not
as I do.’ I suppose that’s just hu-
Phoenix
Mayor Greg
Stanton
offered his
support to
Bisbee Mayor
Adriana
Badal.