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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Whose GOP is it anyway? | page 1, 2 The good news for Republicans trying to distance themselves from this type of rhetoric is that Buchanan is now spitting fire from outside the confines of the Republican Party. "Every time he says stuff like this, he just shows more and more that he no longer has a home in the Republican Party," one Republican said. But just six years ago, similar rhetoric was employed by one of the GOP's rising stars, California Gov. Pete Wilson. Faced with early daunting poll numbers, Wilson latched his political horse to Proposition 187, a ballot measure that promised to eliminate social benefits for illegal immigrants, and force children who were in the United States without documentation to be removed from public schools. The measure passed overwhelmingly and Wilson coasted to reelection.
But earlier this year, the courts overturned the measure. Anti-187 backlash is seen as the chief reason the state's Latino voting population has doubled since 1994, and the Democrats' successful demonization of Wilson has been blamed for these new Latino voters voting overwhelmingly for Democrats. Under the new leadership of Bush and his campaign strategists, Republicans are trying to put the legacy of Wilson and 187 behind them. But Bush strategists are already preparing for another California initiative which will likely appear on the November ballot. The measure, which has been dubbed "Son of 187," would essentially do the same thing as its 1994 forebear, but is crafted to pass constitutional muster, therefore making it "court-proof." But in the wake of a new nonpartisan poll showing Bush's Latino California support hovering around 40 percent -- by comparison, gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren received 19 percent of the Latino vote in 1998 -- the GOP front-runner has to be worried about a Republican-supported measure that would antagonize Latino voters again. "That issue came up on the Bush Latino strategy call [Wednesday] night," said one California Republican with ties to the Bush campaign. "I think it's a natural for him to come out strongly against it. The strategy will be 'As a governor, I have said this is a federal issue, not a state issue. As president, I will deal humanely with immigration policy.'" "My overall gut on it is that it's not helpful and that it's very counterproductive," echoed Frank Guerra, who crafted Bush's Latino media campaign. "Many other Republicans in and outside of California agree with that assessment."
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