Politico reports that the Obama administration lawsuit against the Arizona immigration law may imperil Western Democrats.
“This is a tough issue for Democrats,” said former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, a Democrat who is co-director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Denver. “Politically, I just can’t think of any place in the West where this is going to play well.”
"If you look like you're siding with illegal immigration, you're in trouble," said one national Republican strategist, adding that when it comes to the discussion of secured borders, "people think that's what should happen."
While the suit could prove helpful to President Barack Obama by revving up his own base in 2012 – and, by extension, prove harmful to Republicans that year because they risk offending a key and growing segment of the electorate—the near-term impact is a different matter.
One GOP strategist compared it to the ads Republican Pete Wilson ran in 1994 in California as he was trailing in the polls for his gubernatorial re-election bid on Proposition 187, the state's tough-as-nails immigration ballot option that roiled Latino voters for a generation - but won him his seat for another term.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39431.html#ixzz0t0MpFjHO
The anonymous GOP strategist is repeating an urban legend. Wilson did not endorse Proposition 187 until September 15, 1994. But by then, he was already ahead. A Los Angeles Times poll, conducted September 8-11 found that Wilson led Brown among likely voters 50-41 percent.
