According to Campbell his vote was a mistake. He voted in-state tuition for illegals who were in the process of obtaining citizenship – then they changed the text to leave out the citizenship ‘process’ thing altogether. All they do is ask the illegal if he wants to become a citizen, he says ‘yes’ and wallah.. in-state tuition benefits. Campbell defended his record on ‘being tough on illegal immigration’ rather convincingly
He calls himself a "new California Republican," bucking the "moderate" and "conservative" titles assigned to party members."I'm not even sure I know what (moderate and conservative) mean sometimes," he said. "The minute you use those labels, people get an image."
Campbell favors school vouchers, but only in poor areas. He opposes abortion rights, but is not willing to create a law to ban them. And he says illegal immigrants should be given the same benefits as everyone else, since the federal government has not controlled the border to prevent the immigrants from coming in.
On local issues, Campbell...wants to make sure all schools receive the same amount of money and wants to ensure that the coastline stays clean.
Orange County Register. Santa Ana, Calif.: Aug 11, 2005
"[Campbell voted] in 2001 in favor of allowing undocumented residents who have been in California for a number of years to pay the state-resident fee at state universities.""[He explained] Republicans who voted for the bill were fooled into believing it would only apply to people who were on the verge of being sworn in as citizens. Later, he said, they learned it would be applied to anyone who simply said he wanted to be an American."