Posted on 01/07/2008 8:23:18 AM PST by Between the Lines
As Jan. 19 primary nears, candidates putting focus on controversial topic.
Expect the rhetoric over illegal immigration to heat up as the Jan. 19 S.C. GOP primary draws near with candidates reacting to voter concerns about the state’s fast-growing Hispanic population.
Polls have shown immigration is more important to Republican voters in South Carolina than it is to Democrats. In fact, S.C. GOP backers have made immigration their top issue in choosing a president.
“This is the new Confederate flag issue in South Carolina on the Republican side,” said Neal Thigpen, a political science professor at Francis Marion University and a Republican.
South Carolina has one of the country’s fastest-growing Hispanic populations, up 47 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the Census Bureau. No one knows how many illegal immigrants live in South Carolina, but population estimates range from 150,000 to 400,000. Demographers agree most are Hispanic.
The fast growth is something South Carolinians notice in their daily activities whether they see Hispanics at the grocery store or working on a neighbor’s roof, Thigpen said. They begin to wonder if another ethnic group is taking over.
People who enter the country without proper documentation have broken the law, and crime is always a popular platform for politicians, Thigpen said.
“And let’s face it,” he added. “There’s some bigotry in there and that fuels it.”
NO. 1 ISSUE WITH GOP VOTERS IN S.C.?
The immigration debate in South Carolina mirrors national concern over the growing number of illegal immigrants.
The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research institute, found 15 percent of today’s voters nationwide are concerned about illegal immigration, compared with only 2 percent who thought it was an issue in 2005, said Paul Taylor, the center’s acting director.
Immigration rivaled the war in Iraq as a top issue for Republican voters in two other early primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a November New York Times/CBS News poll.
In South Carolina, an ETV/Winthrop University poll found immigration was a chief concern among Republicans; 18 percent listed it as their top issue. Iraq came in second with 16 percent.
However, just 4 percent of Democrats polled listed immigration as a priority. Their top worry was Iraq.
As a result, Democratic candidates have not spent much time talking about illegal immigration.
“Our voters are more concerned about the war and finding good jobs,” said Joe Werner, executive director of the S.C. Democratic Party.
While Republicans want their candidates to address illegal immigration, the issue won’t be the deciding factor for Republican voters, predicts Katon Dawson, the S.C. Republican Party chairman.
“I don’t think this is going to be the immigration election but it’s going to be part of the process,” Dawson said.
Still, the Republican candidates have taken shots at each other over immigration.
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — who won Thursday night’s Iowa GOP caucus and is leading in South Carolina, according to polls — has been criticized for supporting a plan for children of illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition and college scholarships.
• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney fired his lawn service after news reports found the company hired illegal immigrants.
• Rudy Giuliani has been accused of running a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York City.
• U.S. Sen. John McCain took a political blow last summer when he supported a bipartisan immigration reform plan that critics said would offer amnesty to illegal immigrants.
However, the hard-core anti-illegal immigration crowd lost their candidate before Christmas when U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, D-Colo., dropped out.
Teela Roche, co-chairwoman of South Carolinians for Immigration Moderation in Clemson, said she will choose a candidate based on his immigration stance.
Roche plans to follow Tancredo’s endorsement of Romney even though the former governor used a business that employed illegal immigrants.
“You could throw a rock into a group and hit someone who is guilty of that,” she said. “The illegal immigration population is so big it’s hard not to.”
Roche finds it easier to forgive Romney’s hiring faux pas than McCain, Giuliani or Huckabee, who she says made policy decisions that were soft on illegal immigration.
TOPIC COULD DOMINATE DEBATE
If the Republican presidential candidates only have been jabbing each other over illegal immigration until now, just wait until the Jan. 19 S.C. primary draws closer, Thigpen said.
He predicts the issue will dominate Thursday’s Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, just nine days before the state GOP primary.
The debate’s site — in a tourism-based economy that depends, in part, on immigrant workers — is a good setting for a discussion of the issue.
“They’ll all try to take roundhouse swings at each other,” Thigpen said of the Republican candidates.
“I betcha it consumes the thing.”
Of the top tier candidates, Thompson is the only one who is decent on immigration, and the only one NOT mentioned in this article.
Noelle should leave the political writing to Lee Bandy.
I believe after tomorrow Duncan Hunter (the REAL conservative) will be a surprise contender!! All he needs is a good showing in NH and he’s right up there despite what everyone has been saying.
He is the only one who IS and always HAS BEEN the best choice for securing the border. He is also the ONLY Conservative who’s words are backed by almost 30 years of voting record!! He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk!
Oh sure...only a bigot would care that his country is being invaded. Only bigots care about law and order and only a bigot would want to protect his personal sovereignty.
Illegal Immigration is a great issue for Fred. He's the only guy with any credibility at all on this issue.
Neither McCain nor Huckabee can address immigration in a way that won’t hurt them politically.
Then how the heck do you explain Lindsey Graham? SC needs to reel that boy in.
>>Hopefully, South Carolina will do to McInsane what it did eight years ago: Sending him home angry and tired in a pathetic defeat
Considering that McCain will have Lindsey Graham backing him, I’d say that that will happen most definitely.
But social issues (abortion, guns, gays) were virtually ignored in the debate last night.
That's a shame,,,because Rudy would have done so much better in the debate if they had been discussed--because we all know how strong Rudy is on those issues with his 'gun-grabbing, pro-abortion, gay right crusading' positions....lol
We have Huckabe calling opponents of amnesty racists in the very first debate.
We have McCain and his amnesty bill and hopefully some warm comments about Kennedy as well as McCain supporter Graham "telling the racists to go home" and "America is not a country it's an ideal". Fred can simply ask John if agrees with Mike and Lindsey in the next debate since John and Lindsey are so close. If John says he doesn't agree, Fred can ask him why he didn't stand up for the American citizen then?
I am sure Mitts on record somewhere flip flopping on this.
Lindsay Graham didn’t run and a “moderate” but a true conservative and Strom Thurmond supporters (with Strom’s blessing) liked what they heard. He pulled the wool over our eyes down here because he’s been quite a disappointment.
If true (that immigration is #1) then Thompson is a shoo in. Screw what the MSM says, or does not say.
JMHO
You forgot yellow bellied RHINOS
Yet another virtual slavery apologist tries to get some more mileage out of a hoary racism canard. Given America's sordid history of Democrat and Republican collusion on the illegal alien issue prudent voters ought back a proven leader who actually walks the walk.
The South Carolina Weeping Pansy was on Fox over the weekend talking up McCain and trying to be charming. It was as if last summer’s huge amnesty fiasco never happened. Had to take my anti-nausea medicine.
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