Posted on 01/14/2006 7:46:27 AM PST by raccoonradio
BOSTON - As the vote on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants approached this week, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry figured his side didn't have the votes.
Since 2002, state Rep. Jeffrey Perry has represented Sandwich, the only Cape town that voted for President Bush in 2004. Perry helped defeat tuition breaks for illegal immigrants this week.
Which, of course, isn't unusual for Perry, a Sandwich Republican and opponent of the bill. As one of just 20 GOP members in a House of Representatives with 140 Democrats, he's used to being outnumbered.
So Perry, 42, one of a circle of emerging Republican leaders on Beacon Hill, decided to take his message to a more receptive audience - talk radio fans.
For days, he slammed the tuition bill as unfair and illegal on radio shows statewide. And by Wednesday morning, lawmakers across the state were being bombarded with calls and e-mails from constituents.
By 4 p.m., even those who said they would support the bill - perhaps mindful of the election year - began to shift.
By 7 p.m. the bill failed, 96 to 57.
For Perry, a second-term representative who had carried the conservative flag on the airwaves and the House floor, it was a huge political victory.
''I can't control how people vote in here,'' he said minutes after speaking on the House floor Wednesday afternoon. ''What I can do is let people know what they're voting on. You take the message to the people and see if you can engage them.
''If you can, it's amazing what a small number of sophomore legislators can do.''
Of course, for Republicans in this Legislature, it's not just a matter of what they can do. It's what they must do.
As a group, they're outnumbered badly - 7 to 1. So while Democratic newcomers to the Legislature can become lost in the crowd, Republicans are recruited into lead roles early.
And Perry, a former Wareham police officer who has photos of President Reagan in his Boston office, has increasingly become one of their more outspoken members.
In recent months, he has been front and center on tax and public safety bills - core Republican issues.
He campaigned for Melanie's Bill, which toughened the state's drunken driving law. He pushes relentlessly for an income tax rollback, and in the fall endorsed a revocation of a retroactive capital gains tax.
Just before speaking on the House floor about immigrant tuition Wednesday, he met with Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey to discuss the controversial bill, among other things.
He also met with Minority Leader Bradley Jones, a North Reading Republican, during a lunch gathering of party leaders.
For the tuition vote, Jones believed the GOP would have the weight of public support. And party leaders made a conscious decision to go to the public through the media.
''We don't have a pride of ownership,'' Jones said. ''We work as a team.''
On this issue, though, Perry, who says he represents conservative voters on Beacon Hill, emerged as the point man.
After all, since 2002, he has represented Sandwich, the only Cape town that voted for President Bush in 2004.
Speaking on the floor Wednesday, Perry told lawmakers that the bill simply wouldn't stand up in the courtroom later.
As he spoke, opponents rose repeatedly to interrupt his case. He figured it was payback for his recent appearances on Howie Carr's Boston radio show, carried locally on WXTK, where Democrats are routinely skewered.
State Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, who voted in favor of the bill, was disappointed that his own party wasn't as organized as it should have been. ''Clearly it's a popular issue with the talk radio, and something Republican politicians could tap into,'' he said. ''But I thought Perry's arguments were pretty weak.
They could have been easily disproved.
''The lead person on the bill (Rep. Marie St. Fleur, D-Boston) hadn't organized a floor fight. I guess they expected it to be easier than it was.''
During the emotional debate, House leaders floated amendments they hoped would strengthen the bill, including a requirement that undocumented students promise in writing to apply for permanent residence.
But by mid-morning it was clear that support was slipping, that they probably wouldn't have enough votes to override a veto by Gov. Mitt Romney.
Just after 7 p.m., the bill was defeated, effectively killing the issue for this session.
''If you were to look at my won-loss record, you'd think I belonged in the minor leagues,'' Perry had joked earlier in the day. ''But if you look at key issues, we're doing pretty good.''
Talk hosts like Howie Carr and John DePetro of WRKO helped this effort.
>>Sandwich, the only Cape town that voted for President Bush in 2004
>>By 7 p.m. the bill failed, 96 to 57.
This kind of activism via talk radio has worked in the past. The late Jerry Williams crusaded against a mandatory seat belt law, the placement of a prison in a town that didn't want it, Congressional pay hikes, etc. "Call your legislators" (this was before email) "and pressure them". He would frequently play the "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" clip from "Network" and he helped spread the word about Mike Dukakis in 1988.
Woo hoo! Cheers! Whistles! Fireworks!
Now if Kaleephornya will get its head out of its butt.....
>> But when it comes to shelling out their own money, all those high fallutin' principles go right out the door.
Howie Carr had a great story on last night's show. Mass. has Prop 2 1/2, our version of Prop 13, and communities may vote to over-ride it (and thus increase each property owner's
taxes). Well, he mentioned one woman who enthusiastically supported an
override--it's "for the children", you see--and was shocked
to see her taxes go WAY up as a result. DUH! Now she thinks she can't afford to live in her town any more. Sure,
they'd love to increase the taxes on other people but when it hits THEM in the pocketbook or wallet..."A conservative is a liberal who got mugged"
The RNC would do well to take note that these whack job laws supporting illegals cannot be passed, even in a socialist state. During the vote, the balconey and lobby had a horde of illegals demanding their "rights" to low tuition.
And the WRKO website (via Depetro and Carr pages) has the roll call vote so people can see how their reps voted. "Remember in Novemeber." (My rep, Mary Grant--a Dem., I believe, helped
to vote this unfair proposal down. yay!)
Someone should've hollered La Migra!!
A Boston Globe headline about the defeat referred to illegals as "undocumented"...
From a Boston Herald article:
>>Children of illegal immigrants must pay up if they want to attend state colleges after lawmakers shot down a call for a bargain rate last night.
The House rejected the bill pushing in-state tuition rates for young illegal immigrants 57-96. Bill supporters, who said they’re crushed by the rejection, vowed to keep on fighting.
“Our position is that it was the politics of fear,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, promising to push for the bill again next year.
Opponents, however, took aim at the immigrants being here illegally to begin with.
“If I was in their country I’d be shaking like a leaf if I were illegal . . . I certainly would not be up in their State House demanding money,” said state Rep. Marie Parente (D-Milford).
(A Dem saying that, imagine that!!)
“America is fighting for its sovereignty today,” Parente added.
Many immigrant students say they cannot afford to attend state colleges at the out-of-state tuition rates they now must pay.
In my City, Haverhill, we haven't had a voter override on 2 1/2 since 1984, I believe. The minute one comes up the word gets out, the NO signs go up, and the arguments in front of the local deli start.
No override since '84--wow!
Ah, Haverhill! Two of my uncles, including the one I was named for, were Haverhill firefighters (both passed on in the 70s).
How many people out there know that Haverhill was the inspiration for Riverdale in Archie comics? Archie creator
Bob Montana was from that city, and to this day the Haverhill
edition of the Eagle-Tribune bills the strip as "Haverhill's
Archie".
I don't even see why the taxpayer should be paying tuition for LEGAL aliens.
"During the vote, the balconey and lobby had a horde of illegals demanding their "rights" to low tuition."
Perhaps U.S. Immigration should start attending some of these hearings - - looks like a good place to find illegals for roundup and deportation.
The City wide vote on the override was around 6500 of which the proponents got about 2500, a very small turn out, youth and exuberance does not beat old age and an increased property tax bill.
Imagine if we got that kind of action out of the US House and Senate MAJORITIES we hold!
Given Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and this story, Massachusetts must be a very strange state.
The taxpayer does not pay tuition for LEGAL aliens.
Kerry has to choose between White House run and Senate re-election in '08, barring a change in the law that would allow him to run for both. Most likely he'll hope for a Hillary meltdown; if not, he may run in a few primaries, get whooped by Shrillary, then withdraw and concentrate on running for Senate instead.
Yes, Mass. used to have a GOP senator at one time! Ed Brooke. Elected in '66 and '72; defeated in '78 by Paul Tsongas (who left in '84, opening the way for Kerry to grab the seat.)
How can you be an in-State resident when you're in the State illegally? Massachusetts was able to figure this one out.
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