— Simon’s harsh words on immigration may haunt campaign / Capturing Latino votes could prove difficult: “Republican Bill Simon has promised that as governor he would “have my legal experts look at” resubmitting Proposition 187 — the anti-illegal immigration measure — to the federal courts.”
It seems that the conservative choice made some potentially inflammatory remarks about Prop. 187 on a right wing radio talk show during the primary, which the Davis camp will exploit to huge advantage. It’s not clear from the Comical’s news report what Simon actually said, however.
Richard, the full quotes are lower in the article, and they don’t sound like a death wish to me. After all, this is the Republican candidate. Does he have to become a Democrat in favor of unrestricted illegal Mexican immigration into California in order *not* to have a death wish?
I’ll bet if anybody had the cojones to do a poll on the issue, they’d find that a sizeable majority of legal Hispanic immigrants don’t favor illegal immigration either.
Illegal immigration has been polled, and you’re right that most Hispanics don’t approve of it; amnesties are a different story, as I recall. But that’s not the point. Prop 187 long ago became a symbol of white racism to most California Hispanics — not to be aware of this is to have a political tin ear. If Simon is to have a chance in November, he needs to come across like Mr. Nice Guy, and praising 187 doesn’t do that.