Rupublicans and Illegal Immigration in the Star

Blake Morlock has released a new article in the star outlining the differences of the Republican candidates' platforms on the issue. It is a timely, and interesting read.

The opening of the article is very good, highlighting the difference of opinion that the party is experiencing and then pulling out a very good story by Mike Hellon concerning his live campaign findings and how he has adjusted based on his feedback.

Then he gets very sloppy. He mentions the House bill that was recently passed and when mentioning the specifics, he can only manage, "The bill has a provision that would make illegal immigrants felons." This may indeed be the case, but it is not indicative of the entire bill and would have likely been the first chip given in a senate compromise bill. His remark would lead me to believe that he not read or even really examined the bill.

He does mention the Senate bill as "including a temporary guest worker program that would provide a path to citizenship for those here illegally." Again, this is a very simplistic formulation of the this plan and does not address the concrete differences between the two bills. There are far more elements of this bill that will be part of the election calculus, especially in this district.

Then there is this sentence "Immigration turns matrimonial bliss into a case of spousal abuse. The angry word is amnesty." Bad analogy, and even worse writing. If it is nasty conflict he is looking for, maybe he should check out the campaign finance showdown the Democrats are having. Wait, that's right, he already did and dismissed it. There has been far more heat locally on this issue than on the GOP side with illegal immigration, and more use for his strange domestic violence comparisons.

Then the article gets better. The pattern is that when Morlock sticks to the candidates and omits his own interjections and "research" he does fine.

However then we hit

The GOP's polling suggests the larger electorate is more amenable to a more forgiving policy.

Its poll found 25 percent of respondents were more likely to vote for an enforcement-only candidate and 71 percent favored a broader approach that included guest worker status.

Also, the poll showed that 70 percent of voters believe illegal immigrants who put down roots should be granted legal status if they go to the back of the line, pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English and have a clean criminal record.

What poll was this? Was it national or local and when was it taken? These are details that are needed if you are going to introduce poll results, at least if you are not an anonymous blogger :). My favorite poll on the issue is that every Senator up for re-election (including Democrats I believe) save one voted for against the McCain-Kennedy bill. The national poll numbers they were seeing must not have matched the results of this poll.

I would suspect that local poll numbers would be quite different and be an interesting story if some news organization really wanted to be a news leader (cough, cough. . .)

I do have to commend Mr. Morlock for taking the time to write the story, the quotes from the candidates were excellent at the least. The main disappointment is that the difference between the House and Senate bills IS the story and pretty much defines the candidate differences. I don't like to wander much outside my District 8 playpen, but I'll see if I can fill in those gaps in an upcoming article.