THE DEMOCRATIC DERANGEMENT FILES

Davis and Democrats Should Beware of Prop. 187 Fight (George Skelton, August 14, 2003, LA Times)

Like any team, the Democrats have one old reliable play they love to run. And they'll keep running it as long as it works. It's called Pummel Pedro.

It's about hammering former Gov. Pete Wilson for promoting Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative that sought to deny public benefits to illegal immigrants. This play scores well with Latinos, theoretically, and drives them to the polls.

Democrats have dusted it off again because Wilson is a campaign co-chairman for Arnold Schwarzenegger. [...]

But do Davis and Democrats really want to resurrect the volatile issue of illegal immigration?

Schwarzenegger voted for Prop. 187, but so did 5.1 million other Californians. It passed with 59% of the vote.

A federal judge tossed out most provisions and Davis didn't put up any fight in the courts. Some parts wound up in federal welfare reform.

But Prop. 187 would pass again today, pollsters and strategists say. A 1999 Times poll found that 60% of registered voters would support another Prop. 187. Moreover, 75% of Republicans said they'd back it -- a sentiment that's bound to help Schwarzenegger, since the recall election could be tilted to the right by an unusually large turnout of GOP voters.

"The worst thing for Democrats to do is rerun Prop. 187," says political analyst Tony Quinn. "It helps Schwarzenegger where he needs the most help: among core Republicans."
Beyond that, Democrats shouldn't be demagoguing on illegal immigration -- or any immigration.

Dig into those deficit numbers -- in Sacramento and city halls -- and you'll find a lot of red ink flowing to services for immigrants, legal and illegal.

The great danger in politics, one that the Democrats seem increasingly prone to succumb to, is to start believing in your own partisan rhetoric. It's all well and good to cast conservatives as racist because of their general opposition to immigration, so long as you don't forget that they're on the majority side of the issue. And while restricting immigration may be bad policy, barring illegal immigrants from public services is excellent policy. If Democrats want to fight out this election on the issue of illegal immigrants and their effects on California budgets, Arnoild may get to 50%, rather than just a plurality. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 14, 2003 9:07 AM