Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made his clearest statement yet that he isn’t going to use illegal immigration as a campaign issue this year. He told a Spanish language newspaper that his support for the anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187 back in 1994 was "wrong" and refused to repeat his earlier praise of the Minutemen, a group of private citizens who have set themselves up as guardians of the U.S.-Mexico border.
San Jose State political scientist Larry Gerston said the governor is trying to appeal to centrists without alienating his conservative base. "Where are the conservatives going to go? They’re either going to Arnold Schwarzenegger or they’re going to sit it out. You weigh that against accommodating votes not only in the center but also in the Latino bloc," Mr. Gerston said.
Indeed, the governor has achieved remarkable party unity so far — registering 85% support among Republicans in yesterday’s Field Poll versus Democrat Phil Angelides’ 63% among Democrats. Overall, Mr. Schwarzenegger holds an eight-point lead in the fall election. He leads by 52% to 32% among non-Hispanic whites, but trails Mr. Angelides by 58% to 22% among Hispanics.
The governor’s "kinder and gentler" strategy on immigration is nonetheless creating the kind of turbulence he used to feel in his action films. Yesterday, his bus tour was heckled by voters upset with his stance on illegal immigration. The governor finally had to tell the crowd to be quiet so he could finish his comments. "Never get mad at anyone who is trying to come to this country. Get mad at the federal government which is not securing our borders," Mr. Schwarzenegger told the crowd.
Afterward, Mr. Schwarzenegger told reporters traveling with him on his bus that he was troubled by the ferocity of the comments he heard. "It was pretty much the first time I saw the intensity of prejudice," he said. "This one woman came up to me and said, ‘Stop the invasion.’ It was that kind of dialogue, and not, ‘Hey, is there something we can do about immigration?’ And I think that’s going into a dangerous area." The governor plans more bus tours in the future, but promises to be better armed for the heated arguments he is likely to get on immigration.