Immigration is a great wedge issue for Mitt Romney to beat up Rick Perry with in the primary. In the longer term, it’s a great wedge issue for President Obama to beat up the Republican nominee with. So it’s one of these things where the short-term interest and the long-term interest are in conflict

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Immigration is a great wedge issue for Mitt Romney to beat up Rick Perry with in the primary. In the longer term, it’s a great wedge issue for President Obama to beat up the Republican nominee with. So it’s one of these things where the short-term interest and the long-term interest are in conflict.

POLITICO.COM

Mitt Romney’s risky immigration play

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

October 4, 2011


Mitt Romney’s risky immigration play


Some excerpts :

The problem is that Hispanic voters are key blocs in swing states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, and there is a risk in sounding “unfriendly,” according to Lionel Sosa, who handled Hispanic media for Presidents Reagan and both Bushes. He said at a panel at New York’s Ad Week conference Monday that he worried Romney’s sharp attacks would prove costly with voters.

“In the short term, it’s a great wedge issue for Mitt Romney to beat up Rick Perry with in the primary,” GOP strategist Mike Murphy, an adviser to Romney in his 2002 gubernatorial run, said Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “In the longer term, it’s a great wedge issue for President Obama to beat up the Republican nominee with. So it’s one of these things where the short-term interest and the long-term interest are in conflict.”

Democrats are already trying to capitalize on Romney’s stance — with the Democratic National Committee airing Spanish-language ads, and the outside group that supports Obama, Priorities USA Action, framing Romney as too far to the right on Hispanic issues.

“If he makes it to the general election, Romney will inevitably drop his right-wing rhetoric on immigration. But Hispanic voters, and all Americans, will not forget Romney opportunistically demagoguing immigrants in order to appeal to the tea party,” said Priorities senior strategist Bill Burton. “Romney has committed himself to a hard-right immigration policy that is far out of mainstream public opinion.”

This is not the first time that Romney has been drawn into an immigration-related fight.

In 2007, while running in a primary that included Rudy Giuliani, he launched ads attacking the New York City mayor as having presided over a “sanctuary city.” And he hit him on the campaign trail for having an “open door” policy toward illegal immigrants.

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Among the issues that were a headache for Romney in 2007 was the Boston Globe’s revelation that he used, for a decade, a landscaping company at his Massachusetts mansion that hired illegal Guatemalan workers. Those workers told the paper that Romney had never asked about how they arrived in the country.

He also had praised the immigration reforms championed by McCain and Ted Kennedy in 2005. And he had approved of finding a path toward citizenship for people in the country paying taxes, and not getting government benefits.

Those positions have failed to gain traction so far this year, although he faced several questions about them in the 2008 primary fight.

There’s another point of potential friction for Romney on the in-state tuition issue: Perry’s position is essentially in line with that of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who supported a narrow version of an immigrant tuition bill when he was a state legislator. Romney has listed Rubio on the short list of people he’d be interested in as a running mate

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