In analyzing how the
Illinois GOP can regain relevancy before a panel in
Peoria, popular former Republican governor Jim Edgar issued this advice yesterday: find candidates Latinos can support.
“We cannot lose the Hispanic vote like we’ve lost the
African-American vote, or we’re going to be a minority party forever,”
Edgar said.
President George Bush “did a very good job of bringing Hispanics
into the Republican column,” Edgar said, but congressional Republicans
have “undone all that” by rejecting Bush-proposed reforms of
immigration laws that included a path to staying in America for many
illegal immigrants.
“The Hispanic vote broke for Obama,” Edgar said, noting large
victories for Democrats in Colorado and New Mexico. “My fear is, they
didn’t vote for Obama, they were voting against the Republican Party.”
When looking at the Latino vote in Illinois, it's difficult to disentangle Barack Obama's popularity and this demographic's disgust with the GOP's rightward turn. But local exit polling
shows Edgar is on to something: 68 percent of Asian and
Latino immigrant voters throughout key Chicago-area precincts said the GOP was
"not favorable" to immigrants compared to nine percent for the Democrats.
Yet minutes after bemoaning the Republican Party for its immigration
demagoguery, Edgar went ahead and endorsed a hardline anti-immigrant
congressman for statewide office:
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