I am off to the Young Republican National Convention in Miami. I will be blogging some of it on-site. Mitt Romney will be speaking, as will Duncan Hunter. There will be a bunch of other exciting events, including a straw poll. The last big Young Republican straw poll last year was 1 vote win by George Allen over John McCain.
Update: Fred Thompson will be speaking. Cool. And I missed Duncan Hunter. Who cares?
Tags: Florida, Live blogging, Republicans, Straw Polls
This time Mitt Romney is misrepresenting Jeb Bush’s record, and his own, as he continues to struggle both the substance and appearance of his pandering flip-flop on immigration.
So these days, Mitt Romney is claiming that he has a strong record because he cut a deal but never implemented an agreement to allow state police to enforce federal immigration laws. He is making completely incorrect comparisons to efforts done by the (re-elected and popular) Jeb Bush in Florida:
“I deputized, as did Governor Bush here, my state police to be able to enforce immigration laws.
Except that that’s not really what Bush did. From a June 2002 AP article which is quoted in full after the jump, what Bush did was train counter-terrorism officers on federal immigration law and allow them to enforce that law as part of counter-terrorism:
"It’s targeted only to terrorist investigations — not checking green cards and work camps," FDLE Commissioner Tim Moore said Thursday.
In fact, Bush explicitly didn’t want the Florida police to do more general immigration checking:
"I would have a lot of trepidation if … every police officer was going to be a sworn INS officer and our duties end up with local law enforcement becoming the immigration cops of the country," Bush said.
So Romney seems to be confusing Jeb Bush’s actual attempts to use immigration laws to protect us against terrorists with Romney’s media preening about illegals.
Romney’s claim about "deputizing … state police" is, strictly speaking, also false. The agreement that Romney had with the feds required 4.5 weeks of training. When Romney announced it in December, Deval Patrick had already said he would end the program. Indeed, Patrick did end the program, about 4.5 weeks later. In other words, not a single state police official was ever authorized to carry out the arrest of illegals on federal immigration violations. The state police never could have caught those illegal Guatemalans on his lawn. Here’s what actually happened:
Then Governor Mitt Romney signed the 15-page agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Dec. 13 that would have allowed specially deputized state troopers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and charge them with violating US immigration laws.
During his campaign, Patrick called the plan a �gimmick� and told reporters on Dec. 21 that he would quash the agreement shortly after taking office. About 30 troopers had been scheduled to take a five-week training course early next year.
So Romney’s great immigration accomplishment is that he signed an agreement to allow a training class that never happened.
Full article after the jump
Read More »
Tags: Florida, Immigration, Romney
A week into the debate and Romney is already changing his tune. This weekend in South Carolina, Romney said:
“If that’s not a form of amnesty, I don’t know what is,” Romney said. “I think we should not call it the ‘Z visa,’ we should call it the ‘A visa’ because it’s amnesty and that’s what it stands for.”
But today in Florida, where he is getting lots of heat for his pandering flip-flop, he said:
There are some who get involved in whether it is technically amnesty or not, and I’m not really trying to define what is technically amnesty, … but instead just note that it is a form of amnesty
Someone needs to ask this guy what the definition of "is" is. And people need start noticing how he says one thing in South Carolina and another in Florida.
Tags: Florida, Immigration, Romney, South Carolina
Datamar has a poll of the 2008 GOP Florida primary. Race42008’s HeavyM says, "who in the world is DataMar?"
Well, from their website:
Providing quality software solutions since 1981
Surveys & Data Intelligence Strategies
Sweet! I needed an … accounting system? For my polls. Right….
In addition, they used auto-dials, never particularly reassuring. So, all in all, probably a step below Zogby, if such a thing exists. So, a word of advice: don’t quote DataMar. Especially when it is a real outlier from other Florida polls.
Yesteday, I wrote about the possibility of Mitt Romney facing political problems in Florida because of his pandering flip-flop on immigration. ABC picked up on the issue, and pointed out that Jeb Bush was "disappointed."
Turns out that the Miami Herald picked up the story too:
But his immigration stance is at odds with some of the state’s most prominent Republicans, including Sen. Mel Martinez, who helped craft the legislation, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who supports allowing illegal immigrants to earn citizenship.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush — whom Romney has name-dropped as a potential running mate — has told friends he is ‘’disappointed'’ with Romney’s position.
‘’I don’t speak for Jeb, but I know that as a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, he is disappointed in people who are exploiting the issue for political gain,'’ said Republican lobbyist Ana Navarro, who is backing Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Romney’s in-state advisor Al Cardenas said that Romney would soon have a real plan:
Romney advisor Al Cárdenas, a Cuban-American lawyer and former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said: “The criticism he has received has been over the top and unfair. . . . I am confident that he will [put] forward an immigration proposal that Floridians and Hispanics alike will find fair.'’
Romney’s problem is that the things he has asked for are already in the bill:
The record shows Romney has repeatedly demanded stronger border security. A campaign ad calls for tamper-proof identification cards. And in a debate last week, he said illegal immigrants need to go back to their home country and ‘’get in line'’ before they can become citizens
‘’That’s exactly what’s on the table. All of those things are part of the immigration package,'’ said Marshall Fitz, spokesman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a nonpartisan organization of lawyers and professors. “Romney and the other candidates who continue to beat their chests against this legislation are just playing to the conservative base.'’
"Beating their chests" is what Jeb Bush hates and finds "hurtful" to him and his wife.
Tags: Florida, Immigration, Romney
The Washington Times has a good story about why this calendar is still in flux. First Florida moves up. Now the South Carolina GOP is talking about moving up:
"We have the latitude as a party of setting our own primary dates and we are going to move our primary accordingly before January 29 to ensure that we are the first in the South," South Carolina Republican Chairman Katon Dawson told The Washington Times yesterday.
"I’m not worrying about angering anyone else. Remember, this is a state that started the Civil War. We are not worried about offending any other state. We’re going to pick a date and let the chips fall where they may," Mr. Dawson said.
So what day?
Their decision trumps Florida’s attempt to hold its primary much earlier than all but four other states and likely will force New Hampshire to hold its primary a week or two earlier than its tentatively set date of Jan. 22
What’s the catch? That’s the day of New Hampshire. And ….
New Hampshire’s primary law does now allow any other primary to be within a week of its first-in-the-nation primary, and South Carolina’s move likely will force the state to hold its primary much earlier, Mr. Dawson said.
So New Hampshire moves up a week to the same day as Iowa. And Iowa moves up…
Tags: Calendar, Florida, South Carolina
There has been speculation that Rudy Giuliani is playing very carefully on the immigration issue because he wants Schwarzenegger’s endorsement.
I have a related theory. Is Mitt Romney hurting himself with Jeb Bush because of his flip-flopping pander on immigration?
Several points as you think about this. First Jeb Bush has spoken out strongly on immigration. From an LA Times article (reprinted by this pro-immigration group):
Accusing politicians of "pounding their chests" on immigration for short-term political gain, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the tone of the debate had been "hurtful" to him and his Mexican-born wife, Columba.
Not only is Jeb pro-amnesty, he takes this issue personally.
Second, immigration would be the legacy of George W. Bush’s 2nd term. Let’s make the implication clear. Mitt Romney is demagoguing ("pounding his chest") on an issue that is central to George Bush’s legacy. How is his brother going to feel about that, especially when the demagoguing is "hurtful" to his family?
Third, the Bush family is deeply committed to this issue. Jeb Bush, his son George P. Bush, or both will run for national office some day. They understand the problems that the party will face if it goes the way of Pete Wilson. Both Texas and Florida have significant Hispanic populations. Both state parties have significant Hispanic components which will be increasingly important as the demographics becomes destiny. To be successful, long term, the GOP will need to be successful in this area of the country…
Just a thought
Tags: Florida, Immigration, Romney
As has been repeatedly noted, the primary calendar is strongly in flux. However, one of the most interesting questions is: what happens if New Hampshire moves up sharply, as I expect it will. Consider some facts:
Perhaps the most important limiting factor here is that New Hampshire can call and hold elections very quickly. Once the ballots are printed, Bill Gardner can call an election almost whenever he wants. Therefore, New Hampshire will be technically capable of holding an election as early as early December. Would Florida be able to print ballots and hold on election on 4 weeks notice? Would the South Carolina GOP be able to do it on 3.5 weeks notice? What if the timing meant that candidates were campaigning over Christmas? (say NH holds it in mid-December, putting the FL and SC elections between Christmas and New Years) Would NV move up to hold caucuses the same day as SC? (they’ve never done caucuses like this before. Are they capable of doing that either legally or logistically?)
Those are merely logistical considerations. What happens when NV becomes irrelevant because it is competing for candidates time with SC and FL, both of which will have more delegates. Candidates will fly from NH to SC and FL.
Finally, what happens if people believe that we are approaching a brokered convention and every delegate will count?
I think that it is fair to say that the current calendar really is more a set of negotiating positions.
Tags: Calendar, Democrats, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Republicans, South Carolina
I noted earlier that Mitt Romney’s team took down video of Romney quoting Castro. One of the local news stations has the clip and used it to contrast with John McCain’s more successful visit:
This is brutal. The rumors were thick yesterday, but it hit. Ambassador Richard Blackenship, a major Florida donor, switched from Romney to Giuliani. Check out part of the letter:
"The changes in core beliefs gave rise to some concerns. You have to have an anchor in life," he said of Romney. "Mayor Giuliani has a firm, secure hold on his moral compass and how that effects his platform, rather than change to satisfy special interests in our party. The Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal beyond a few special interests."
More:
[Blackenship] said he resigned from Romney’s Florida finance team after becoming convinced Giuliani had broader appeal and said other Romney fundraisers in Florida could do the same.
Tags: Endorsements, Florida, Giuliani, Romney
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