GOP Hopes To Avoid Immigration Issue To Win Florida
I’m not making this up, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a conference call today that the Republicans would try to skirt debate on immigration during the election, trying to make it more about the economy, WTSP:
One issue that could be a stumbling block for Republicans is immigration. However Priebus says that is just one issue and says the more important issue will be jobs and the economy. “And this president has completely failed in that regard,” Priebus said.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. A recent poll that we reported found that Latinos are much more concerned about immigration than the economy:
The poll, conducted by Latino Decisions, an independent research firm and Impremedia, a Spanish language media company, surveyed voters between May 24 and June 4 in 21 states with the largest Hispanic populations and found that 51% cited immigration as the most important issue facing Hispanics compared to 35% citing the economy and 18% education.
What’s more, the RNC is trying to do a bait-and-switch: we don’t want to talk about immigration, but we want to talk about Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whose stories is tightly entwined with immigration (but the “right” kind, since he’s Cuban):
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday that Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio will play a major role in the 2012 Republican presidential contest.
I mean, it all comes down to politics. The GOP is trying to pump up what it considers to be its good qualities (Marco Rubio) to Latino voters who they think they can win over in Florida to steer votes away from President Obama with a new television spot and then stay away from what could be considered its bad qualities (crazy racist immigration policy). We keep talking about the importance of the Latino vote in 2012, and what you have to realize is that it matters everywhere — every single vote — because just a few votes can push one or the other candidate over the edge of victory in many places across the country, like Florida for example.
Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD
