Arizona newspaper’s endorsement of Romney warns him on immigration
The Arizona Republic praised Romney’s economic record, but said his position on immigration “is a concern.” (Flickr: Gage Skidmore)
By JORDAN FABIAN
Channel: Politics
Mitt Romney earned the endorsement of Arizona’s largest newspaper for the state’s upcoming Republican presidential primary, but the editorial board also offered the candidate a word of warning.
Citing his work at the private equity firm he helped found, Bain Capital, as well as his term as Massachusetts governor, the Arizona Republicpraised Romney as a “steady, unflappable” candidate who is the “best prepared” candidate to take on the slumping economy.
“He is also among the most skilled job-creating candidates for chief executive we can imagine,” the paper wrote.
But the Republic, which has covered in depth Arizona’s contentious immigration wars, said that Romney is on the wrong side of the issue.
“We have our issues with Romney, to be sure. His opposition to the Dream Act for illegal-immigrant children raised in the U.S. is not one we support,” the paper writes. “And his effort to position himself as the ‘toughest’ GOP candidate on immigration issues is a concern.”
The problems with Latino voters Romney has encountered in large part over his hard-line position on immigration are well documented. If you’re not familiar with his positions, his performance in Wednesday’s Republican debate in Arizona provided a good primer.
Even Romney’s own advisers have begun to catch on to the potential problem he could have in the general election with many Latino voters, whom are becoming more influential by the day.
“He’s got to focus on primary voters here for another few weeks, but I know he is sensitive to it,” Romney-affiliated GOP strategist Charlie Black told Politico this week.
And in blasting out the endorsement to reporters, Romney’s media staff omitted the passage about immigration.
While Romney and the rest of the field have courted Republican primary voters, President Obama (who has his own vulnerabilities on immigration) has been active in engaging Latino voters and establishing immigration as a red line issue.
“Unfortunately, the Republican side, which used to at least give lip service to immigration reform, now they’ve gone completely to a different place and have shown themselves unwilling to talk at all about any sensible solutions to this issue and we are just going to have to keep up the pressure until they act,” he said on Univision Radio this week.
If that’s the lasting message for Latino voters, Romney could have a tough go of it in November.
