In Nebraska, Tom Osborne chose not to take a hard-line stance on illegal immigration in the Republican gubernatorial primary. He lost.
In Utah, GOP congressional candidate John Jacob accused his opponent of being soft on immigration and demanded that illegal immigrants be deported. He lost.
Here in Colorado, a coalition of Republican legislators and Gov. Bill Owens will try once again next week to get a constitutional amendment on immigration onto the November ballot – even after two groups most involved on both sides of the issue agreed that changes to state law would suffice.
Political observers say Owens’ call for a special session is driven more by politics than substance. And, given the political uncertainties of the issue – which was partly responsible for the losses in Nebraska and Utah – the call may backfire on the state GOP as it fights for control of the statehouse and governor’s mansion in November.
“I think it was a bad decision to call in the special session because it does allow the Democrats to control the agenda,” said Michael Kanner, a political science instructor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
So what exactly are state leaders trying to accomplish?
Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins said the governor laid out his wants in his special-session call. They include tougher sanctions for employers who hire illegal immigrants and ensuring that only citizens vote.
Former Gov. Dick Lamm, an advocate for tightening immigration laws, said he wants a proposal modeled after a Georgia statute, which he called “the toughest legislation about illegal immigrants of any state in the country.”
Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he and Owens are after the same thing, “meaningful legislation.”
And a coalition of House Republicans says it is committed to resurrecting a ballot measure – thrown out earlier this month by the Colorado Supreme Court – to limit most state services to illegal immigrants.
Even so, given the practical uncertainties in the state’s ability to control illegal immigrations, most agree that politics have pushed immigration onto center stage.
“If they are using the issue for political purposes, I would say don’t do it,” said Georgia Republican state Sen. Chip Rogers, who sponsored the statute being used as a model in Colorado. “This is too big an issue for them to say, ‘Let’s just pass it.”‘
Political analysts and some closest to the debate say the effort is more about getting voters to the polls to support Republican legislative candidates and Bob Beauprez’s gubernatorial candidacy.
Owens, however, would have been better off using his bully pulpit to trash the Democratic majority on the Supreme Court, keeping the issue alive for Beauprez, Kanner said.
Now, Democrats have the chance to solve the issue and share the credit with Republicans on an issue the GOP was trying to lead on, said Bob Loevy, a Colorado College political science professor.
But it’s anybody’s guess how the results of a special session will play with voters, especially given the results in Republican primaries in Nebraska and Utah.
“It’s hard to see who is going to benefit,” said John A. Garcia, a political science professor at the University of Arizona. “If you appease someone, you end up upsetting someone. There is no simple solution.”
And state leaders haven’t given themselves a lot of time, saying they want to finish three to five days after they start July 6.
Rogers, the Georgia senator, said he found that short time frame “shocking,” since he had spent months forming coalitions with groups that would be affected by a his bill, including Latino groups, law enforcement and businesses that centered on construction and agriculture.
“That’s how we kept the issue from blowing up,” he said.
Owens had threatened a special session after the Colorado Supreme Court blocked a ballot measure to limit most services to illegal immigrants. He said he wanted to call lawmakers back to ask them to put the measure on the ballot.
What changed was a compromise brokered by supporters and opponents of the ballot measure that combined a limit on state services with a crackdown on employers that hire illegal immigrants. Owens included the proposal as an agenda item for the session and gave the Democrats room to craft a legislative compromise.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
