Arizona GOP tones down rhetoric to challenge freshmen Democrats

Arizona Democrats Gabrielle Giffords and Harry Mitchell won their first House terms in 2006 by defeating two GOP candidates who tried to make illegal immigration the dominant campaign theme.

This year, Arizona Republicans appear to be shifting the message on immigration by offering candidates who have taken a more measured tone, hoping to defuse a high-profile issue that may have hurt them in 2006.

{mosads}The new tack underscores two political realities facing Republicans in Arizona and across the country. The first is that the economy has become the dominant issue.

And then there is Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is open to a more lenient immigration proposal and will likely be the party’s presidential nominee.

“We’ve looked for candidates across the board that are what I call Arizona conservatives, that are not one-issue candidates,” said Sean McCaffrey, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party.

Last time around, Giffords beat Randy Graf (R), whose harsh rhetoric caused Republicans in Washington to give up on the GOP-held seat. Mitchell unseated incumbent J.D. Hayworth (R), a bombastic former talk-radio host who wrote a book all about a security-first immigration approach and was called a bully by Phoenix’s Arizona Republic.

Democrats won’t be able to make this year’s GOP candidates seem intolerant toward immigrants, something they were successful in doing to Hayworth and Graf in 2006, McCaffrey said. Even Sen. Jon Kyl, the Republican whip, softened on the issue after the midterm election, taking a lead role in negotiating an immigration bill with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that never made it past the Senate floor.

In the 8th district, Republicans have rallied behind Tim Bee, the soft-spoken former state Senate president respected for his inclusive governing style. While Bee has called for measures to secure the Mexican border, which abuts the southern part of his district, he also supports a guest-worker program, which has been anathema to hard-line illegal immigration opponents.

Bee called immigration an important issue, but one that’s only equal in importance to him as education and the economy.

“[Immigration] impacts everybody’s day-to-day life in Arizona, but I don’t believe the problem is as complicated as it’s made up to be in Washington: You secure the border, and you implement a guest-worker program,” he said.

Giffords’s campaign acknowledged that Bee presents a different challenge than Graf, a former golf pro once mocked by “The Daily Show” for comparing the Constitution to a book of golf rules.

“Tim is not an angry person,” said Michael McNulty, chairman of Giffords’s reelection bid. “But, that being said, he’s still very conservative.” McNulty added that immigration is still an issue that can divide Republicans, noting that Bee supports state penalties against employers of illegal immigrants that have been challenged in federal court by business leaders for violating the Constitution.

However, those penalties are also supported by Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, who signed the employer sanctions law last year.

The race promises to be a tight one. Though President Bush carried the 8th district in 2004 by 7 points over Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Giffords has raised nearly $1.2 million more than Bee has.

Democrats and Republicans in Arizona will likely spar over pocketbook issues as much as they do over immigration, said Arizona State University pollster Bruce Merrill. That’s partly because most residents agree on what needs to be done about immigration, according to Merrill’s polls.

Most voters, including about 60 percent of Republicans, support some federal plan giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

A majority also supports securing the border. “Illegal immigration is still a major issue,” Merrill said, “but like other parts of the country, the economy has clearly toned down the concern we hear [about the border].”

Both Giffords and Bee have been stressing their records on fiscal policy. Giffords this year has cited her efforts to scale back a border checkpoint to save taxpayer money and has pointed to her membership among the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

Bee said that he would make permanent the tax cuts championed by President Bush to help American companies. Like Giffords’s race, Mitchell’s will likely be fought over the economy as much as immigration.

Mitchell last week sponsored a bill that would prevent a $4,100 salary increase for House members. Meanwhile, the two Republicans who have raised the most money to challenge Mitchell, former county treasurer David Schweikert and attorney Jim Ogsbury, have railed against earmarks in Congress, following the lead of fellow Arizona Republicans McCain, Rep. John Shadegg and Rep. Jeff Flake.

“Immigration is really important,” Schweikert said, “but it’s not my area of specialization. I’m a finance guy.”
Schweikert supports a guest-worker program and increases in visas for skilled workers, framing the immigration problem in terms of its cost to the community.

Mitchell, who won his 2006 race by 4 points, has raised more than $1 million for his 2008 race. Schweikert has received about $506,000 in campaign donations and Ogsbury has taken in nearly $387,000.

To be sure, staunch illegal immigration opponents will call for tougher stances against border crossings from Republican candidates, said Shane Wikfors, an editor of the Arizona conservative blog Sonoran Alliance. Those opponents, many of who comment on Wikfors’s site, provided much of the energy that propelled Graf to the nomination. But they couldn’t provide Graf with the kind of financial backing that Bee has already received, Wikfors said.

“What most conservatives are thinking is ‘Let’s get this border security in place before anything else,’ ” Wikfors said. “ ‘Once that’s out of the way, let’s discuss these other issues [like comprehensive immigration reform].’ ”