http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/florida-republicans-now-back-arizona-immigration-law/Two of the state’s most prominent Republican candidates have gone from critics to supporters of Arizona’s controversial new immigration law. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio and gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Bill McCollum are now saying that amendments to the law make it a valid approach to immigration.
The unstated goal of this public change of heart would seem to be to appeal to the Republican base. Polls show growing support in the party for the Arizona approach and Mr. McCollum’s poll numbers have slipped from 64 percent to 38 percent in the last month after newcomer Rick Scott, a former health care executive, entered the race.
Dr. George Gonzalez, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Miami, thinks it’s a smart move. “For Rubio and McCollum it is a question of who you mobilize on primary day,” he said. “
The Republican Party is in crisis. The party is smaller and more ideological. McCollum and Rubio are playing to that to get the nomination. In order to be viable you have to get the tea baggers.” He also says that it isn’t a bad approach in a three-way race like Rubio’s in the general election.
“It’s a better strategy to play for the far right where you have 30 percent who subscribe to anti-immigration so let’s energize that group. You aren’t going for a majority,” he said. “In a two-way race, though, that’s a death knell.”
But primary gains could mean trouble over the long run. Fernand Amandi, of Bendixen & Amandi, a Miami-based opinion research and consulting firm, thinks Rubio and McCollum are putting their political futures in peril.
“I think this could have tremendous consequences and is a dangerous game for both of them to play,” he said. “They risk alienating the fastest growing segment of the American electorate” and undoubtedly the swing vote in Florida.
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