A Minuteman Boosts Border Overhaul Reform
An Arizona win puts immigration back in play
TUCSON, ARIZ.-A few weeks ago, it became suddenly clear that the Republican free-for-all primary in the southeastern corner of Arizona was anything but ordinary. Randy Graf--a former golf pro, state representative and cowboy-boots-clad founding member of the Minutemen border group--had vaulted into the lead with his focus on fixing what he called the "security crisis" at the border. Opponents attacked him as extreme, and the national Republican Party went so far as to buy at least $122,000 worth of ads for Graf's most formidable moderate challenger, state Rep. Steve Huffman.
It didn't work. Graf won last week, roiling some Republican circles and raising questions about the wisdom of the party's floundering immigration strategy. It has also put in jeopardy a precious House seat in a mostly moderate district that has been represented since 1984 by retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe, an abortion-rights centrist and the only openly gay Republican in Congress.
Fizzled rallies. In some ways, Graf's victory came at a moment that seems ripe for immigration restrictionists. After this spring's May Day rallies drew thousands of protesters in cities all over the country, efforts to duplicate that momentum this fall have largely fizzled. There were puny numbers at a September march on Washington that activists said would draw hundreds of thousands. A large coalition of advocacy groups that had vowed to register 1 million new immigrant voters now widely acknowledges it won't meet that goal.
In this atmosphere, Graf's win was electrifying--at least in some corners. "I think it shows people are furious about immigration," says Ira Mehlman, a communications director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group advocating restricting immigration. "And it's not just Arizona." Vulnerable incumbents like Sen. Rick Santorum, Rep. Chris Shays, and Sen. Jim Talent, who weren't vociferous on immigration a year ago, have already taken a hard line on border security. With Graf's win, Mehlman says the trend could easily grow stronger.
That tough rhetoric stands in contrast to what the Republicans in Washington didn't get done this year. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced two weeks ago that he won't try to reconcile a punitive House immigration bill with a more moderate Senate measure that includes a guest-worker program before November. In an atmosphere where people talk about "a do-nothing Congress," that move was probably a mistake, says GOP strategist Whit Ayers. Last week, the House seemed to scramble to do something: Republicans passed a bill that would build 700 miles of double-layered steel fencing on the southern border, basically resurrecting one of the controversial aspects of their stalled bill.
Still, some observers of the Graf race urged caution. "I'm still waiting, for someone to show me the races where the [hard-line immigration] approach actually wins our party something," says Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican. He said Graf benefited from a five-man race. "This isn't," Flake says, "the uprising some think it is."
Graf, however, tapped right into the frustration that's very alive in the Eighth District, which includes about 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border and runs up to the some prosperous suburbs near Tucson. "Down here," Graf he says, "illegal immigrants are killing cows, trashing people's ranches, and putting families near violent criminals, and Congress hasn't done anything about it." He also hopes his desire to slash bloated spending will spark Arizona's famed mile-wide independent streak.
advertisement
