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Publish Date: 10/19/2006

Immigration the top issue facing state, Coloradans say

John Fryar
Daily Record Denver Bureau

DENVER — Immigration is the top issue Colorado voters want the Legislature and their next governor to address, according to one pollster’s recent statewide survey.
In Floyd Ciruli’s more than eight years of polling on voters’ priorities, immigration had never cropped up before, he said.

But Ciruli Associates’ survey of 500 likely Colorado voters showed that immigration “clearly dominates the public agenda,” Ciruli said, ranking “pretty substantially ahead” of such issues as education, the economy, health care and transportation.

Last spring, the Democratic-controlled state Legislature adopted and Republican Gov. Bill Owens signed a package of illegal-immigration laws, including measures to make it a felony to smuggling or traffic in illegal immigrants and create a special Colorado State Patrol unit to enforce those new laws.

Owens called the Legislature back into special session in July to consider further illegal-immigration crackdowns, resulting in such laws as a measure requiring that applicants for many state and local government services prove their U.S. citizenship.

Even so, when Ciruli’s Denver-based public policy research firm asked Colorado voters in a Sept. 26-Oct. 2 survey to name the top issue they want the governor and Legislature to address, 28 percent cited immigra-tion.

Immigration — or more specifically, what more the state can or should do to crack down on illegal immigration — has been an issue in this year’s gubernatorial election contest and many of the races for Colorado Senate and House seats.

Ciruli said in an interview that if Republican Bob Beauprez is elected governor, Ciruli would be surprised if Beauprez did not lead off his first “state of the state” speech with a discussion of illegal immigration.

If Democrat Bill Ritter turns out to be the one delivering that address to the Legislature, immigration would still likely be “one of the top two or three” issues coming in for the new governor’s mention, Ciruli predicted.

Ciruli added, however, that when the Legislature convenes in January, “the heavy lifting in the session will be the usuals”: such perennial policy issues as school funding, economic development, the cost and avail-ability of health care, and state transportation needs.

Voters’ identification of immigration as a top-priority issue crossed party lines, although Ciruli said concerns about that issue was “a little more intense” among registered Republicans.

Twenty-six percent of registered Democrats in the survey identified immigration a the top issue needing attention, compared with 32 percent of the Republicans polled and 26 percent of voters unaffiliated with either major party.

The questions about top-priority issues in Ciruli’s poll were part of a survey sponsored by the Economic Developers Council of Colorado.