Thread: New Bucher radio ad highlights immigration

http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=22 ... 6&id=10601

mp3 of ad
http://www.bucherforag.org/Domains/buch ... Radio2.mp3

MONDAY, Aug. 28, 2006, 5:49 p.m.
By Stacy Forster

New Bucher radio ad highlights immigration
A new radio ad from Republican attorney general candidate Paul Bucher raps Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, one of the Democrats running for the same office, for turning her back on illegal immigration problems on her watch.

Bucher's campaign said today it would start airing a new radio ad tomorrow that features Anselmo Villarreal, a Waukesha County community leaders, calling Bucher's plan to deport certain illegal immigrants accused of crimes "common sense and the right thing to do."

The ad also highlights the case of Manuel Arguijo, who Bucher said was convicted five times on drug and weapons offenses in Dane County before being deported in 2005.

"[Falk] should explain to the public why releasing illegal immigrant drug dealers who possess firearms into the community is a smart way of dealing with crime," Bucher said in a statement.


As county executive, Falk has little say in prosecution matters, but she has said that Dane County officials don't ask people if they are legal residents when they come to the county seeking services. Bucher said Falk is responsible because of her "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Falk campaign spokesman Adam Collins called the ad "misleading" and "sleazy" and said it should be taken off the air. In a statement, Collins said a judge not the county executive had made the decision to put Arguijo on probation. Falk has always said illegal immigrants who commit crimes should be subject to deportation, Collins said.

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager has said federal authorities should take the lead on immigration issues.

Bucher's Republican opponent, former U.S. attorney J.B. Van Hollen, challenged language in the ad that made it seem as if Bucher had changed his position on deporting some illegal immigrants who have committed non-violent crimes before prosecuting them. Van Hollen has said that position is like giving a "get out of jail free" card to those who have committed crimes.

"I remain committed to making sure illegal aliens serve their sentences before facing deportation," Van Hollen said in a statement.

Bucher said he had not changed his position.

The ad is available here.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.p ... 33&ntpid=1

Bucher ad targets Falk, ignores Van Hollen
By David Callender
With just two weeks left before the Sept. 12 election, Republican attorney general candidate Paul Bucher has shifted his fire from his GOP primary opponent, J.B. Van Hollen, to Democratic Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.


In a radio ad that began airing Monday, Bucher accuses Falk of allowing an illegal immigrant convicted of a crime to take part in a community-based jail diversion program instead of deporting him.

Bucher claims in the ad that Falk "believes cops shouldn't ask criminals ... if they're in this country illegally. She calls it 'don't ask, don't tell.' Well, I call it outrageous."

Falk spokesman Adam Collins said the ad was "wrong on the facts and wrong on the law" and called on Bucher to take the ad off the air.

"It's just more of the same from him," Collins said, adding that Bucher is "using his ads to divide rather than provide solutions to the real problems facing Wisconsin."

Collins said that Falk had no jurisdiction over the placement of Manuel Arguijo, who had been convicted of possessing a weapon as a felon, in the county's Alternatives to Incarceration Program in 1999.

A judge sentenced Arguijo to the program, which is administered by the office of the clerk of courts, Collins said.

Arguijo was deported this spring after a 20-year stretch of crimes that included cocaine trafficking and weapons offenses.

Collins also said that while county ordinances prohibit sheriff's deputies and other county officials from inquiring about a person's immigrant status, the laws do not prohibit judges from making that a consideration in sentencing.

The new radio ad, which features an endorsement from Waukesha Latino leader Anselmo Villareal, are the latest in Bucher's effort to make illegal immigration an issue in the attorney general's race.

Bucher is running against Van Hollen in the Republican primary; Falk is challenging Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. The winners will face each other in the November general election.

Bucher would not say why he is specifically targeting Falk, who is not yet the Democratic nominee, instead of Van Hollen.

"All the other candidates in this race, including Ms. Falk, have indicated very clearly that the attorney general of the state of Wisconsin should not have an active role in deporting illegal immigrants that commit crimes," he said. "My position is the polar opposite."

Bucher promises that if he is elected, he will ask the federal government for the power to undertake deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants convicted of crimes in Wisconsin.

Currently, states may prosecute and imprison illegal immigrants who commit crimes but deportations are handled by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

But individual states and local governments may seek permission from Homeland Security to undertake immigration functions.

Bucher, the Waukesha County district attorney, has already requested the power for his home county; seven other jurisdictions, including the states of Arizona and California, have already received permission.

Bucher's comments came at a Madison press conference this morning where he unveiled his proposed government ethics plan.

Bucher endorsed the merger of the state ethics and elections boards sought by Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, who in turn endorsed Bucher.

Both Falk and Lautenschlager have also endorsed the Ellis plan, which passed the Senate but was killed by Assembly Republicans.

Ellis told reporters that Bucher's changes to the bill - including closer ties between the Justice Department and the new Government Accountability Board - "have definitely made it a better bill."

Ellis, one of a number of lawmakers convicted of drunken driving, would not address Bucher's proposal to make first-offense drunken driving cases a crime.

"I think that any idea Paul Bucher comes up with, we will give a close look when he becomes attorney general," he said.

E-mail: dcallender@madison.com
Published: August 29, 2006