Thread: The Tancredo Effect

August 22, 2007
http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2007/08/tancredo.php

The Tancredo Effect
In a scathing critique of the latest battle between GOP presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney over who's tougher on illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal editorial board this morning wondered (subscription) if the candidates were "competing for the Republican Presidential nomination, or for the job of vacation replacement for Lou Dobbs?"

While CNN's popular populist probably has something to do with the front-runners' new immigration obsession, Giuliani and Romney are actually taking their cues from a much closer source: fellow Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo.

When the Colorado congressman best known for his hard-line stance on immigration declared his candidacy back in April, he made no effort to hide his intentions. "The political elite in Washington have chosen to ignore this phenomenon," he said of illegal immigration. "You look" at the Republican field "and you see no one is going to make this the primary issue of their campaign."

Tancredo, on the other hand, has done just that.

On the campaign trail and in televised debates, he has shown a flair for taking any issue and somehow making it about immigration. His efforts to get the issue some face time got a boost this summer, when Congress and the White House failed to reach a compromise on reform that would have appeased conservative critics.

Now it looks like the rest of the GOP presidential field is following Tancredo's lead. Romney has been trying to make a dent in Giuliani's tough-guy image by painting him as soft on illegal immigrants during his tenure as New York City mayor. In a new radio ad (subscription) airing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney calls the Big Apple a "sanctuary city" because of its policy of not denying critical public services to immigrants of questionable or illegal status. The ad comes on the heels of Giuliani's own attempt to flex his immigration-enforcement muscles in a radio spot launched last week.

Romney and Giuliani aren't the only ones getting into the act. Before he exited the race, Tommy Thompson shared his plan for curbing illegal immigration on Iowa radio, and Ron Paul, who can hardly be called a bandwagon-jumper, made "securing our borders" a signature theme of his TV ad debut. Even dark-horse candidate John Cox took a stab at the immigration issue in a recent Web music video.

Though none of the candidates are likely to give him credit, Tancredo appears to be reveling in these developments. "I am happy that now almost every one of my colleagues standing up there on the stage running for the Republican nomination is sounding like Tom Tancredo when it comes to illegal immigration," the congressman told "Fox & Friends" this morning. But apparently he doesn't feel his work is done... yet. "I want these words to be more than just rhetoric," he added.

FOX News has video of Tancredo's appearance this morning.

-Irene Tsikitas

Graphic: Reuben Dalke

Hmmm.........it's odd that Duncan Hunter isn't mentioned in this article. He's been fighting the illegal immigration battle since before Tancredo was elected to Congress - he's certainly no bandwagon jumper.