Thread: NumbersUSA/Roy Beck on the Elections results

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Wednesday 19MAY10 2:45 a.m. EDT


DEAR FRIENDS,

A bad night for incumbent Senators who have favored foreign workers over U.S. workers -- and hopeful signs of improved immigration balance in the U.S. Senate next year:

Although immigration was not a pivotal issue in the campaigns, the election results suggest possibilities of real improvements in the immigration-issue balance in Congress. But voters need to push most of Tuesday's winners toward stronger immigration-reduction positions.

Click here to join an on-line discussion of the election results and reaction to my analysis of them.


Pennsylvania Democrats in their Primary election put an end to the 30-year U.S. Senate tenure of Arlen Specter who had spent most of that career as a Republican championing the importation of foreign workers.


In Arkansas, a consistent supporter of amnesties to keep illegal foreign workers in U.S. jobs (Sen. Blanche Lincoln) failed to win the nomination in the Democratic Primary, forced into a runoff in June.


In the Arkansas Republican Primary for Senate, the winner (Rep. John Boozeman) is one of the best champions in the U.S. House in terms of protecting U.S. workers from unfair competition from high immigration.


Coincidentally, an extramarital affair led to the resignation Tuesday of the holder of one of the worst immigration records among U.S. House Republicans (Rep. Mark Souder). Only 5 Republicans in the House have worse career immigration-reduction grades.


This follows Utah's Republican convention defeat of incumbent Sen. Robert Bennett earlier (he had a record of leaning toward greedy business desires for foreign labor) . . .


Tuesday results also follow the earlier Democratic Primary defeat of West Virginia incumbent Rep. Allan Mullohan who for 38 years has earned a NumbersUSA "F-Grade" for his dozens of actions putting the interests of greedy employers and foreign workers over the needs of low-paid and unemployed U.S. workers.

PENNSYLVANIA -- SEN. SPECTER HAD A LONG DESTRUCTIVE RECORD ON IMMIGRATION

As a Republican in 1996, Sen Specter joined the rebellion of then-Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) in blocking the Simpson/Smith bill to carry out the bi-partisan Jordan Commission recommendations for deep reductions in legal and illegal immigration.

The result of Specter and his ideological colleagues' actions has been the addition of another 40 million to the laborforce and population of the U.S. since then.

Abraham's penchant for foreign workers cost him his seat in the 2000 election.

But Specter has continued his destructive immigration actions for another decade, including much support for amnesties.

Specter has been somewhat helpful on border security. But his overall career actions earned him a D+ on NumbersUSA's report cards.

Unfortunately, the man who beat him Tuesday (Rep. Joe Sestak) also has a D+ career record. The difference is that Sestak has only been causing damage for three years, and his few bad actions do not yet indicate a deep commitment to foreign workers over U.S. workers. We were pleased to see that his website made no mention of support for immigration or amnesty. Democrats in Pennsylvania need to help him see the value of following immigration-restriction Democratic Senators like Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

The winner of the Pennsylvania Republican Primary (former Rep. Patrick Toomey) did not have that great of an immigration record during his 1999-2005 stint in the U.S House. He earned a "B-minus grade." Nonetheless, that would be a huge improvement over Specter's record. Plus, Toomey's grade would have been much higher if not for his votes for free trade agreements with Singapore and Chile that created virtually unlimited immigration channels from those small countries. State Republicans need to push Toomey to take more forceful immigration-reduction stances.

KENTUCKY -- NOT CLEAR ENOUGH COMMITMENTS FROM SENATE PRIMARY WINNERS

In the highly contested open-seat Primaries for the Kentucky Senate seat, the winners have not taken particularly clear stands on immigration. We need the state's voters to begin pressuring the winners in both Parties to show that they understand that immigration during these times is a profoundly jobs-related issue.

We need Rand Paul (Republican) and Jack Conoway (Democrat) to take our immigration survey so voters can vote intelligently between them in the General election. Until a candidate makes commitments on specific aspects of immigration policy, nobody should assume what their positions will be. I hope that we will be able to report later this week on more specifics. Before the election, both Paul and Conoway's campaigns refused to respond to our requests.

Unless one of these nominees steps forward with commitments for immigration reductions, either candidate will mean a step backwards for U.S. workers because they would be replacing retiring Sen. Bunning (R-Kentucky) who has one of the best immigration-reduction grades in the Senate.

ARKANSAS -- HUGE CHANGE POSSIBLE IN THE FALL

On the issue of immigration in the upcoming fall general election for U.S. Senator, the Parties could not be further apart.

Republicans have nominated for the Senate John Boozeman, one of the U.S. House's strongest opponents of illegal immigration and one of the strongest supporters of reducing overall authorized immigration numbers.

Democratic Sen. Lincoln, however, has consistently backed all kinds of amnesties for illegal foreign workers and amnesties for the outlaw businesses that hire them during her time representing Arkansas in Washington. She failed to receive the necessary 50% to win the nomination Tuesday in a three-way Primary and will face the more liberal Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a June runoff.

Although LIncoln is considered one of the moderate Democrats in the Senate, there is nothing moderate about her D-minus overall "Recent" (2007-2010) Immigration-Reduction Grade. During these last two Congresses, she has only one semi-bright spot, a B Grade on border security actions.

But Lincoln has earned a D on interior enforcement to keep illegal aliens from taking U.S. jobs, an F on Amnesties, and an F-minus on Chain Migration, an F-minus on importation of unnecessary workers for specific jobs, and an F-minus on granting rewards to illegal aliens.

The other runoff Democratic candidate, Bill Halter has thus far given no sign that he would perform any better on immigration.

The state's Republican voters, however, have offered up a Primary victor who would immediately become one of the Senate's biggest stalwarts for U.S. workers on immigration issues.

Four of the eight candidates in the Republican Primary filled out our NumbersUSA survey and overwhelmingly agreed with our positions on what to do about immigration! One of them, U.S. Rep. John Boozeman was able to win his eight-person race outright with 53% of the vote, while Sen. Lincoln could not get to 50% in a three-way race.

Boozeman's "Recent" Immigration-Reduction grade is an A+.

Boozeman is a Member of NumbersUSA's elite "5 for 5 Club" in which he is co-sponsoring legislation to eliminate Chain Migration, to eliminate the Visa Lottery, to eliminate Birthright Citizenship for illegal aliens' babies, to mandate verification of all workers to preserve jobs for Americans, and to require the federal government to assist local governments in apprehending illegal aliens.

Friends, in every state over the next six months you will have opportunities to change either the makeup of Congress or the positions of incumbents who get returned to Congress.

Every day, come back to your customized Action Board to find the latest opportunities to influence candidates.

And follow our Candidate Comparison pages for the nation's most complete look at the immigration positions of every candidate running for Congress or Governor this year.

THANKS,
Roy

Thank you Roy Beck! Keep up the great work and we so appreciate you and your NumbersUSA organization keeping us advised of the candidates voting records and whether or not they're willing to commit to American Workers and the Rule of Law.