Oliver Willis

CAP breaks down why it didn’t work in Virginia. Conservatives have convinced themselves, much like how they convinced themselves that 2006 was all about earmarks and not Iraq, that being anti-immigration will deliver the 2008 election to them.

First, the public generally favors a tough, but not punitive,
approach to the illegal immigration problem and supports a path toward
legal status for those already here, provided certain requirements are
met. In an early November ABC News/Washington Post (ABC/WP) poll, for
example, 51 percent supported giving illegal immigrants now living in
the United States the right to live here legally provided they pay a
fine and meet other requirements, compared with 44 percent who opposed
these steps.
These views are virtually unchanged since the last time ABC/WP asked
this question in June (see chart below). This hardly suggests a tsunami
of anti-immigrant sentiment that will turn around the current
progressive trends in American politics.

The other reason that conservatives had so little success with their
anti-immigrant crusade is that illegal immigration for most Americans
is a concern, but not a top-ranked voting issue. Here are data from the
same ABC/WP poll showing how far below Iraq, the economy, and health
care immigration currently ranks as an issue. Only 8 percent mention it
as one of their two top voting issues, compared with 45 percent for
Iraq, 29 percent for the economy, and 27 percent for health care.