Some of the smarter Dems are starting to weigh in....

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/us/politics/12governors.html


Governors Voice Grave Concerns on Immigration
 
Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: July 11, 2010


In a private meeting with White House officials this weekend, Democratic 
governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration’s suit 
against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a 
vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections. 

While the weak economy dominated the official agenda at the summer 
meeting here of the National Governors Association, concern over 
immigration policy pervaded the closed-door session between Democratic 
governors and White House officials and simmered throughout the three-
day event. 

At the Democrats’ meeting on Saturday, some governors bemoaned the 
timing of the Justice Department lawsuit, according to two governors who 
spoke anonymously because the discussion was private. 

“Universally the governors are saying, ‘We’ve got to talk about jobs,’ ” 
Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, said in an interview. “And 
all of a sudden we have immigration going on.” 

He added, “It is such a toxic subject, such an important time for 
Democrats.” 

The administration seemed to be taking a carrot-and-stick approach on 
Sunday. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in town to give 
the governors a classified national security briefing, met one-on-one 
with Jan Brewer, the Republican who succeeded her as governor of Arizona 
and ardently supports the immigration law. 

About the same time as that meeting, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. 
said on a taped Sunday talk show that the Justice Department could bring 
yet another lawsuit against Arizona if there is evidence that the 
immigration law leads to racial profiling. 

Ms. Brewer said she and Ms. Napolitano did not discuss the current 
lawsuit. Instead, in a conversation she described as cordial, they 
discussed Arizona’s request for more National Guard troops along the 
border with Mexico, as well as other resources. 

The Democrats’ meeting provided a window on tensions between the White 
House and states over the suit, which the Justice Department filed last 
week in federal court in Phoenix. Nineteen Democratic governors are 
either leaving office or seeking re-election this year, and Republicans 
see those seats as crucial to swaying the 2012 presidential race. 

The Arizona law — which Ms. Brewer signed in April and which, barring an 
injunction, takes effect July 29 — makes it a state crime to be an 
illegal immigrant there. It also requires police officers to determine 
the immigration status of people they stop for other offenses if there 
is a “reasonable suspicion” that they might be illegal immigrants. 

The lawsuit contends that controlling immigration is a federal 
responsibility, but polls suggest that a majority of Americans support 
the Arizona law, or at least the concept of a state having a strong role 
in immigration enforcement. 

Republican governors at the Boston meeting were also critical of the 
lawsuit, saying it infringed on states’ rights and rallying around Ms. 
Brewer, whose presence spurred a raucous protest around the downtown 
hotel where the governors gathered. 

“I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that almost every state in America 
next January is going to see a bill similar to Arizona’s,” said Gov. 
Dave Heineman of Nebraska, a Republican seeking re-election. 

But the unease of Democratic governors, seven of whom are seeking re-
election this year, was more striking. 

“I might have chosen both a different tack and a different time,” said 
Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado, a Democrat who was facing a tough 
fight for re-election and pulled out of the race earlier this year. 
“This is an issue that divides us politically, and I’m hopeful that 
their strategy doesn’t do that in a way that makes it more difficult for 
candidates to get elected, particularly in the West.” 

The White House would not directly respond to reports of complaints from 
some Democratic governors. 

But David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser, said on Sunday on 
CNN’s “State of the Union” that the president remained committed to 
passing an immigration overhaul, and that addressing the issue did not 
mean he was ignoring the economy. 

“That doesn’t mean we can’t have a good, healthy debate about the 
economy and other issues,” Mr. Axelrod said. 

Mr. Obama addressed the economy last week during stops in Kansas City 
and Las Vegas, and has been calling on Congress to offer additional tax 
relief to small businesses. 

And the heads of Mr. Obama’s national debt commission — Alan K. Simpson 
and Erskine B. Bowles — were on hand here on Sunday to press the 
economic issue. 

The nation’s total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 
trillion, and Mr. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and 
Mr. Bowles, a Democrat and the White House chief of staff under 
President Bill Clinton, offered a gloomy assessment if spending is not 
brought under control even more. 

“This debt is like a cancer,” Mr. Bowles said. “It is truly going to 
destroy the country from within.” 

Still, the issue of immigration commanded as much attention as anything 
here this weekend. 

Ms. Brewer, who was trailed by television cameras all weekend, called 
the lawsuit “outrageous” and said the state was receiving donations from 
around the country to help fight it. 

“I think Arizona will win,” she said, “and we will take a position for 
all of America.” 

Immigration was not the only topic at the Saturday meeting between 
Democratic governors and two White House officials — Patrick Gaspard, 
Mr. Obama’s political director, and Cecilia Munoz, director of 
intergovernmental affairs. But several governors, including Christine 
Gregoire of Washington, said it was a particularly heated issue. 

Ms. Gregoire, who does not face an election this year, said the White 
House was doing a poor job of showing the American public that it was 
working on the problem of illegal immigration. 

“They described for me a list of things that they are doing to try and 
help on that border,” Ms. Gregoire said of the White House officials at 
the closed-door meeting. “And I said, ‘The public doesn’t know that.’ ” 

She added, “We’ve got a message void, and the only thing we’re hearing 
is that they’re filing a lawsuit.” 

Some Democrats also joined Republicans in calling for Congress to pass 
an immigration policy overhaul this year. 

“There are 535 members of Congress,” said Gov. Brian Schweitzer of 
Montana, a Democrat. “Certainly somebody back there can chew gum and 
hold the basketball at the same time. This is not an either-or.” 

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico praised the Justice Department’s 
lawsuit, saying his fellow Democrats’ concerns were “misguided.” 

“Policy-wise it makes sense,” said Mr. Richardson, who is Hispanic and 
who leaves office this year on term limits, “and Obama is popular with 
Hispanic voters and this is going to be a popular move with them 
nationally.” 

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland — a Democrat who voiced apprehension 
about the lawsuit in the private meeting, according to the two governors 
who requested anonymity — said in an interview that he supported it. 

“The president doesn’t have control over some of the timing of things 
that happen,” Mr. O’Malley said. “When those things arise, you can’t be 
too precious about what’s in it for your own personal political timing 
or even your party’s timing. When matters like this arise, I think the 
president has to take a principled stand.” 

But Mr. Bredesen said that in Tennessee, where the governor’s race will 
be tight this year, Democratic candidates were already on the defensive 
about the federal health care overhaul, and the suit against Arizona 
further weakened them. In Tennessee, he said, Democratic candidates are 
already “disavowing” the immigration lawsuit. 

“Maybe you do that when you’re strong,” he said of the suit, “and not 
when there’s an election looming out there.” 

Mr. Ritter of Colorado said he wished the Justice Department had waited 
to sue Arizona until after the law went into effect, to give the public 
a chance to see how difficult it would be to enforce. 

“It’s just an easier case to make,” he said. “I just think that law 
enforcement officers are going to have a terribly difficult time 
applying this law in a constitutional way.” 

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