The day after Senator Kelly Ayotte’s (R-NH) endorsement of the immigration reform bill gave the effort a momentum boost, the Huffington Post reports that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is encouraging Republican Senators to hold back support for the bill until it takes on “a more conservative bent.”
Elise Foley and Sam Stein of the Huffington Post write:
Rubio had privately urged fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to remain quiet about her support for immigration reform, in hopes that Senate negotiators would amend the bill’s border security measures to win her vote, according to three sources, including one Republican Senate aide. Ayotte, a moderate-leaning New Hampshire Republican, decided nevertheless to announce her support for the measure on Sunday, becoming the first Republican outside of the group to back the reform legislation. Rubio ‘has not been telling them to vote no,’ said one Senate Democratic aide familiar with negotiations. ‘He has been apparently holding people back from declaring support for the bill, while at the same time saying the bill needs changes in order to garner support. My understanding is he told Sen. Ayotte’s office to hold back, but she didn’t care.’ A Republican Senate source confirmed Rubio’s lobbying of Ayotte, saying it was ‘not the first time’ Rubio had done something not aligned with the gang of eight’s interests.
What makes Rubio’s strategy baffling is that it threatens the careful bipartisan compromise he helped to forge. This is completely contrary to the interests of the Republican Party, which needs to make a clean break from its anti-immigration reform past and take a clear stance in favor of commonsense reform in order to turn the page with Latino voters.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
It’s one thing to look for ways to build more backers of your bill. It’s another thing to discourage your colleagues from publicly embracing it. Kelly Ayotte realized that the Republican Party is better served by being clear and public about where their leaders stand and not hiding in the backroom waiting for an amendment deal. But where are Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Dean Heller (R-NV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), and others who know support for immigration reform is smart policy and smart politics? Are they bound to Rubio’s pact of silence, or are they ready to stand up and lead the Party forward?
A new Latino Decisions poll of Latino voters highlights the deep hole Republican lawmakers are in when it comes to immigration reform – and how much it can benefit if it helps to pass it into law. Immigration reform is now the top issue the community wants addressed. Eighty percent are following it in the news. Eighty-one percent think immigration reform should combine border enforcement with a path to citizenship at the same time, versus 13% who favor a border security first strategy. Fifty-nine percent of Latino voters disapprove of the way Republicans are handling immigration in Congress, and by a margin of 4-1 they believe that if reform fails it will be the fault of the Republicans more than the Democrats. The good news for the GOP is that 50% of Latino voters have voted for Republican candidates in the past and 45% of Latino voters (including 44% of Latino Democrats) are more likely to support a Republican candidate who takes a “leadership” role in passing comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Most political experts believe the GOP needs to win 40% of the Latino vote to be electorally competitive in national elections.
On the heels of Senator Ayotte’s public declaration of support this weekend, a new Chicago Tribune editorial calls on Senator Kirk to do the same:
Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, where are you? Kirk’s name invariably appears on the short list of moderate Republican senators who could help provide the handful of votes necessary to defeat a filibuster. But he’s still uncommitted. He’s been lobbied endlessly by immigrants who want to live and work here legally, and by businesses that want to hire them. He represents a state in which immigrants accounted for more than half the population growth measured in the last U.S. census. But his office is still offering the same tired statement: ‘Sen. Kirk has long said that any immigration reform proposal must first restore the American people’s confidence in their government’s ability to control the border. Once that confidence is restored, Sen. Kirk believes bipartisan reform can improve our broken immigration system. Sen. Kirk will closely review the bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee with these principles in mind.’ That’s a disappointingly passive position from Kirk, who could be a game-changer in this debate… The nation needs immigration reform. It needs leadership. Again we ask: Where is Sen. Mark Kirk?
Added Sharry:
Americans are looking for leadership on this issue, not gamesmanship. It’s time for Senator Rubio and the people listening to him to choose one or the other. After all, Republicans have a historic opportunity to do the right thing as a matter of policy, and to help themselves politically at the same time. This bill will end unauthorized immigration as we know it for it includes border and interior enforcement measures that add up to the largest enforcement increase in American history. In addition, it offers the GOP a chance to rehabilitate its brand with Latino voters. The time is now for Republican Senators who want to help the country and help their party to stand up and speak out.
