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Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) Is Extreme on Immigration—and Vulnerable Politically Because of It

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Dan LungrenBack in the early 80s, during Dan Lungren’s first stint in Congress, he supported immigration reform – just like his fellow Californian, then-President Ronald Reagan.

Not anymore. Lungren is unabashed about his anti-immigrant views:

A path to citizenship is “what has doomed all immigration legislation in the last two administrations,” California Republican Dan Lungren said during a recent House hearing on immigrant agricultural workers.

To be fair, Mr. Lungren, it wasn’t the path to citizenship that “doomed” immigration legislation in 2006, 2007, and 2010.  It was Republican opposition to the “path to citizenship.”  Something he, along with others have the power to change.

Lungren also has an important political reason to change that fact: self-preservation.   

This week, National Journal ranked Lungren as one of the “Top 10 Republicans Most Vulnerable to Redistricting”:

The incumbent protection plan California passed in 2002 gave this suburban Sacramento district parts of GOP-leaning outlying counties. Now, census results show Sacramento County is large enough to fully contain two districts, which could force Lungren, a nine-term veteran Republican, into a more compact and more Democratic district. In 2010, while many of his GOP colleagues were cruising to reelection, Lungren barely stumbled across the finish line and could be in more serious trouble against the same opponent in 2012.