Today’s Washington Post reports that illegal immigration is emerging as a top issue in the closely-approaching 2007 legislative election:
After years of simmering in the background, illegal immigration has quickly emerged as one of the key issues in Virginia’s Nov. 6 election, particularly in Northern Virginia, where voters say they are seeking candidates who will address it, according to a new Washington Post poll.
Three-quarters of likely voters in Virginia said immigration is important to their votes in the election for state and local offices, while just a year ago, immigration ranked seventh of 10 listed issues in a Post poll before the U.S. Senate race. Since then, the percentage of Virginia voters calling immigration “extremely” or “very” important to their vote has jumped 15 points.
While one would think that this would be good news for Republicans, that isn’t necessarily the case as voters also seem to be saying that they think Democrats could handle the issue better:
A majority of likely voters who said immigration is extremely important would like to see Republicans maintain control of the General Assembly, and those who call the issue the state’s top problem generally prefer the GOP approach. But overall, Virginians give Democrats a narrow edge on handling immigration, and more voters would like to see the Democrats take over the state legislature.
Additionally, there are clear divisions on the issue along party and regional lines:
Although 58 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of independents want much more local action on illegal immigration, fewer Democrats, 43 percent, do. And almost three-quarters of Republicans are more likely to support a candidate who wants strong action against illegal immigrants, nearly double the percentage among Democrats.
(…)
Nearly a third of likely voters who live north of the Rappahannock River said immigration was one of the top two issues in the state, and 77 percent said illegal immigration was a problem in their communities; 37 percent called it a very serious problem.
Those numbers surged higher in Prince William, where half of all residents called immigration the most or second-most important issue facing the state and a majority classified illegal immigration as a very serious local problem.
While it is surprising to see how big an issue this has become on a local and state level, it’s unclear what impact it will have no November 6th. Will this be enough to allow the Virginia GOP to retain their majorities in the House of Delegates and the Senate ? And, if that doesn’t happen, then does that mean that immigration doesn’t have much staying power as a local issue ? Only time will tell.
