Immigration and the MA Governor's Race

WBUR's Payne and Domke analyze how immigration is becoming the issue du jour for the Governor's campaign.

PAYNE: Anti-immigrant sentiment in the Legislature can be partially traced back to the recent poll, which shows that 84 percent of Massachusetts voters want people to provide proof of citizenship to receive state benefits.

The other factor is Republicans in the Legislature — who aren’t even a minority, they’re more like an asterisk. They are trying to exploit social anxiety at a time of economic stress to create a wedge issue for their legislative candidates. This new bill is a solution without a problem. Undocumented immigrants can’t receive many benefits for which citizens qualify.

That last sentence is pretty much what I thought.  Any of my astute readers know of a benefit available to undocumented workers?

Here, the two white candidates for governor, independent Timothy Cahill and Republican Charles Baker, are using immigration to burnish their conservative credentials.

Meanwhile, Gov. Deval Patrick, the African-American, is maintaining a position of tolerance — which is not necessarily a winning hand. A lot will depend on whether the governor vetoes the bill if it gets to his desk. My guess is that he will veto it or send it back for changes. His administration has stood for tolerance.

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DOMKE: This issue reveals Cahill’s strategy. He’s trying to draw contrast with both Baker and Patrick by being a conservative populist on social issues. On every other issue, he is essentially the same as Patrick or Baker. Being conservative on social issues gives him a chance to claim to be a real alternative.

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We can’t be sure of Cahill’s motives, but we do know a few things: he is a career politician trying to reverse his decline in the polls, and he saw that Sen. Scott Brown’s most potent issue was denying terrorists the right to civilian trials.

 Lots of good analysis in the article.