27
2004
It could be election fatigue. Or it could be that with an immigrant in the governor’s mansion – a Republican immigrant in the governor’s mansion – the Southern California knee-jerk fear of the great Mexican menace isn’t quite as strong these days.
The Sacramento Bee reports that an attempt to revive Prop. 187 – the ballot initiative calling for California to restrict benefits for illegal immigrants -- has hit a snag. Organizers can’t get enough signatures to get the thing on the ballot. Some of this is, no doubt ,due to turn out in the last election. You need more names on the petitions. But some could be due to the acceptance – by Republicans in particular – of politicians with not-so-waspy last names.
Or maybe it’s just that the state’s more recent immigrants, the ones who got here within oh, the past 30 years – just like Gov. Terminator! – are close to really seizing political power in the state. A business reporter covering the workers’ compensation negotiations in Sacramento said he was struck by Schwarzenegger’s tactics. As soon as he figured out that Latinos carried the freight on this issue – and that’s a deliberate pun – he behaved accordingly and got the votes he needed.