Saxton Turns to Immigrant Bashing

Ron Saxton must be getting desperate, he has turned to non-existant problems and immigrant bashing in his campaign for Governor.

More are "pouring in," the ad states. The commercial attacks Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski for taking a soft line on "illegal aliens" by allowing them to obtain driver's licenses and vote in state elections.

Saxton must really be desperate if this is all he has to run on, illegal immigrants are clearly not voting in Oregon, as was pointed out by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury when the US Congress passed a law requiring all voters to show ID at the polls in order to vote.

Oregon, Bradbury wrote "does not have a problem with ineligible voters." Of the more than 10 million votes in Oregon cast since 1991, Bradbury wrote, "only 10 people have met criteria that would even warrant an investigation into their citizenship. Of those 10, two have been prosecuted."

Howard Dean recently claimed that this was really a cynical attempt to disinfranchise voters.

Dean said he was particularly irked at Saxton's charge that illegal immigrants are obtaining driver's licenses in Oregon that they then use to be able to vote in elections. "There's never been any evidence of that whatsoever," said Dean, arguing that Republicans are really interested in discouraging less-affluent citizens from voting.

This would clearly be the effect of such a law, proving that at the very least Republicans don't care if they disinfranchise legal voters. However, I think Dean goes a little too far here. This is not about disinfranchising voters for disinfranchisements sake, it is about finding this years public enemy. A clear part of the Republican strategy this year seems to be to run against the most marginalized population in the United States. Immigrants, as though they are some threat to the American way of life.

Saxton makes a front and center problem out of something that simply is not happening, sounds to me like a campaign with nothing real to bring to voters, just hatred and xenophobia.