Valley issues get parties’ attention
GOP candidates clash more on immigration, emissions, genocide.
By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau
01/18/08 23:22:31

WASHINGTON — The surviving presidential contenders from both parties are
competing more furiously than ever, but beneath their surface discord they
often find common ground on issues important to the San Joaquin Valley.
Even as their competition escalates, Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards agree the United States should
formally recognize the Armenian genocide.
The Democrats also uniformly back California’s bid to impose stiffer
greenhouse gas regulations. And they each support an agricultural guest-worker
proposal called AgJOBS that could offer legal status to 1.5 million illegal
immigrant farmworkers.
Republican candidates clash more on those issues, mirroring in some ways
their sharp policy divisions at the national level.
On issues such as immigration, for example, the law-and-order advocates who
emphasize stricter border controls can clash loudly with the self-styled
compassionate conservatives who stress a blend of security and social
integration.
For candidates from both parties, the Valley can offer a treasure trove of
primary voters on Feb. 5.
The candidates are enticing those votes through a combination of policy
positions and personal appeals. Six of the major candidates have visited Fresno
and the southern San Joaquin Valley since last year, and Ohio Rep. Dennis
Kucinich is expected to visit Fresno on Sunday.
"We’ll be seeing more of them," predicted Mike Lynch, a Modesto-based
Democratic political consultant. "They’ve got to come through here."
The Democrats favor the same phrases on some Valley issues, with Edwards and
Clinton both saying an agricultural guest-worker program will let farmworkers
"come out of the shadows."
While legislatively dormant at present, the agricultural guest-worker
proposal remains politically volatile. It’s an issue that can tip voters one way or
another in regions like the San Joaquin Valley, home to many illegal
immigrants and the farmers who employ them.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, who visited the Valley early last year, is the only
Republican candidate to formally endorse the agricultural guest-worker
program, although former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani sounds sympathetic.
McCain’s position draws fire from his fellow conservatives, who denounce it as
amnesty.
"McCain championed a bill to let every illegal immigrant stay in America
permanently," former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney charged in a recently aired
TV commercial in New Hampshire.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee piled on, declaring that he "opposed the
amnesty President Bush and Sen. McCain tried to ram through Congress" last
year.
The word "amnesty" is politically toxic, and supporters of the comprehensive
immigration and agricultural guest-worker proposals speak of "earned
legalization," whereby illegal immigrants must pay fines and meet strict criteria.
Words likewise anchor the debate over an Armenian genocide resolution, which
revolves around how to characterize the deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire between 1915 and 1923. Armenian-Americans and many historians consider
the widespread slaughter a genocide.
The issue is dear to the hearts of many Armenian-Americans, more than 50,000
of whom are estimated to live in the San Joaquin Valley.
California’s bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles draws
support from Democrats. While some Republicans, including Romney, argue that
a consistent national emission standard is best, Democrats are united behind
California’s efforts, which are now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress