Steve Poizner's Ad Touts Tough Immigration Line
One of the Republicans seeking to become California's next governor is promising to end taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants in a TV commercial that blames liberals for "doing too much for too many."
The 30-second ad by Steve Poizner appears tailored to appeal to conservatives who will dominate at the ballot box in the state Republican primary in June. But Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, risks turning off Hispanics who make up about a third of the state's population and are a growing force in California politics.
The ad, which begins airing statewide Tuesday, is Poizner's latest bid to gain notice in a race in which he trails GOP rival Meg Whitman by a wide margin in polls.
Poizner wants to end state funding for non-emergency medical care for illegal immigrants and block illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at state universities.
"We all know California is heading right over a cliff," Poizner says in the ad, as a car teeters and then falls off a precipice. "Politicians have lacked the guts to tackle the problem."
"How did this happen?" he asks. "Years of liberal failure doing too much for too many."
In seeking to differentiate himself from Whitman, Poizner has argued he's more conservative and has promised to take on an issue that has bedeviled the state for years. Population estimates vary, but it's believed that 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants live in California.
Whitman has said she opposes cutting off health care or education for children who have come to the country illegally, and she has accused Poizner of changing positions on illegal immigration in recent years.
Poizner's remarks have echoed the 1994 debate over Proposition 187, which denied publicly funded social services to illegal immigrants. A federal court later found the law's provisions unconstitutional.
Though 16 years ago, fallout from that dispute still looms large anytime politics and immigration collide in California. Polls show most Hispanics in California vote Democratic, and then-Republican Gov. Pete Wilson's support for Proposition 187 was widely blamed for alienating many Latinos from the GOP.
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