The California exception on immigration (LA Times Op-ed)

[pinto]

The California exception on immigration
The state's House GOP representatives have to face the electoral math on immigration reform.

By Harold Meyerson
July 11, 2013

The fight for immigration reform has landed in the lap of House Republicans, which is a bad place for it to land. Though it's hard to see a way that Republicans can retake the White House as long as they remain intent on denying citizenship to Latinos and Asians who are in the country illegally, the House Republicans seem blissfully indifferent to political consequences. By controlling just one house of Congress, they have discovered, they can bring government either to a standstill or close to it, and increasingly, that seems to be their raison d'etre.

The House Republicans have shown themselves to be indifferent not just to the needs of the nation but to the needs of their party and even the credibility of their own speaker. They seem to fear nothing save their own defeat, and for most House Republicans, nestled comfortably in gerrymandered districts, that means the only thing they have to fear is a primary challenge from some tea party zealot if they ever vote for something that also has the support of President Obama or congressional Democrats.

The big exception is California.

Of the state's 53 House members, 15 are Republicans, and those 15 are among the few House GOP-niks who have to worry about more than a primary challenge from their right. Thanks to the nonpartisan redistricting that state voters established by initiative, a number of those 15 have districts that are neither safe nor overwhelmingly white. Indeed, a number have districts that are heavily Latino or Asian, and that doesn't bode well for the representatives' long-term (and in some cases, short-term) electoral prospects if they oppose a path to citizenship for those who are in the country illegally.

Of the 234 House Republicans, only 38 represent districts with populations that are at least 20% Latino — but 12 of those 38 come from California. Nine of these Californians represent districts that are at least one-third Latino; three of them represent districts in which Latinos have a plurality; seven represent districts where whites make up less than 50% of the population. In David Valadao's San Joaquin Valley district, for example, 19% of the residents are white, while 71% are Latino. Obama carried the district last year with 55% of the vote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-meyerson-immigration-and-the-californiia-gop-20130711,0,6902220.story