Only in Prince William County, VA

Anyone who follows the immigration issue should be familiar with Prince William County VA. For the past two years it's been ground zero in the debate over whether local governments should be passing punitive measures intended to drive out immigrant populations. With a board of supervisors controlled by ardent anti-immigrant hardliners, Prince William Co. passed some of the harshest anti-immigrant measures in the country.

Last month the board voted 5-3 to appoint Robert L. Duecaster to the county's Strategic Goals Task Force, a panel that crafts the county's human services policies and oversees budgeting.

So who is this Robert Duecaster, who'll be in charge of human services policies for the county

….. He's this guy:

When residents questioned Duecaster's appointment and suggested that perhaps guidelines need to be established to determine qualifications to serve, Supervisor W.S. Covington III replied that he was "very disquieted over the recent public discourse over whether or not a citizen is qualified to serve as an appointee of this body on behalf of Prince William County based solely upon a transcript of words, whether written or spoken … I don't think anyone proved he was so outrageous that he shouldn't have served on an advisory committee"

According to Sonia Scherr of the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Duecaster, a 57-year-old lawyer, was nominated to the human services task force by County Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr., who said criticisms of Duecaster's appointment amounted to "character assassination." In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Duecaster didn't retract any of his controversial past statements. "At the time the comments were made, we were living in a threatening and inflammatory environment," he said, adding that he hoped to serve "the interest of legal residents of this county." Duecaster has been even more flagrant in his remarks under cover of a pseudonym, according to the Post, which reported that on Black Velvet Bruce Li, the blog of Help Save Manassas founder Greg Letiecq, Duecaster has posted blatantly bigoted comments using the screen name "Advocator."

In January 2008, Advocator called for an investigation into "whether or not illegal aliens have a preferred breeding season." In April, he responded to a comment someone had posted using the pseudonym "Truth" with this gem: "An' thass right, Trufe, I am bitching about ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] as classes. Those anchor babies be costing me money."

Undocumented immigrants aren't his only targets. "What's even more ironic is the fact that el Pape [the Pope] will be here bemoaning how some jurisdictions have 'treated' the illegals," he wrote in April. "He'll be pandering to them to gather members to replace those who left the Church due to the institutionalized approval of his priests' penchant for little boys' behinds." (In a subsequent post, Duecaster insisted that despite his words he wasn't smearing Catholics, just criticizing the Catholic Church as an institution for its cover-up of sexual abuse by priests.)

In a 2005 post on the Muslim-bashing website danielpipes.org, he claimed that having many children was a strategy of "Islamists. ... They have always emphasized overpopulation and irresponsible procreation as a weapon in the Culture War."

AlterNet

So tell me again Supervisor Covington III, if this does not constitute something "so outrageous that he shouldn't have served on an advisory committee" … what does?

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I'm just a bill … hate group style

It appears that the "grassroots" efforts that led to the controversial anti-immigrant ordinances in Prince William County Va. weren't so "grassroots after all.

Apparently the folks at our favorite hate group, FAIR not only midwifed the legislation through it's birth …they played a crucial role in it's conception.

This wouldn't be the first time that FAIR, or one of it's astroturf affiliate groups in the Tanton Network, anonymously penned some legislation for anti-immigrant politicians … but this video gives us a clear picture of their behind-the-scenes actions on the local level to push an anti-immigrant agenda...

Video Link

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Immigrant-Bashing Strategy fails in Virginia Election

The results are in on one of the first statewide tests of a Republican campaign strategy to use immigrant-bashing as an electoral wedge, and it appears the plan has gone down in flames. Trying to distract voters from not only pressing local concerns but a national dissatisfaction with Republican policies, many Virginia Republicans tied their campaigns to a strong anti-immigrant message.

Jittery Virginia Republicans, whose grip on state politics has been weakening steadily for several years, are facing further setbacks in this fall's elections for the General Assembly, possibly including the end of GOP control of the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade. In their desperation for a vote-getter, they have seized on the whipping boy of illegal immigration, which they blame for ills ranging from the erosion of the commonwealth's values to the difficulty of being admitted to state colleges.

...It's an ugly strategy and certainly not one unique to Virginia. It seeks to distract voters from core state issues such as transportation, fiscal prudence and good governance.

Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2007

But the strategy seems to have failed - with Republicans losing control of the commonwealth's Senate and several House seats.

Democrats Win Key Senate Races in Virginia
Governor Says Party Will Control Senate, Pick Up Some House Seats

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) claimed victory last night in the legislative elections, saying his party had seized control of the state Senate and made historic gains in the House of Delegates.

In a speech to Democratic Party activists at a hotel in Tysons Corner, Kaine hailed the political changes that have swept through Virginia, beginning with the election of Gov. Mark R. Warner in 2001, his own election four years later and last year's victory by U.S. Sen. James Webb.

…snip…

In an interview moments later, Kaine said Democrats picked up four seats in the Senate, with two races still outstanding.

In claiming the Senate, Democrats prepared to install longtime Fairfax Sen. Richard L. Saslaw as majority leader and seize the chairmanships of key committees that control social legislation, crime issues, land-use and transportation policy.

Saslaw said the results proved that efforts by Republicans to focus voter attention on illegal immigration did not work.

"I did not think that immigration in and of itself would carry the day," Saslaw said. "The results are proving that while immigration is a concern to people -- and it should be -- it is not returning the votes that they thought that it would."

However, in Prince William, Republican Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart succeeded in winning reelection after making illegal immigration a focus of the campaign. He had led the board to impose tough sanctions on illegal immigrants, making national news.

Robert D. Holsworth, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the "decline of the Republican brand" rallied Democratic activists, bringing forward credible Democratic candidates and attracting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic campaigns.

Washington Post

Although Republican, Corey Stewart, poster-boy for the anti-immigrant Right, did manage to retain his position as Chairman of the Prince Williams County Board of Supervisors by running perhaps the most virulent anti-immigrant campaign yet seen, the strategy didn't pay off with the kind of big numbers that should lead Republican strategists to try to replicate his tactics on any national scale.

Stewart's 2% rise in the polls since last year's run can hardly be seen as an overwhelming vindication for a strategy that failed to gain any traction outside the confines of Prince William County, and very well might have caused backlash in some of the state's other key races.

Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman

2006 results

Corey A. Stewart-----44,519----53%
Sharon E. Pandak-----38,710----47%

link

2007 results

Corey A. Stewart-----30,318----55%
Sharon E. Pandak-----24,336----45%

link

If the Republicans were looking at immigrant-bashing as a silver bullet to stem the national tide against them, surely tonight's results in Virginia should give them second thoughts.

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Of Manassas and Guernica, tomorrow's battle in Virginia

On April 26, 1937, twenty-four bombers of the German Luftwaffe "Condor Legion" with the help of a subordinate Italian expeditionary force, dropped forty tons of bombs, on the town of Guernica in the Basque Country of Spain. Up to 1,600 people were killed and three quarters of the city's buildings were reported completely destroyed. The raid, called Operation Rügen, is generally viewed as the Luftwaffe's first test of the tactics of terror-bombing that would become the hallmark of the Nazi blitzkrieg as it swept through Europe two years later.

Just as Franco's Spain was used as a testing ground for the tactics, men and machines that would later wreak havoc on a global scale, tomorrow in Virginia, we will be witness to a test of a new blitzkrieg of sorts. The Republican Party will be testing, on a statewide basis, its latest strategy and weaponry for the coming 2008 election cycle… the immigration wedge.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Here in Virginia, 140 state legislative seats are at stake.

Our airwaves have been dominated in recent days with campaign ads. Interestingly, just about all of them mention immigration, and none of them accuse the opponent of being too harsh….

Tomorrow will be an interesting test case on the power of the immigration issue...

If Republicans exceed expectations - and things have looked pretty gloomy for the state GOP in recent cycles - and the issue of illegal immigration is key, you will hear a lot about that issue from coast to coast next year.

National Review

Back in September, an opinion piece in the Washington post summed up the coming fight:

Jittery Virginia Republicans, whose grip on state politics has been weakening steadily for several years, are facing further setbacks in this fall's elections for the General Assembly, possibly including the end of GOP control of the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade. In their desperation for a vote-getter, they have seized on the whipping boy of illegal immigration, which they blame for ills ranging from the erosion of the commonwealth's values to the difficulty of being admitted to state colleges.

William J. Howell, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates, worried aloud the other day about the presence of so many newcomers in the Old Dominion. Mr. Howell said that the state's newest residents, particularly in Northern Virginia, may not embrace "the shared values we have in Virginia," according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He didn't specify which "shared values" he had in mind, nor did he draw a distinction between legal and illegal newcomers.

A week earlier, he unveiled the GOP's immigrant-bashing agenda for the legislative session that will begin in January….

…snip…

It's an ugly strategy and certainly not one unique to Virginia. It seeks to distract voters from core state issues such as transportation, fiscal prudence and good governance.

Washington Post

Nowhere is the fight uglier than at its epicenter, in Northern Virginia's Prince William County.



This past weekend the Post again looked at what's shaping up to be the 3rd battle of Manassas.

Candidates for the Virginia General Assembly entered the final sprint yesterday toward a hard-fought election Tuesday in which two major forces are likely to determine which party controls the Senate: the resurgence of Democrats in vote-rich Northern Virginia, and the Republican advantage in the emotional debate over illegal immigration.

…Democrats have maintained all year that the Republicans' 23-17 majority in the Senate is in jeopardy. Although Democrats don't expect to take control of the Republican-heavy House of Delegates, they think they can gain as many as six seats.

…But Republicans have benefited in recent weeks from the growing intensity in the immigration debate. They have promised to block illegal immigrants from obtaining more public services and to do more to start deportation proceedings against them, particularly those who have committed crimes.

Which force prevails Tuesday -- the state's Democratic tide or sentiment against illegal immigration -- will set the tone for next year's crucial battle for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican John W. Warner…

…Tuesday also could determine how important Virginia will be in next year's presidential contest. A continuing surge by Democrats could put the state in play in presidential politics for the first time in a generation.

If the election turns on the immigration issue, however, it could put Democrats under pressure in the coming year to appear responsive on that issue without alienating immigrants, who traditionally have made up an important part of the party's base.

Washington Post

"It's a tough issue to solve," said Sen. Charles J. Colgan (D-Manassas), who has become one of the most vulnerable incumbents of the year, in large measure because of the immigration debate

Nowhere has the immigration debate become louder than in suburban Prince William County. Colgan, 81, soft-spoken and well-liked in Richmond,… and such a close friend to Sens. John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland) and H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester) that the two have crossed party lines to endorse him.

Colgan enjoyed such advantages that Democrats never guessed earlier in the year that he would be so vulnerable. The change came after his opponent, Republican Robert S. Fitzsimmonds, 55, began accusing Colgan of not being tough enough against illegal immigration.

…

Similar issues have dominated local races. Corey L. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, has led the charge against elected officials he believes aren't doing enough to crack down on illegal immigration.

Washington Post

Tuesday's election will most likely set the tone for the Republican strategy for the next 12 months. If voices like these win out, who preach a twisted vision of morality and law, we can expect 12 months of continuous hate and fear. One listen to Greg Letiecq of "Help Save Manassas" explain how he's doing God's work and express his views on slavery and other topics should be enough to scare any rational person.



If they fail, and the Republican Juggernaut is stopped dead in its tracks, it will be a victory for reason, compassion, and true American values.

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