November 15, 2006 in Nation/World

Choice to head GOP fans immigration debate

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Associated Press photo

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fl., left, gesturing outside the White House Tuesday, is President Bush’s choice to succeed Ken Mehlman, right, as general chairman of the Republican National Committee.
(Full-size photo)

WASHINGTON – President Bush’s decision to back Cuban-born Sen. Mel Martinez to help lead the Republican Party, a move intended to appeal to Hispanic voters who abandoned the GOP in the midterm elections, drew sharp criticism on Tuesday from many of the party’s core of conservatives, who disdain Martinez’s support for liberalized immigration laws.

White House strategists said the decision to back Martinez marked an acknowledgment that the party lost ground in last week’s midterm elections, with the GOP share of the Hispanic vote dropping to 30 percent from more than 40 percent in 2004.

Martinez, of Florida, supported legislation to create a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for many people already in the country illegally. That plan, derided as an “amnesty” by its critics, also was favored by Bush and by many Hispanics. But it created a firestorm of opposition this year among conservative Republicans and much of the House Republican leadership. Criticism of Martinez came Tuesday from several conservatives, including Curly Haugland, a Republican National Committee member from North Dakota, who said the party was far too focused on courting minorities.

“We’re losing our base in droves, because they don’t get campaigned to,” he said, referring to GOP-leaning conservatives.

Randy Pullen, a Republican National Committee member from Arizona and activist against illegal immigration, likened the Martinez selection to the episode in which Bush named his longtime friend and legal counsel to the Supreme Court – only to reverse himself after a furious conservative backlash.

“I’m afraid this is another Harriet Miers moment,” said Pullen.

Another leading critic of Bush on immigration, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, offered only tepid support for Martinez.

Tancredo called Martinez a “competent spokesman for our party” but added that if he “rejects the will of rank-and-file Republicans and uses the position to advocate for things like the president’s amnesty proposal, then I believe the party could be headed for another shellacking at the polls in 2008.”

Members of the Republican National Committee will meet in January to replace outgoing chairman Ken Mehlman, who will leave after a two-year term in which he saw an aggressive outreach effort to minorities hampered by the immigration debate and other issues.

Despite the unhappiness among some members over the selection of Martinez, he is expected to win election as general chairman, making him the party’s most visible spokesman in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election. The GOP’s general counsel, Mike Duncan, is expected to become chairman and run day-to-day operations at the party’s Washington headquarters.

Bush on Tuesday introduced Martinez in a brief Oval Office ceremony as his recommended pick for the party leadership.

The selection, which became public Monday, made clear that Bush and chief political strategist Karl Rove believe the party’s future depends on striking a moderate image on immigration. It also suggested that the White House saw the party’s support for get-tough legislation as a failure in the midterm elections.

Conservative lawmakers not only stopped Bush’s guest worker plan in Congress this year, but they passed a new law calling for a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border. Bush signed the legislation in the waning days of the campaign in hopes of galvanizing conservative voters.

But the move failed to save several Republican candidates who lost their elections after campaigning on an illegal-immigration crackdown. And exit polls suggested that many Hispanics abandoned the GOP as a reaction to rhetoric that they viewed as negative toward all immigrants, legal and illegal.

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