Minnick blisters Labrador in attack ad

BOISE – Idaho 1st District Rep. Walt Minnick has gone negative, airing a new TV commercial across the district attacking GOP challenger Raul Labrador for his work as an immigration lawyer and suggesting it means he profits from illegal immigration.

Labrador called the ad “disgusting,” “disgraceful” and “shameful,” and said it “succeeds in only twisting and editing my words into quotes that are blatantly untrue.”

Minnick’s campaign defended the ad, with campaign manager John Foster saying, “Raul’s clients may deserve fair representation, but so do the people of Idaho. These are very tough times, and people deserve to know the truth about their candidates.”

The ad suggests that “illegal immigration may be good for Raul Labrador” because of his line of work, and says, “That sure makes him wrong for Idaho.” It includes an audio clip of Labrador saying, “Now I like it, because I make a good living because of it.”

Both campaigns acknowledge the comment came at the end of a statement in which Labrador decried the nation’s current immigration system as “broken.”

While speaking to the Treasure Valley Pachyderms, a Republican group, in March, Labrador said, “Our system is broken and this is where I work with the system all the time. I’m trying to get people to go through the legal immigration system. They have to pay me thousands of dollars just to bring somebody to the United States. That’s ridiculous. Now I like it, because I make a good living because of it,” a comment that was followed by a laugh.

Illegal immigration is a hot-button issue in Idaho. When Labrador first announced his campaign for Congress in December 2009, Hayden Lake Sen. Mike Jorgenson, a fellow Republican, called on him to quit the race because he “is an immigration attorney and admits to defending illegal immigrants in his law practice.” Jorgenson, who has sponsored several anti-immigration bills in the Legislature, was defeated in the May GOP primary; on Friday he criticized Minnick’s ad as unfair and said he was “appalled.”

Phil Hardy, Labrador’s spokesman, said he thought the audio clip of Labrador was “so obviously taken out of context,” and said, “Raul Labrador has very limited means to combat this sort of Orwellian propaganda.”

Labrador, who has badly lagged Minnick in fundraising, has aired no television ads so far in the campaign.

Jim Weatherby, political scientist emeritus at Boise State University, said it’s surprising to see an incumbent who’s ahead in the polls come out with a negative ad at this stage in the campaign. “That’s not typical, and may tell you that Minnick is more concerned about Labrador than a front-runner might ordinarily be,” Weatherby said.

“But it also tells you in this political environment, I think candidates are learning from Lisa Murkowski and others: Take nothing for granted. Murkowski did not engage in any negative campaigning with her opponent. She paid a huge price.”

Murkowski is the Alaska senator who was defeated by tea party favorite Joe Miller in the GOP primary.