Over 40 percent of California Hispanics voted for Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Senator Tom McClintock to replace the Democrat governor recalled on the same ballot.

When “Arnold” won the office, Hispanic Republicans delighted that an immigrant became governor.

Hispanic support of the Austrian immigrant’s handling of California has plummeted in recent months, however.

Three polls: the Public Policy Institute of California reports the Governor’s Hispanic support has declined from 47 percent in January to only 17 percent in July. A poll by San Jose State (conducted, by the way, by a former high level Democrat) shows that the Governor’ Hispanic support dropped from 36 percent in March to 25 percent in July. The Field Poll reports the Governor’s Hispanic support fell from 56 percent in September of 2004 to 26 percent this June.

Orange County businessman Carlos Olamandi expressed disappointment in the Governor in an Orange County Register interview. He blames two factors in the plunge of Hispanic support: First, he blames the Governor for making statements favorable to the vigilante faction among us who claim to be “Minuteman.” Secondly, he blames the appointments of former Governor Pete Wilson (angel of Proposition 187) staffers that the Governor has surrounded himself with. Hispanic Olamandi served on “Arnold’s” transition team.

Olamandi is a supporter of the Governor. So is this writer. There are problems, however, among the Governor’s outlook, public statements and his dependence on Wilson acolytes. They think 1994’s Proposition 187 was legitimate despite its subsequent constitutional emasculation by the courts.

To their chagrin, only one state judge approved one tiny section of the attempt to place every Hispanic in California under suspicion (a key word in the Proposition) of being an illegal.

It was former Governor Pete Wilson, not by Arnold himself, who disclosed Arnold’s support of Prop. 187. It is possible, of course, that the Governor’s constitutional knowledge is limited because he has no formal education in the Constitution. On the other hand, he might just think stupidly on the subject of illegals. In other words, he may not know what he is talking about.

Maybe that’s the reason he thinks the border “Minutemen” are doing “fantastic.” If he is bright he could figure out that while the Minutemen were prancing in front of television news cameras, thousands of illegals walked across the border. While Minutemen bore us to death on television, illegals keep on coming. “Fantastic” they are not.

Pete Wilson destroyed Hispanic support of the California Republican Party for a decade. Arnold briefly raised it from the dead. He has, however, rejoined the Pete Wilson School of Party Destruction. Without substantially higher Hispanic support than now, neither Arnold nor my Republican Party have any chance of keeping California in Republican hands, even those of immigrant Arnold.

Perhaps he needs to hear the real truth, not the Pete Wilson decade old bromide that illegals are destroying the state. He destroyed the Republican Party in California. Give this writer 30-minutes with Arnold and I’ll straighten him out.

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Contreras’s newest book—THE ILLEGAL ALIEN: A DAGGER INTO THE HEART OF AMERICA published by Floricanto Press is available and reviewed at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com  -- www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and www.floricantopress.co  Contact at: sdraoul@att.net