Guest Column
- Other Issues to Worry About
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- By Linda Chavez
Republicans who vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s elevation to the Supreme Court aren’t likely to pay any electoral price for their opposition. Confirmation votes simply don’t resonate much with the general population, one way or the other.
Republicans should focus instead on immigration issues if they want to attract Hispanic voters.
The only Hispanics (or women, blacks or any other group) for whom a confirmation vote is important are members of the small pool of elites and advocacy organizations from which such nominees generally are picked. Activists from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund might be in a snit about Republican opposition to Judge Sotomayor, but how many of them would be likely to vote Republican anyway?
It’s true, Republicans have lost ground on some of the inroads they’ve made with Hispanic voters, especially over their handling of the immigration issue. But a vote for — or against — Judge Sotomayor won’t make much difference in Hispanic support for the G.O.P.
Republicans have some fence-mending to do, but they’d be better off coming up with a fair and sensible immigration reform package than worrying about the consequences of their votes against the first Hispanic appointee to the Supreme Court. Come November 2010, few Hispanic voters will remember or care.
Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official, is a syndicated columnist and conservative commentator
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