Republican candidate for governor Len Munsil does not support mass deportation of illegal immigrants, he said in a radio interview.
“What I’ve said from the beginning is we’ve got to start at the source; we’ve got to secure the border,” he said Oct. 4 on KJZZ Radio. “It’s impractical to think we could round up a lot of folks and send them back.”
Governor Napolitano’s re-election campaign urged Mr. Munsil to distance himself from Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18, who has called for mass deportation of illegal immigrants under a program like “Operation Wetback,” a 1953 federal plan that removed 1.3 million illegals in less than a year.
Noah Kroloff, Ms. Napolitano’s campaign manager, said Mr. Pearce has been described as Mr. Munsil’s top policy adviser on immigration.
“Using a racially demeaning term to describe people is repugnant,” Mr. Kroloff said. “It’s equally appalling to see a candidate who is apparently oblivious to the hurt that term causes. Len Munsil needs to disavow Russell Pearce.”
Mr. Munsil was not asked in the radio interview if he disavows Mr. Pearce, but the candidate said he is not racially insensitive.
“I’m the Republican candidate who stood up early on in the primary and said if the battle to win the nomination is to see who can have the most outrageous rhetoric against the Hispanic community, you count me out,” he said. “I believe strongly in the dignity of all people.”
Mr. Munsil said the values of the Hispanic community line up with the Republican Party.
He has proposed creation of a state-supported Arizona Border Patrol as part of the Department of Public Safety and deployment of Arizona National Guard troops to the Mexican border.
A guest worker program, Mr. Munsil said, is a matter for Congress to take up, not a governor.
Mr. Kroloff called Mr. Munsil’s immigration plan “flimsy” and said the Republican has no idea how much a state border patrol would cost.
Ms. Napolitano said Oct. 4 that she and top officials from New Mexico, California and Texas have convinced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to revise its policies for Operation Stonegarden, which reimburses local law enforcement agencies for increasing patrols along the border. The revised guidelines allow reimbursement for a wider range of border security projects, including ground radar and other detection devices and radio equipment.
Mr. Munsil won last month’s Republican primary with 50.6 percent of the vote, more than 10 points ahead of Don Goldwater, who made tough immigration talk his campaign mantra.
9-11 memorial
On another hotly debated topic, Mr. Munsil tagged as “urban legend” statements that he would order the 9-11 memorial in Wesley Bolin Plaza torn down as his first action as governor. He did not say, however, whether he thinks the controversial structure should be taken down — a memorial, he added, that does not honor the memories of 9-11 victims.
“I haven’t said anything about my first act as governor,” he said. “I said there are elements of the memorial that are fine.”
At a press conference at the memorial, Mr. Munsil said he would have the memorial taken down if he were elected.
Mr. Munsil and other Republicans have come down hard on Ms. Napolitano and the memorial commission for anti-war wording and statements unrelated to 9-11. The commission has agreed to review the memorial after the November election.
“There’s a difference in the way I view the world — the nature of the threat we face in the war on terror — versus our current governor,” he said.
Mr. Munsil said Ms. Napolitano has bought in to some of the “whacky, Michael Moore conspiracy theories” about the terrorist attack. “The people who politicize this monument are the people who thought it was OK to attack the United States of America…” he said on KJZZ. “This commission has created something that would deeply wounds and hurt the families of 9-11 victims. That’s not OK.”
Mr. Munsil says most residents like their legislators, based on the rate of re-election of incumbents.
“By and large you have the mainstream media that beats up on the Legislature over and over again for one thing or another,” he said. “I think that affects people’s overall judgment of the legislative outlook.”
The conflicts between Ms. Napolitano and the Republican dominated Legislature are not so much over ideology, Mr. Munsil said, but a lack of trust of the governor over what the GOP said were broken promises on the 2005 budget.
The Munsil campaign has been issuing daily press releases criticizing Ms. Napolitano for not responding to a request she change the Oct. 12 date of a debate she and Libertarian candidate Barry Hess have agreed to. The debate is scheduled for the birthday of one of Munsil’s children.
Mr. Munsil is known for establishing the conservative lobbying organization, Center for Arizona Policy, but had had little name recognition outside conservative circles at the Capitol.
In Phoenix on Oct. 4 for a Republican fundraiser and immigration bill signing, President Bush had some kind words for the gubernatorial candidate — except he called him “Lee Munsil.”
Ms. Napolitano has consistently Mr. Munsil led by double-digit margins in the polls.