LAT: O.C. Race a Border Skirmish

O.C. Race a Border Skirmish

Thanks to activist Jim Gilchrist, immigration is the hot issue in a House election, dividing the right and maybe setting the tone for other states.
By Jean O. Pasco and Dan Weikel
Times Staff Writers

December 4, 2005

Tuesday's special election to fill Rep. Christopher Cox's seat might have been a bland affair with the Republican primary winner preordained — year after year, congressional elections in coastal Orange County usually are.

This year, the politics of immigration have changed that.

Jim Gilchrist, cofounder of the border security group called the Minuteman Project and candidate of the American Independent Party, has run an energetic and increasingly wellfunded campaign against state Sen. John Campbell (R-Irvine). He has forced the lawmaker to renounce votes allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities and to use Mexican identification cards for official purposes. And he has turned the race into a virtual referendum on immigration policy.

Even if Campbell wins the 48th Congressional District seat Tuesday — and most political insiders think he will — the race underscores the wedge that immigration has driven into conservative ranks across the country.

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Gilchrist's campaign has been helped by some Republican Party activists and fueled by a backlash against President Bush's guest-worker proposal. Many opponents, including Gilchrist, characterize the plan as a backdoor amnesty for illegal immigrants. Confounding the experts, the retired accountant from Aliso Viejo has attracted national media attention and almost $500,000 in contributions — about half the amount Campbell has raised.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-coxseat4dec04,1,4962649.story