As immigration fight heats up, Brewer and Obama win; we lose

On the eve of the Fourth of July, as here in Arizona we prepare to both celebrate this country's birthday and fend off its attack, it seems a good time to ponder the cage fight now under way in the land of the red, white and black-and-blue.

On one side stands Gov. Jan Brewer, who this week unleashed an ad that went national - as everything she does these days is apt to do. There she was, standing in front of one of those warning signs posted in the desert, turf now essentially ceded to drug and human smugglers.

"Washington is broken, Mr. President!" a visibly angry Brewer says. "Do your job. Secure our borders."

On the other stands President Barack Obama, who has been forced to take on the issue of illegal immigration given Senate Bill 1070. On Thursday, he called on Congress to fix America's "broken and dangerous" immigration system and then announced that it won't happen because of Republicans.

"I'm ready to move forward," Obama said. "The majority of Democrats are ready to move forward. And I believe the majority of Americans are ready to move forward."

So who wins?

Brewer does. Thanks to illegal immigrants, she's a rock star to the right and a regular now on the national talk-show circuit. On Monday, she even made an endorsement in the Georgia gubernatorial race, where a Republican candidate called her "an inspiration to conservatives." Polls that had her trailing Democrat Terry Goddard just three months ago had her 18 points ahead this week.

And Obama does. Latino leaders have been grinding their teeth for a while now, ever since Obama punted on his promise to tackle immigration reform during his first year in office. This week, he was able to both issue the call for a bipartisan approach and bash Republicans.

So who loses?

Oh, that's easy. The rest of us. Because the border remains a sieve and 11 million people remain in the shadows.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer already competetive with Obama

Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters say their views on illegal immigration are closer to those of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer than to the views of President Obama. The two finally met last Friday at the White House to discuss Arizona’s tough new immigration law which the president opposes.

A new Rasmussen Reports nationwide telephone survey finds that only 34% say their views on illegal immigration are closer to the president’s. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of the Political Class say their views are closer to Obama’s, while 72% of Mainstream voters say they think more like Brewer.

Given a 2012 election contest for president between Obama as the Democratic candidate and Brewer as the Republican, 44% of all voters support the incumbent, while 39% prefer the governor. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate, while eight percent (8%) more are undecided.

But since 54% of voters don’t know enough about Brewer to venture any kind of opinion of her, this finding is more of a reflection on the president than any possible match-up with Brewer.

Arizona governor rides popularity of tough new immigration law

Only nine months ago, politically speaking, Jan Brewer had flatlined; the Arizona governor's approval rating was at 22 percent. And as recently as three months ago, a Rasmussen poll of likely voters showed her trailing her likely opponent, state Attorney General Terry Goddard, by nearly 10 points in the runup to November's gubernatorial election.
But voters in the Grand Canyon State have been singing a different tune since April, when Brewer signed SB1070 -- the state immigration law that has become the focus of a national controversy.

Since then, Brewer's approval ratings have skyrocketed, catapulting her to the top of the polls in the gubernatorial race and launching what may be the biggest political comeback of the year in the U.S.

Just one month after signing the law, Brewer had taken a 13-point lead over Goddard, with 52 percent of likely voters backing her candidacy, according to Rasmussen Reports.

It's a remarkable turnaround for Brewer, who assumed office last year when Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned to become President Obama's secretary of homeland security. Brewer has pulled far ahead in Arizona's Aug. 24 Republican primary race, and she has emerged virtually overnight as a national figure in the debate over border security and illegal immigration.

Matt Roberts, communications director at Arizona Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix, says Brewer's comeback is all the more impressive considering how far behind she was when she took office.

"Our former governor really left our current governor in a bad spot," Roberts said. "The voters hold elected officials accountable, and maybe her polling figures that have gone up are due to the fact that things are going better."

In a second legislative victory last month, Brewer rallied voters to pass a temporary sales-tax increase to help combat the state's budget crisis. She also delighted conservatives earlier this spring when she circumvented Goddard's office in filing a lawsuit that challenges the president's health care law.

But the signature issue in Brewer's surge is Arizona's immigration law, which makes it illegal to be an undocumented immigrant in the state and empowers law enforcement officials to question people they suspect are illegal immigrants about their status. Seventy-one percent of voters in the state support the law, and 63 percent say immigration is "very important" in determining how they will vote. Goddard has said he opposes the law, and Brewer has now hired outside counsel to defend her and the state against impending lawsuits.