ELECTIONS / 23RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Campaign Fueled by Racial Charges

A campaign strategy by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) to play up the volatile issue of illegal immigration has touched off charges that he is openly appealing to the racial fears of white voters in his congressional reelection bid against Anita Perez Ferguson.

Gallegly, a th0ree-term incumbent involved in a tough reelection effort in the newly drawn 23rd Congressional District, said last week that talk of bigotry in his campaign is nonsense.

“On this issue, I’m not going to make any apologies for putting America first,” he said. “Whether they be brown, black or white, it’s an issue of legal versus illegal.”

But several members of Ventura County’s Latino community see a package of immigration measures introduced by Gallegly and cited often in his campaign literature as a thinly veiled attempt to play on the fears of white voters.

The fact that all of the measures--seven bills and a constitutional amendment--died without a hearing when the House of Representatives adjourned last week has critics saying that the package is a political tool, pure and simple, and was never designed to be viable legislation.

“Every bigot in the county who blames the problems of the country on too much Mexican immigration is latching onto it,” said Jorge Garcia, a Simi Valley resident and dean of the school of humanities at Cal State Northridge.

The issue erupted again on Thursday when a Gallegly fund-raising letter of Sept. 28 surfaced. In that letter, the lawmaker declared that illegal immigrants are responsible for out-of-control “crime in our neighborhoods” and are draining government revenues.

He described Perez Ferguson as the “hand-picked” candidate of extremist groups who “believe our nation’s only immigration policy should be to let in everyone who wants to come to this country and then support them with our hard-earned tax dollars.”

The hard-hitting letter by Gallegly provoked a “We the People” proclamation distributed Friday by the Perez Ferguson campaign organization, signed by more than 100 people.

They branded Gallegly’s mailer as “nothing less than a desperate attempt to pit one person against another for the purpose of prospering politically.”

Referring to Gallegly’s description of Perez Ferguson as an extremist leader of the “pro-illegal alien groups” working against him, Perez Ferguson’s supporters responded:

“We condemn these words for what they are: racially motivated politics.”

A Republican consultant, however, said there is political value in Gallegly’s focus on immigration measures in terms of the issue’s attraction to many of the conservative white voters who make up his political base.

“It is a tremendous strategic tool,” said the consultant, who requested anonymity. “It further drives a wedge between Anita and Elton in the minds of high propensity (frequency) Republican voters, of which there are plenty in this district to reelect him.”

What the consultant described as Gallegly’s “target group” are Anglo voters, age 45 and older, “who are motivated by a reminder of others coming into their neighborhood . . . the huge influx of Latinos out there.”

“These are folks who moved to Ventura County to get away from the inner city and now the inner city is following them out.

“It’s not hate politics. . . . They don’t see them as a brown horde. It’s the fear factor of those who might be causing crime and who are on welfare. His (Anglo) base will know where he stands on a critical issue.

“He has drawn a line in the dirt between him and his opponent.”

For their part, both candidates deny that they are pandering to any ethnic group, much less playing off one bloc against the other.

But one source close to Perez Ferguson’s campaign said the Democratic challenger also has her eye on the big bloc of Anglo voters in the predominantly Republican pockets of eastern Ventura County.

“She knows she’s assured of the Latino vote,” the source said. “So she doesn’t have to focus on that anymore. What she needs is to get that white vote, that Republican vote.”

Coincidental with Gallegly’s recent emphasis on illegal immigrants, Perez Ferguson has downplayed her Spanish surname in recent political commercials. One radio spot refers to her seven times as Anita Ferguson or Ferguson, and only refers to her once as Anita Perez Ferguson.

The decision to downplay Perez Ferguson’s surname in the radio ads is a departure from her campaign strategy during last spring’s primary election when her campaign manager, Sam Rodriguez, emphasized that news media should use “Perez” to show her Latino roots.

The 60-second radio spots, which began late last month, raised a number of eyebrows in the county’s Latino community.

The 43-year-old Perez Ferguson could not be reached for comment on why she was not using her surname in her campaign commercials. But Rodriguez said leaving out “Perez” had nothing to do with any effort to hide the fact that she is a Latina.

“Ferguson sounds better and we wanted to save time,” he said. “We need one name voters can identify with over and over again. Perez Ferguson was just too long.”

Several Latinos, however, said they are offended by the campaign decision to drop her surname.

“To all of a sudden drop ‘Perez’, you’re creating a sentiment out there, you’re saying you’re willing to cut your lineage off for a few thousand votes,” said a well-known Ventura County Latino who requested anonymity.

“It made me wonder if Anita was doing what other Latinos had done in the past--pimping off their own raza (people),” added an angry Carlos Aguilera, an Oxnard activist.

But other Latinos did not denounce Perez Ferguson for what they see as a tactical move.

“You can’t indict Anita for doing this,” said Richard Martinez, executive director of the Texas-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a nonpartisan group. “It’s not hypocritical. She understood some political realities.”

Oxnard attorney Oscar Gonzales, a member of Perez Ferguson’s finance committee, agreed.

“My feelings are not hurt,” he said. “She has to do what it takes to win.

“If that means she has to be race-neutral, if that’s what she’s trying to do at this point in the campaign, that’s fine with me.”

Gallegly and Perez Ferguson are contesting a House seat representing the 23rd Congressional District, which covers Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except most of Thousand Oaks.

Ventura County has had Republican representation in the House for decades. But redistricting took away from Gallegly the densely Republican and predominantly Anglo Thousand Oaks area.

Replacing Thousand Oaks in the redrawn district was Democratic-dominated Oxnard, whose population was about 54% Latino when the 1990 census was taken. This level is now believed to be in the 60% range.

More broadly, about one-third of the 23rd Congressional District is Latino. But the Latino voter-registration level historically has been far under that of the higher-frequency voting Anglo population.

For instance, according to recent figures provided by the Ventura County registrar and the Southwest Voter Education Registration Project, there were 336,094 registered voters countywide at the start of September. But only 36,607 were Latino voters, or about 11% of registered voters--far under the potential numbers of Latinos who could vote in the November election.

A major drive was launched this year to mobilize what Latino leaders call this “sleeping giant” of Latino voters. But it will not be clear until Election Day, Nov. 3, if the effort achieved any success.

Gallegly’s focus on immigration issues during the campaign has helped fuel the voter-registration effort among Latino leaders, who have been particularly critical of a constitutional amendment Gallegly introduced last fall to prohibit the newborn of illegal immigrants from automatically becoming United States citizens.

Immigration experts say it’s doubtful that Gallegly will see any elements in his immigration package signed into law soon.

Interviews with 10 immigration experts--including House and Senate staffers of both parties, specialists at think tanks and government officials--found several reasons why the measures have not received so much as a congressional hearing.

Immigration issues are complex and emotional by nature and touch on fundamental civil liberties, racially charged questions and the very issue of who is an American.

Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), a key figure on immigration matters and no stranger to controversy, has said: “This issue is equal parts emotion, racism, guilt and fear.”

Just how difficult it is to move immigration legislation can be gleaned from the fact that 93 immigration bills were referred to the House Judiciary Committee in the just-concluded congressional session; only a handful received a hearing, and even fewer passed, a committee aide said.

Making it more difficult for Gallegly is that he does not sit on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction for immigration legislation.

“It’s symbolic politics in California right now, responding to a state that’s in a depression and that remains the destination of one-third of immigrants that come to the United States,” said Michael Fix, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

“The notion of amending the Constitution is pie in the sky, but it’s an expression of political discontent.”

Doris Meissner, a senior associate and immigration and refugee specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, also expressed skepticism over Gallegly’s agenda in introducing the measures.

“For legislation like this to move there would have to be a fairly strong basis of support, at least within the immigration committees, and I would be surprised that these things would get that kind of support,” she said. “The issues are extremely emotional and fractious.”

Gallegly’s new proposal last month for annual inspections of all federally funded housing projects to determine if illegal immigrants live in them or if illegal activity is occurring raised immediate concerns with the top lawyer in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“There would be tremendous controversy involving sweeps of housing projects,” HUD general counsel Frank Keating said.

But even if Gallegly’s measures appear dead in the water, there is political mileage to be gained from them, suggested the Republican consultant who requested anonymity. At the least, the consultant said, Gallegly’s “immigration message has hit hot buttons out there.”

Some Perez Ferguson supporters said they find it difficult to believe that Gallegly would dare to engender wrath among Latinos in what is arguably his toughest election race. And Gallegly himself argued that the illegal immigration issue is a risky one for him.

“People say anyone would be crazy to take on an issue like this with a 34% Latino district,” he said. “It’s a hot potato.”

But the group suffering the most from the flood of illegal immigrants entering the country is made up of “people who have fallen on hard times who have a legal right to housing, jobs and public health care,” Gallegly said.

He plans to continue to fight for his immigration package on their behalf, he said.

“It’s the right thing. . . . It’s certainly one of my very important issues.”

Soble reported from Ventura and Miller from Washington.