Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) debated his challenger, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, for the first and only time on Wednesday, the culmination of a Congressional campaign that has become one of the tightest in the country. (Watch highlights here.)
Barletta spent much of the time attacking Kanjorski, “his friends in Congress” and “politicians in Washington.” Kanjorski, who [...]

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Immigration is a fraught issue, and in recent years dozens of groups have sprung up to advocate for one position or the other, to lobby Congress, to fund candidates, or to fight it out in the courts. With all the vague or patriotic-sounding names, it can get pretty confusing. You might see spokespeople from these [...]

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Abandoned coal breakers are common features of Northeast Pennsylvania’s broken landscape. (Photo by Amy Crawford)
While national politicians are treating immigration as a non-issue, there are still places where it has the power to rile up a crowd. It makes sense in Arizona—that state borders Mexico—but immigration is also surprisingly hot in Pennsylvania.
News 21 has covered [...]

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In 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, a measure designed to prevent alleged voter fraud by illegal immigrants. Instead, as News 21 documented, Prop 200 has disenfranchised thousands of legitimate voters. In 2006, voters overwhelmingly approved four initiatives against illegal immigrants, including measures denying them bail and punitive damages in civil count cases. Now, the [...]

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Sen. John McCain is well-known for his progressive position on immigration reform—a position that has put him at odds with many in his home state. Now, a recent Time magazine piece looks at how the “conservative” revolt against the Republican presidential candidate in Arizona (and to a lesser extent nationwide) reveals the state GOP’s [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDMKYlKMaLA

John McCain has been trumpeting his record on immigration reform in Spanish language ads, hoping to gain Latino votes by distancing himself from his party’s right wing. Now, in perhaps his greatest show of support for a liberal immigration agenda, McCain pointedly ignored one of the country’s most high-profile immigration hardliners and one of the [...]

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In St. Paul this week, there was little talk about immigration among the Republicans gathered for their convention. Such was the case in Denver last week, at the Democratic Convention. But immigration is an issue in many states, an it will appear in the form of several ballot initiatives this November.

In Oregon, an initiative would [...]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXZoPN-2u7k

Voice of the People USA co-founder Daniel Smeriglio speaks at an anti-illegal immigration rally in Shenandoah, Pa.
Pennsylvania state police had to stand between anti-illegal immigration activists and a group of pro-immigration protesters carrying a Mexican flag at a rally in Shenandoah, Pa. on Saturday. Shenandoah, a town of about 5,000 in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region, became [...]

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The Republican National Convention is taking place in St. Paul, Minn., this week, and the party has released the official Republican platform (PDF). Though party platforms don’t usually amount to much in the way of legislation, they do indicate where the majority of the party stands on issues. This year’s platform committee struggled to reach [...]

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On Thursday, a federal judge overturned a Dallas suburb’s anti-illegal immigration ordinance (Word doc), ruling that Farmers Branch, Tex., could not require landlords to verify tenants’ immigration status. The ordinance, passed in 2006, was similar to one passed by Hazleton, Pa. in 2006 and overturned the following year. Hazleton is still appealing that decision.
But Farmers [...]

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