October 23, 2011 05:22 PM UTC

Get Your Own House In Order, Ryan Call

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• by: Colorado Pols

Not like we haven’t been saying it for years, but we wanted this report from FOX 31’s Eli Stokols noted for the record–a recognition by Colorado Republicans of a serious problem.

Sort of.

A Wednesday article in the New York Times uses two Colorado Republicans to underscore how tough talk on illegal immigration in GOP presidential primary debates may hurt the party’s chances with Latino voters, a key constituency in 2012 swing states…

The Times story reports the obvious: that the increasingly heated rhetoric on the subject of illegal immigration, an obvious play to the conservative base, is going to hurt the eventual nominee’s chances with the crucial Latino vote come general election time.

And Colorado GOP Chairman Ryan Call is willing to admit that.

“The discussion of creating electrified fences from sea to sea is neither prudent nor helpful,” Call told the Times. “They’re throwing red meat around in an attempt to mollify a particular aspect of the Republican base.” [Pols emphasis]

…Interestingly, the Times article also includes a quote from Colorado state Rep. Robert Ramirez, R-Westminster, who cast a decisive vote earlier this year against a proposal to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in Colorado, effectively killing the bill despite his own stated ambivalence on the issue.

“We can’t pretend the Latino vote doesn’t exist,” Ramirez told the Times. “It’s time we became the party of inclusion.”

We’ll start by saying that Colorado GOP chairman Ryan Call is right. As we have warned for years, the hard-line campaign against illegal immigrants by Republican politicians has short term political benefits, rallying anti-immigrant sentiments in that segment of the conservative base–but long term peril for Republicans as they proceed to alienate the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the United States. We have consistently given this warning, even as Colorado Republicans mimicked Arizona’s reviled anti-immigrant legislation with their own bills here, and Republicans at all levels endorsed the gubernatorial campaign of Tom Tancredo in 2010.

That’s right. You want to be the “party of inclusion?” Great! Doug Lamborn, Mike Coffman, Bob Schaffer, Bob Beauprez, Cheri Gerou, Cindy Acree, Kent Lambert, Marsha Looper, Spencer Swalm, Greg Brophy, Shawn Mitchell, Ted Harvey, Josh Penry…the list goes on and on…that is, Tancredo’s endorsement list…have got some soul-searching to do first.

So while it’s neat that Ryan Call and Rep. Robert “Maybe Next Year” Ramirez feel empowered to complain about Herman Cain’s regrettable “electric fence” comments in the New York Times, we’d note right back–everything they said applies as much right here in Colorado as it does in a national news story, one that Call feels he can discuss without hurting any local feelings. What Call said above about Herman Cain, and what Rep. Ramirez says about “inclusion,” applies at least equally to fellow Colorado Republicans they work with every day.

Isn’t that where the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party should start?