BURLINGAME, Calif. — A growing dispute among California Republicans over illegal immigration threatens to undercut the party's struggle to recover from the devastating Latino backlash against its support for Proposition 187, the landmark 1994 ballot measure.
The March 2 Republican primary has heightened tensions within the party as candidates up and down the ballot sharpen their rhetoric.
A conservative faction is in open revolt against steps that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush have taken on illegal immigration, moves widely seen as overtures to Latino voters. Schwarzenegger has signaled that he would sign a bill granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and Bush has proposed legal status for millions of undocumented workers.
Led by U.S. Senate hopeful Howard Kaloogian, the conservative candidates see their harder line on illegal immigration as a potent appeal to voters in the primary. "What the president's proposal does is reach for paper towels while the flood into our country continues," he said.
The rift comes after Republicans managed to squelch their perennial ideological warfare and unite behind the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in October, with most rallying behind the election's winner, Schwarzenegger.
The current split has alarmed party strategists who say the GOP must make inroads with the state's rapidly growing Latino population to overcome the Democrats' dominance in California.
Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant who specializes in campaign appeals to Latinos, said candidates stressing tough stands on immigration risked reviving a "mean-spirited" image that had harmed the party for years -- even if the GOP stand was in line with that of most voters.
That was the case with Proposition 187, which would have denied education and most other public services to illegal immigrants had it not been struck down in court.
"It certainly doesn't help with Hispanics," Madrid said. "There's a very serious danger of overplaying our hand on these issues."
Among the most combative Republicans on immigration this season is congressional candidate Rico Oller, a state senator from the Sacramento area.
A centerpiece of his campaign is a pledge to fight for a federal law barring all states from allowing illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses.
"Rico Oller understands how terrorists can use a driver's license to infiltrate our state," an Oller television ad says.
