Campaign Action
Another day, another Republican gubernatorial candidate resorting to using bullshit, Willie Horton-style ads to whip up anti-immigrant frenzy and make up for lagging polling numbers. But this time it’s not Corey Stewart clone Ed Gillespie in Virginia, it’s Kim Guadagno in New Jersey:
Guadagno just released a TV ad that accuses [Democratic opponent] Phil Murphy of sympathizing with the gang of notorious murderers who shot down four college students in a Newark schoolyard a decade ago, clipping a video in which Murphy says, "My bias is going to be having their back.” One problem: Murphy was not talking about the murderers.
Guadagno clipped a quote from a town hall where Murphy was referencing not “bad hombres,” but Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants at risk of being swept up by anti-immigrant policies—ones championed by Guadagno—despite having no criminal record. Former Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning for Murphy, called it “gutter politics” and “the return of Willie Horton.”
“What Guadagno did is splice the video in way that is flat-out dishonest,” wrote the Star-Ledger Editorial Board in response, “a cheap attempt to whip up the most ugly and unfounded fears of unauthorized immigrants”:
It is this campaign's Willie Horton ad, and another sign that Guadagno's campaign can't be trusted. She's going entirely Trumpy, using distortion to fan fear of minorities and stir up the white vote -- much like the infamous, race-baiting attack ad from George Bush did in 1988, starring Horton, a black convicted felon.
So-called “sanctuary city” policies don’t stop federal immigration agents from coming in to localities to conduct immigration operations. They do, however, dictate that local resources should not be used to help deport immigrants arrested for minor violations like a broken taillight.
And as the editorial board notes, “sanctuary policies actually make us safer. They mean local police won't arrest crime victims or witnesses simply because of their undocumented status, so people aren't afraid to testify in these cases”:
“Shame on Kim Guadagno for stooping to race baiting and fear-mongering to boost her fading campaign for governor,” New Jersey Working Families Alliance executive director Analilia Mejia said in an emailed statement. “Kim Guadagno’s ‘Sanctuary’ campaign ad traffics in racist tropes instead of facts. She is unfit to lead one of the most diverse states in the nation.”
”Dangerous people must be kept off our streets, irrespective of their legal status,” the editorial board concluded. “Guadagno also owes the public an explanation of how she would do that without pushing victims and witnesses underground. Instead, she is broadcasting a vile and deliberately misleading attack ad, channeling Donald Trump.”