04/12/2014
Tim Donnelly, the immigration patriot California assembleyman who is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has succeeded in rattling the political class enough for the Los Angeles Times to run a point-and-splutter attack on him quoting a 2006 speech he gave as a leader of the Minutemen border-patrol group:
Comparing illegal immigration to a war that threatened the United States' future, GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly once exhorted citizens to rise and join his fight to stop people from crossing the border, according to audio of a speech he gave in 2006.
"I am a descendant of Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo," Donnelly, then a leader in the Minuteman border-patrol group, said at a rally in Temecula that year. "It is rumored that he took a dozen Mexican soldiers to their deaths before they finally killed him. How many of you will rise up and take his place on that wall?"
In 2006 speech, Tim Donnelly compared illegal immigration to war, by Seema Mehta, April 7, 2013.
Donnelly has been oddly quiet about immigration in this campaign, but to his great credit he did not back down:
Donnelly said in an interview Monday that he stood by his remarks.
"Heck, I made the speech. Yeah, absolutely."
"I was trying to recruit people to help me stand on the border as part of the Minuteman" organization, he said. "I was not asking them to take Jim Bowie’s place in anything but a historical context…"
In a striking demonstration of the stupidly and cowardice that have lost them lost California, the state GOP leadership ran away from Donnelly:
Republican legislative leaders and a rival GOP gubernatorial candidate Tuesday slammed newly discovered remarks by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly comparing illegal immigration to war and urging citizens to rise up and join him in patrolling the border.
“Mr. Donnelly’s opinions are his and his alone and are not representative of the Republicans" in the state Capitol, said Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway of Tulare.
The Republican leader in the Senate, Bob Huff of Diamond Bar, said he was not surprised by what Donnelly said in a 2006 speech, noting that the San Bernardino County lawmaker was the sole member of the Legislature to vote against a bipartisan resolution urging Congress to pass immigration reform. [VDARE.com note: a.k.a. Amnesty/ Immigration Surge].
“While his comments … are frustrating, I am not surprised they came from him. I find his remarks to be offensive and hurtful,” Huff said. “His vision does not reflect the greatness of our state.”
GOP lawmakers, Neel Kashkari slam Donnelly immigration remarks, By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2014. Links in original except where noted. Emphasis added.
Remember, these GOPers are saying Donnelly shouldn’t criticize illegal immigration. How much more wimpish can they get?
Note also that none of these reports note that Donnelly’s wife is a Venezuelan immigrant.
Significantly, despite chronic underfunding, Donnelly is far ahead of his Republican rivals:
Although some California Republican leaders had seen the moderate, Neel Kashkari, as the GOP’s candidate of the future in a deep blue state, Tea Party favorite Tim Donnelly is pummeling him, according to a surprising new Field Poll.
Thirty-four percent of likely Republican voters would pick Donnelly, R-Hesperia, while only 3 percent would vote for Kashkari.
How far right Republican Tim Donnelly became the GOP favorite in California’s governor race, By Jessica Calefati, Los Angeles Daily News, April 9, 2014.
The top two finishers in the June 3 monster primary advance to the general election in November. That means Tim Donnelly could be the GOP standard-bearer against the Gov. Jerry Brown. The GOP Establishment will hate it — they prefer controllable candidates like Meg Whitman, who said nothing and spent $142 million of her own money to lose to Brown in 2010.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.