Ramesh Ponnuru says that the restrictionist
campaign to defeat Chris Cannon worked this time because "the
restrictionist winner did not run as a single-issue candidate."
That's certainly part of it -- a single-issue candidate can make a
splash running on border security or immigration policy more
generally, but even voters who care deeply about immigration want a
congressman who seems interested in other things as well. A
monomaniacal focus on immigration isn't usually an election winner.
But I'd also point to the professionalism of the candidate: a lot
of single-issue candidates tend to be objectively bad candidates in
other respects, as fanaticism isn't an appealing trait. Tom
Tancredo's immigration positions have more support than his
amateurishly run presidential campaign. Chaffetz won in no small
part because he was a serious candidate who ran a competent
campaign that paid the right amount of attention to the incumbent's
unpopular immigration record.
topics:
Immigration
