I'm afraid it is going to take a heck of a lot more than the Herndon election to strike fear into any members of Congress.
Plus, in my view, the open borders Republicans in general are hard core ideologues that strongly believe in their position and aren't liable to switch, even if faced with electoral defeat.
I think a few of the Democrats in the Senate who have voted open borders up to now might reconsider, however.
(there appear to already be possibly up to 6 Dems in the Senate that aren't sold on the open borders agenda based on the cloture vote on Hagel Martinez).
And in the House, again I think it is really mostly Democrat that are the best prospects for winning over to the pro-borders side.
Most of the House Republicans are pro-borders. Some strongly believe in it, others align themselves on that side perhaps more because they don't want to incur the wrath of their constituents.
There are maybe 30-35 House Democrats that seem to be pretty much on the pro-borders side. Most are conservative Dems.
I think the best prospect to get more pro-borders people in Congress lies with moderate Democrats from middle American states, especially Midwest & rust belt.
Unfortunately I think there are probably a good 55-60 of the Senators who are flat out open borders ideologues. So to get the Senate on a constructive path it is going to take several election cycles.
However, open borders Senators, especially Republicans, from small population red states would seem to be in big trouble next time they come up for re-election. Brownback, Hagel, Martinez, those sorts of guys.
I saw a poll earlier today showing that Republican members of Congress indicated that immigration is the #1 issue with their constituents, rating higher than the war on Iraq or gas prices.
That public concern is not going away because the illegal immigration crisis just gets worse so long as Bush leaves the border wide open.
Even if amnesty passed, it would mean the illegal immigration problem would get even worse, and then the open borders politicians would really be in trouble.
Unfortunately, that would mean once we got a pro-borders government in Washington they would have a far bigger mess to clean up.
Excellent observation,I agree with your comments.