Yes, he had been developing the immigration theme publicly for that long. I think he started in August 1993 with a test market effort in Fresno, California, his usual test market locale. I remember it well because I was writing columns at the time about Wilson's hypocrisy on the illegal immigration issue -- he had sponsored legislation allowing more foreign nationals into the country as ag guest workers, didn't favor a crackdown on employers, etc.
This happened after they tried a test market positive campaign in Fresno and Eureka -- Wilson's secondary test market locale throughout his career -- and it bombed. People did not buy that things were going better or that he was responsible. I just talked about that experience earlier this morning with one of Wilson's former top people. Why? Because Arnold is about to unveil a TV ad about how things are better under his governorship ...
Second, thanks for the details. First hand accounts are appreciated.
I suspect we are widely separated on certain aspects of this issue but we do have a common ground on two themes:
1) I'd like to see an informed discussion about this. I don't see it.
2) The left and the right are not as widely separated on a solution, as the polarized, vocal minorities on each extreme would lead a prudent man to believe.
Wilson's long history of marching hither and yawn, ideologically, is the best evidence I have that political pragmatism, not a steady, principled drum beat, was the guiding factor in his adoption of the foundling.
One area of disagreement in your recent piece was: (which by that point she was probably going to lose anyway). I'm not so sure if 187 were removed from that equation.
Brown was a good counter balance to Wilson's earned image as a jerk on the public level. Wilson's pragmatic style and his base comments had alienated many hard working troops in the trenches of the CRP and had he not jumped on the 187 band wagon, making little effort to control the inevitable descent into a cultural war, he may have fared much more poorly that November.