Posted on 05/03/2006 9:13:21 AM PDT by freespirited
Herndon voters yesterday unseated the mayor and two Town Council members who supported a bitterly debated day-labor center for immigrant workers in a contest that emerged as a mini-referendum on the turbulent national issue of illegal immigration.
Residents replaced the incumbents with challengers who immediately called for significant changes at the center. Some want to bar public funds from being spent on the facility or restrict it to workers living in the country legally. Others want it moved to an industrial site away from the residential neighborhood where it is located.
The labor center forced the western Fairfax County town into the national spotlight last summer as the immigration debate grew deeply contentious. Even though fewer than 3,000 people voted yesterday, advocates on both sides of the issue looked at the Herndon election as a test of public sentiment...
The council voted 5 to 2 last August to establish the center, but yesterday's vote created an apparent 6 to 1 majority in opposition. Steve J. DeBenedittis, 38, a health club operator and political newcomer, defeated Mayor Michael L. O'Reilly with 52 percent of the vote. Council members Carol A. Bruce and Steven D. Mitchell, who voted for the center, also were turned out of office. Jorge Rochac, a Salvadoran businessman who supported the center and was seeking to become the town's first Hispanic council member, also was defeated.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
LOL, I will when I get home... don't want to engage in bat-baiting while I'm at work. But she responded to both of you, in typical "kumbayah" fashion... her responses are equally as ignorant as her main post.
An immigrant (i.e. illegal alien) center in Herndon? Are they nuts? While they're at it, why not open up centers in East Hampton and Beverly Hills?
What an idiot this Rebecca Hartong is...
Check out her responses to some of the comments, unbelievable.
But we just had an amnesty for illegal aliens in 1986.
And illegal immigration is down 24% since President Bush took office.
When did all this happen???
My opinion is based on the recent media flap surrounding immigration. The left could've made this an issue in the 2004 Presidential campaign and there wasn't a peep.
The media and the Dems were silent on the immigration issue until just recently when they decided it could be a campaign issue for them.
It sounds like you two are going along for the ride.
I'd rather see The Republicans get off their lazy butts and do something, but remember that this issue is less than a year and a half old for anybody outside California, New Mexico or Arizona.
The only thing Congress can do fast is raise taxes. And to do that, it needs to be full of Dems.
"It sounds like you two are going along for the ride."
It's been a growing issue for many for quite a while. Just didn't hit the national stage until recently.
Who says I'm going along for the ride?
Just reporting the facts as I see them. People around here, many that make their living doing "jobs Americans won't do",
are plenty pissed off.
I say again: The GOP ignores their base on this issue at their peril.
So you voted for John Kerry to fix your illegal immigrant problem?
No, voted for George Bush, who said he would protect the border, was betrayed by Quislings Senor Jorge and your RINO buds.
I'll bet you're right. And when pols try to please both sides they make everyone mad. The republicans better wise up and fall in with Cornyn, Kyl, J.D. Hayworth, et. al. if they want to maintain their majority.
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