Actually, Steele’s few statements about immigration look pretty good. It’s his love for affirmative action that worries me, and he doesn’t like the death penalty, plus playing the race card at the convention.
“I support the current system and improvements to the current system, keeping in mind that while we have done very well in affirmative action at our universities across this country, I look at our boardrooms across the country, I look at NBC, CNBC, Fox, all these stations, all the corporate, corporate companies-and I don’t see affirmative action necessarily being practiced there when I look at the management, when I look at the leadership, when I look at those who have a decision-making role.
Source: 2006 Maryland Senate debate on Meet the Press Oct 29, 2006
Affirmative action programs still necessary to close divides
Q: Are federal affirmative action programs necessary and effective?
A: Studies show enormous disparities still exist in education, healthcare, employment and economic opportunities along racial lines in the United States. I believe programs are still necessary to help close these divides. I support giving people opportunities. Programs must be fair to all Marylanders - of every color - and they should focus on economic empowerment.
Source: Responses to Baltimore Sun Survey Aug 7, 2006
We’re still discovering affirmative action in corporations
Q: Do you think the time for affirmative action is past?
A: Absolutely not. We’re just beginning to rediscover what we should be doing with affirmative action. Don’t look at our universities. We got that. Let’s look at our boardrooms, let’s look at the management structure.
Source: Len Lazarick, The Examiner, “Power of the individual” Apr 28, 2006
Led commitment to $70M in grants to minority-owned business
As Lieutenant Governor, Steele chaired a 17-member task force devoted to reforming Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), which works to provide more opportunities for minority-owned small businesses and further spur job growth and economic vitality. Steele led the way in committing almost $70 million in grants and loan guarantees to strengthen and encourage Maryland’s small and minority-owned businesses.
Source: Press Release, “Black-Owned Business Growth” Apr 18, 2006
Personally opposed to the death penalty. (Mar 2006)
Opposes amnesty for undocumented workers
Steele opposes amnesty for undocumented workers because he said the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 encouraged more than 12 million undocumented immigrants to flood the United States over the past 20 years.
The act legalized undocumented workers who could prove they entered the United States before 1982 and lived here continuously since then. The Immigration and Naturalization Service reported more than 3 million of an estimated 4 million eligible undocumented workers applied for residency under the act, which eventually allowed them to gain U.S. citizenship.
Steele said Congress’ priority should be border control before it should tackle the problem of undocumented immigrants already in the country. “If we’re out on the Chesapeake Bay and we spring a leak, what are we going to do, bail water or stop the leak?” he said. “When you stop the leak you have the peace of mind to deal with the water that has accumulated in the boat.”
Source: Clifford Cumber inteview in Frederick News-Post Aug 8, 2006
Secure our borders immediately; meaningful reform later
Q: Discuss your views on immigration reform, particularly with regard to undocumented aliens already in this country.
A: Congress’s unique inability to multi-task highlights our nation’s need for common- sense immigration reform. Until we see Congress take some real and immediate steps to secure our borders, we can hardly expect Americans to seriously consider proposals for dealing with those illegal immigrants already in our county and those employers who fail to adequately report them. Nearly 1.2 million people were arrested trying to illegally enter the U.S. through the Mexican border last year alone, and an estimated 500,000 evaded capture. This is unacceptable. When a patient has a serious laceration, the doctor’s first priority is to stop the bleeding, and then they can decide if simple stitches or surgery is needed to fix the problem for the long term. First thing’s first: secure our borders and then we can deal with meaningful immigration reform.
Source: Responses to Baltimore Sun Survey Aug 7, 2006
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Michael_Steele.htm
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/19/steele-chastises-gop-for-slighting-youth-minoritie/
Sept. 2008
“The problem is that within the operations of the RNC, they don’t give a damn. It’s all about outreach ... and outreach means let’s throw a cocktail party, find some black folks and Hispanics and women, wrap our arms around them - ‘See, look at us,’ “ he said.
“And then we go back to same old, same old. There’s nothing that is driven down to the state party level, where state chairmen across the country, to the extent they don’t appreciate it, are helped to appreciate the importance of African-Americans and women and others coming and being a part of this party, and to the extent that they do appreciate it, are given support and backup to generate their own programs to create this relationship.”
Steele has been evasive on the immigration issue and did not mention it in his speech in VA. I don't consider him to be a conservative and I fear another moderate, token-like RNC Chair like Martinez, will take this party further to the Left. And certainly race/ethnic/gender based affirmative action is not something most Reps can embrace.