Does the GOP Base Care More About Immigration or Abortion?

July 2, 2007 — -- They're both conservative Republicans running long shot campaigns for president, and they're both in Congress. But Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas have decidedly different platforms.

Tancredo is the anti-immigration candidate and Brownback is the anti-abortion candidate. And they're arguing about it.

Each hopes that primary voters in Iowa care more about his issue than the other's. Attacked by Tancredo in Iowa on immigration this weekend, Brownback pointed the finger at Tancredo today on abortion.  Tancredo is the national voice against amnesty, leading the conservative charge against the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill defeated last week in the Senate. He had challenged all nine Republican presidential candidates to vote against what he calls amnesty. But Brownback waffled on the immigration issue from the anti-amnesty standpoint.  Brownback supported debating the bill and at first voted for moving toward a final vote. But 11 minutes after casting that vote, Brownback changed his mind and voted against moving to a final vote. The point is, Brownback at least seemed to entertain the notion of considering immigration reform. That, after all, is Tancredo's issue.  And Tancredo took Brownback to task this weekend. Brownback has "been an open-border guy for years,'' Tancredo told The Associated Press. "During a 1996 debate on the issue, he was the primary opponent to most the reform issues. Now he's trying to 'modify' his approach and say he's always been with us.''

Brownback did not take the criticism lying down. The issue most important to Brownback's campaign is not immigration but abortion. His campaign motto is to bring a "culture of life" back to America. While campaigning in the early caucus state of Iowa today, Brownback's campaign accused Tancredo of waffling on abortion by accepting "thousands from the founder of the Planned Parenthood network." And its true -- the contribution part, at least. John Tanton, 73, is the contributor in question. A retired ophthalmologist from Petoskey, Mich., Tanton is an immigration activist, an environmental activist and, yes, he was an organizer and president of the Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood from 1965-1971. Tanton is no longer officially affiliated with the group -- he is no longer on its board -- but he said he does still give it money. Federal financial disclosure records show that the Tancredo campaign and Tancredo's PAC, TeamAmerica, have taken more than $8,000 from John Tanton in the past eight years. "Given Tanton's obvious ties to Planned Parenthood, Tom Tancredo should publicly denounce his ties to Tanton and should donate all previously accepted funds to an Iowa crisis pregnancy center," said John Rankin, Brownback's communications director in Iowa. "How can pro-life Iowans believe Tom Tancredo's commitment to life when he has accepted money from such a prominent abortion supporter?"  And here is where the accusation gets a little more complicated. While Brownback questions Tancredo's commitment to an anti-abortion agenda for taking money from Tanton, others do not. Planned Parenthood, for instance, gives Tancredo a zero for a having an entirely "anti-choice" voting record. Tancredo is standing by that rating and not giving the money up. "Those who contribute to the Tancredo campaign are support Congressman Tancredo and his principles and values. In no way does it suggest the congressman endorses theirs," said Tancredo's senior adviser, Bay Buchanan, who then pointed the finger back at Brownback for his position on immigration. "As for the congressman's pro-life record, it is unassailable. What is far more interesting to the people of Iowa is Sen. Brownback's complete embrace of massive amnesty for illegal aliens." And his stance on immigration is why Tanton contributed to Tancredo in the first place.  "I contributed to Tancredo because he took the lead bringing the immigration issue to the fore, and I respect what he did," Tanton said. Tanton said he is an independent -- he voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the past three presidential elections (only dedicated third party aficionados knew Nader was even running in 1996). "The Wall Street Journal has called me an extreme liberal, but the Southern Poverty Law Center has called me a dangerous conservative. I'm not sure what I am," said Tanton. While Tanton has given Tancredo thousands of dollars for his immigration stance, he doesn't come to the issue in the same way. Tancredo was against the pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers in the Senate bill, because he said it would give amnesty to people breaking the law. Tanton, on the other hand, cares about population growth and he cares about immigration. He cares about immigration because he is afraid of population growth. And here is where the planned parenthood connection comes in. Tanton has been an advocate of population control since the 1970s, when he was also lobbying for planned parenthood. He chaired the population committee of the Sierra Club and headed a group called Zero Population Growth.  "I am a population person," said Tanton. "I can multiply. We're going to add tens of millions of people to this country, and we can't support them. Where is the oil going to come from? Where is the food going to come from?"