The Bosom of Abraham: How the junior senator fares in Michigan - Senator Spencer Abraham

National Review, Sept 25, 2000 by John J. Miller

One decision in particular has disappointed some conservatives. Last year, Abraham followed Engler's lead and came out against a school-choice proposal that Michigan voters will decide on this fall. Engler argued that it was polling too poorly to pass and would increase Democratic turnout. Today, Abraham refuses to talk about it. "I've expressed concern," he says. "But my role is not to make the case for or against the initiative." So he won't.

The issue that has earned him the most notoriety, however, is immigration. It's the one subject about which he can become animated in conversation. Many pro-immigration conservatives credit Abraham with preventing the national GOP from following the sorry fate of California's Republicans in the wake of Proposition 187, the anti-illegal-alien ballot initiative that arguably saved Pete Wilson's governorship but also turned a whole generation of Hispanics against the party. This, in turn, makes Abraham a villain to restrictionists, whom he confounded in 1995 and 1996 when Congress weighed new limits on immigrant admissions and he was an upstart member of the Judiciary Committee. The Federation for American Immigration Reform has run a vengeful ad campaign against him this year, asking: "Why is Senator Spencer Abraham trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their war of terror to any city street in America?" This was a tactless comment, considering Abraham is an Arab American (his background is Christian Lebanese), and it caused groups like the Michigan Catholic Conference to defend the senator publicly. It also created an opportunity for triangulation: His supporters could say that Abraham may be conservative, but he's no nut-job like the extremists attacking him.

But if he loses, many Republicans may decide that Abraham himself went too far-especially in a state like Michigan, where the only voter concern about borders has to do with car traffic on the bridges to Ontario. His vigorous support-in both words and actions-for immigration has won him a fan base outside of normal GOP circles. He's been feted at an awards banquet of the National Council of La Raza, a leading Hispanic group. The invitations to his most recent birthday fundraiser-called "Spence-o de Mayo," even though it falls in June-featured the GOP elephant insignia on an orange sombrero. An Abraham defeat might send conservatives the message that-despite all the happy talk in Philadelphia-they embrace immigration at their peril. The senator insists he's played the issue wisely. "There are a lot of immigrants in Michigan, and a lot of others who have a strong conscience about these issues because they know their family history," he says.

In recent weeks, Abraham has made a more direct effort to connect with Michigan voters. One recent ad has John McCain, who beat Bush in the state primary, extolling Abraham as a "workhorse" who snagged $300 million in federal funding for Michigan roads-an effective ad, but a strange one given that McCain, an anti-pork pol, voted against the bill. Abraham also was on center stage in July, when his bill to suspend gas taxes for 150 days came up for a vote. It lost, but Abraham reaped good press at a time when the Midwest saw fuel prices spike high above the national average. He's been aggressive in criticizing Democratic prescription-drug plans, too.