I just came from the morning breakfast meeting of the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the Los Angeles Lincoln Club. I am a member.
The speakers were founders of the Minutemen Project Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist.
This is big news for two reasons.
1. Jim Gilchrist is a candidates for Congress in Orange County’s 48th Congressional District. The election is in a couple weeks and will decide the successor to Chris Cox. And oh yes Gilchrist isn’t a Republican!!! Yikes, he is an American Independent Party member. The San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club Chapter head honcho, the esteemed Dr. Barbara Stone made it clear that she supported John Campbell (She claims to have known him since he was in diapers—- but that is a different story.) and that Gilchrist was going to lose as most third party candidates do.
Gilchrist says he is a Reagan Republican and a better Republican than Campbell.
2. Traditionally, the Lincoln Club is the center of more moneyed folks in the Republican Party. To have two founders of a group that Bush called "vigilantes" at such a meeting is a recognition that illegal immigration is still and will become a bigger issue in campaigns. Especially GOP campaigns.
At the meeting was an aide to Congressman Dreier. Dreier’s stance on illegal immigration has brought him under fire over the past couple years. Sorry. No fireworks this time.
Are the Lincoln Clubs and grassroots on the same page? If so, more problems for some GOP leaders that don’t get the importance of this issue. At least, Barbara Stone and others do.