On June 8th in South Carolina, according to The Charleston Post and Courier, Bob Batchelder of Myrtle Beach will challenge U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-Hanahan for the U.S. House District 1 Republican congressional seat. 

Like two years ago, Batchelder has once again been critical of his opponent, calling Brown “a liberal Republican” who supports and follows the President’s agenda including the war in Iraq, the nation’s trade policies that favor corporate profits at the expense of outsourcing American jobs overseas and Bush’s immigration policy. 

Brown has responded by saying that his goals for a third term include advocating for better health care of veterans and senior citizens, making permanent the tax cuts put in place by the Bush Administration, eliminating the death tax and increasing military pay levels.

Because no Democrats have filed for this primary, whoever wins this race is almost certain to be victorious in November.

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The Desert Morning News of Salt Lake City reported last week that anti-immigrant group  Project USA has issued a challenge to U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon and his opponent in a June 22 primary in the 3^rd Congressional District, Matt Throckmorton.  The challenge is to allow a panel of impartial lawyers to evaluate immigration legislation that Cannon supports to determine if it can be defined as amnesty.  There is one catch to this challenge: both candidates have to accept the panel’s decision.  Throckmorton said he would probably accept the invitation, Cannon said he would not.   

The key piece of legislation being questioned is Cannon’s proposal to reform the nation’s agricultural guest worker program.  In addition, this pending bill would give some undocumented agricultural workers the ability to apply for temporary visas and permanent residence.  Cannon estimates that between 300,000 and 500,000 workers nationwide would qualify for the benefits of this bill.  Throckmorton contradicts those figures and raises the estimated numbers to 1 million eligible workers and families. 

Project USA’s director, Craig Nelsen, says that even though the forum of the challenge would be unbiased, his group does have a clear agenda—to reduce illegal immigration to sustainable levels and to end illegal immigration.  Nelsen has appeared on local talk radio shows to discuss these issues, and Project USA has sponsored billboards in Utah County that say Cannon supports amnesty.

Cannon says he does not support amnesty and that all of his proposed legislation is available on the Internet, available to individuals to read, ask questions and make their own decisions about the bills.

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The Winston-Salem Journal reported last week that North Carolina radio station WSJS suspended 5^th Congressional District candidate Republican Vernon Robinson’s campaign ad and forced him to change the required disclaimer from Spanish to English.  Political ads for federal candidates must include a statement that includes the name of the organization that funded it. 

Vernon’s advertisement states in English that undocumented immigrants “sponge off the American taxpayer” and “commit heinous crimes against us.”  The ad ended with a disclaimer in Spanish.  Vernon claims that the purpose of the Spanish disclaimer was to make a political point that English ought to be the official language of the U.S.

WSJS discontinued the version using the Spanish disclaimer fearing action from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Vernon says that the two commissions’ regulations do not include any specific language requirement for disclaimers.  Tom Hamilton, senior vice president of WSJS, says that the disclaimer ought to indicate to the listeners which organization sponsored the ad. Because WSJS is an English-language station, Hamilton feels that its listeners would not understand a Spanish disclaimer.          

Although Vernon disagreed with the changes, he acquiesced citing the need to have his ads run on the popular talk-radio station.