There is a battle raging in Georgia
over an Obama nominee for federal judge in the state’s northern district. But
many conservative Georgians are unaware of the consequences of losing. The
leftist illegal alien lobby, working with the Establishment Republicans, have
challenged the voter base on confirming Obama’s choice for a federal judge who
would oversee federal cases in the state. Including immigration cases.
Aware members of the GOP’s
conservative base are strongly opposed to the nomination of Dax Lopez, who is
now a state court judge in metro-Atlanta, largely because he was a prominent
political advocate against the enforcement of immigration law. That’s a
confrontational pick during an election year that is dominated by talk of
amnesty, illegal immigration and black-market labor.
Lopez served on the board of the
largest illegal alien lobbying group in the state, the Georgia Association of
Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) from 2004 until a month after his nomination
in July 2015.
According to federal officials,
Georgia has more illegal aliens than Arizona.
Outraged pro-enforcement Georgians
are watching closely to see if their Republican senators agree to let Lopez get
a hearing in the judiciary committee. If he gets the hearing, he’ll likely be
confirmed to the judgeship by a coalition of Democratic Senators and
anti-enforcement GOP Senators.
But either or both senators can
quietly end consideration of the nominee through what is known as the
traditional ‘blue-slip’
veto process. (Educational flyer here)
Strange bedfellows – surprising
endorsements
On his January
7th drive-time Atlanta radio show,
blogger and Fox News personality Erick Erickson shocked listeners with a shaky
Lopez endorsement, the assurance that Lopez is the best nominee Republicans can
hope for and that as federal judge Dax Lopez would have “no role” on
immigration cases. “No spin” said Erickson (transcript here).
While acknowledging that fans would
be upset with his endorsement, Erickson went on to assert that Lopez’s only
confirmation problem with the base is merely that he “supports immigration
reform.” The claim was awash in understatement.
Erickson also assured his listeners
that Lopez understands that “business needs to be able to do business” and that
Lopez has “the support of the Chamber of Commerce.”
Lopez
only resigned from the corporate-funded, open-borders
GALEO a month after his nomination, when outraged voters learned of his long
association with the group – and after a steady barrage of phone calls to the
offices of Georgia senators Sen. Johnny Isakson and Sen. David Perdue
protesting any further confirmation consideration.
Perdue was elected on a promise of
toughness on immigration in 2014. Isakson faces re-election in November. He has
been seen by many as wobbly by conservatives on legalization and protecting
American workers during his two terms in the senate. So far, Isakson has no
primary opponent.
Lopez’s “we don’t want another Obama
activist judge” critics point to a GALEO website boast of organizing protesters
for a multi-bus trip from Atlanta to Washington D.C. to join in a 2010 national
march against immigration enforcement.
More details that Erickson left out
During the decade-plus period Lopez
was a member of the board of directors of GALEO, the group also actively
lobbied against
voter ID, English as Georgia’s official
language and in the fall of 2014 boasted
on its website of successfully lobbying
metro-Atlanta’s Fulton County to end
cooperation with ICE on detainers for criminal aliens.
In 2011, GALEO
allied with the ACLU and the SPLC in a federal lawsuit to overturn a state law, HB 87, from that year putting in
place E-Verify requirements for private employers.
GALEO is well known for its repeated
allegations of “racial profiling” against local police and Georgia sheriffs who
use the federal 287(g) program to locate and report illegal aliens in their
jails.
Once
educated, the reaction by some Republican
elected officials to Lopez’s nomination was swift and blunt.
The extensive list of elected
Republican officials who have formally
written to Senators Isakson and Perdue
urging them to disqualify Dax Lopez for further consideration includes
Republican county sheriffs, state senators and house members as well as county
and city officials.
“It is with great concern that I am
writing to you in opposition to President Obama’s effort to place Dax Lopez on
U.S. District Court for the Northen District of Georgia… I have never seen an
organization work harder against the interest of Georgians” wrote
metro-Atlanta’s Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren in an August letter to both
senators.
A letter of support was sent to the
Georgia senators from a large group of Republican lawyers that includes
Republican insider Josh Belinfante, who
was part of the panel appointed to advise Perdue on a nominee and vetting process.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution “Political
Insider” bloggers have begun semi-regular coverage of
the Lopez battle and this
writer was recently attacked by an AJC opinion writer for educating the senate staffers on the GALEO-Lopez
association.
Missing from the list of Republican
officials advising against advancing Lopez to full committee are Georgia’s
Attorney General Sam Olens and Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Along with two
state legislators, word
leaked out that they had attended a May 2015 GALEO fundraiser. Both officials are expected to compete for the Governor’s
mansion in 2018.
Neither is Georgia’s current
governor, Nathan Deal, among the opposition to a Federal Judge Dax Lopez. Deal
outraged Georgia conservatives with the appointment of another GALEO board
member to the state board of corrections
in 2013. The Republican-controlled state senate quietly confirmed the
appointment.
While rebuffed by Isakson’s office
after a request for information, last fall, this writer met with the Chief
Counsel to Senator David Perdue in Washington and with Perdue’s Chief of Staff.
Both meetings ended with the confidence that the activist Lopez had been
sufficiently exposed and would not advance to a confirmation hearing.
But recently the fight has taken a
predictable turn towards the big-money GOP establishment. In an address to the
Cobb County Republican Party Saturday morning breakfast last week, Isakson made
it clear that Lopez may in fact be advanced to a committee hearing. “ I believe
in the constitution…I am not going to rule out anything…” Isakson told the
puzzled overflow crowd. AUDIO
HERE
Insider word is that the Republican
bosses desperately want to confirm Lopez — who was born in Puerto Rico — to
showcase a 2016 “big tent” at any cost.
Georgia Senator David Perdue has
made it clear that his decision on using the traditional “blue-slip process” to
stop confirmation hearings on Lopez will
likely be made as early as next week.
Contact the Washington DC office of
Senator David Perdue: 202-224-3521
Contact the Washington DC office of
Senator Johnny Isakson: 202-224-3643
D.A. King is president of the
Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. @DAKDIS
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