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Groton Daily Independent
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 069 ~ 25 of 36
Hispanic voters. The future success of the party depended upon it, the RNC determined two years before Trump launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists.
Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott, a prominent Trump ally last fall, also toed the line this week as he condemned Obama’s program, but praised the intent of the policy.
“This issue must be addressed. I do not favor punishing children for the actions of their parents,” said Scott, who is weighing a bid to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018. Hispanics make up more than 18 percent of eligible voters in Florida, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Yet in many other states with smaller Hispanic communities, Republicans have far less political incentive to protect the young immigrants from deportation.
Matthew Dowd, a strategist for former President George W. Bush’s campaign, has warned Republican leaders for nearly two decades that they must appeal to Hispanics. He noted that Trump’s base of white, less-educated voters embraced the president’s tone.
“Let us remember Trump is a symptom of where GOP voters are on immigration and race relations, not a cause of it,” Dowd tweeted. In an interview, he said the Republican Party may have succeeded in 2016, but it cannot survive alienating Hispanic voters and other minorities for much longer.
“It’s just a question of time,” Dowd said. “If you look at the demographics of Trump support, that group is dwindling every single year.”
And beyond those Republicans facing dif cult re-elections in 2018, the message to Hispanics this week was often far from welcoming.
“They came here to live in the shadows and we’re not denying them that opportunity to live in the shadows,” Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said, when asked about the immigrant children.
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Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa and Richard Lardner and Erica Werner in Washington contributed to this report.
Australian court dismisses challenge to gay marriage survey By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australians will be surveyed on their support for gay marriage from next week after the nation’s highest court on Thursday dismissed challenges to the government’s power to conduct the postal ballot without Senate permission.
Gay marriage could be legal in Australia by December if most Australians who take part in the ballot support the reform. But the lawmakers who could nally change the law within three weeks of the survey results becoming known would not be bound to accept the people’s will.
Gay rights advocates argued in an emergency hearing in the High Court that the government did not have the constitutional power to survey the public through a unique 122 million Australian dollar ($97 million) postal ballot.
The seven judges dismissed both cases argued by separate groups of rights advocates.
The government had already gone to the expense of starting to print the ballot papers, which are to be posted to more than 16 million voters nationwide from Tuesday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed the ruling and urged all Australians to take part in the survey, which will be declared on Nov. 15.
“Lucy and I will be voting yes and I will be encouraging others to vote yes, but ... above all, I encourage every Australian to have their say because ... I respect every Australian’s view on this matter,” Turnbull told Parliament, referring to his wife Lucy Turnbull.
Opinion polls show that most Australians want same-sex marriage legalized, but many advocates ques- tion how representative of Australian attitudes the postal survey would be.
Opponents of gay marriage support the survey, although some conservative lawmakers have said they would not change the law even if a majority of Australians wanted reform.
The litigants who failed to stop the survey in the court immediately urged supporters of marriage equal-