Immigration: X-Factor in Tight California Governor’s Race?

What do you get when you mix celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, an illegal immigrant housekeeper, and the former CEO of eBay? Apparently, the 2010 California governor’s race.
Last Wednesday, Nikki Diaz Santillan made headlines by voicing through attorney Gloria Allred (yes, the one who represented Tiger Wood’s mistress Rachel Uchitel last fall) that her former employer, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, “threw her away like trash” in 2009 after Santillan, an undocumented resident, came to Whitman for help with attaining legal status. Though it sounds more like a TMZ headline, this is just the latest wrench thrown into a tight race in California between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman. The difference? This one might be an X-factor.
Last Tuesday, the first of three televised debates between the candidates took place at UC Davis. A display of differences in personality–Brown animated, humorous; Whitman stoic, focused–more than policy, the biggest take away from the debate was by far the lack of a major gaffe from either side. There was no clear victor. That is, until a teary-eyed former housekeeper and a fiery Gloria Allred made the news the next day. Thus, the stage was set for Saturday’s Thrilla in Manilla II at Cal State Fresno. Televised in Spanish by Envision, a major Latino news network, it was no surprise that the second debate focused on the concerns and interests of Latino voters.
From the get-go, Whitman was questioned about Allred’s accusations. She was swift to blame Brown for the emergence of Santillan in the news, quipping,  “You should be ashamed for sacrificing Nikki Diaz on the altar of your own political ambitions.” The temperature went through the roof as Brown fired back, “Don’t run for governor if you can’t stand up on your own two feet and say, ‘Hey, I made a mistake, I’m sorry, let’s go on from here.’” Brown further accused her of “talking from both sides of her mouth” on the issue of taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants, citing her opposing statements and radio ads.
Questions about the Allred accusations were the catalyst for questions about the immigration stances of the two candidates. When asked about support  for giving illegal immigrant’s a path to attain legal status, Brown strongly supported the act on moral principles, while Whitman only went so far as to say we should increase border security and hold employers increasingly accountable for hiring illegal immigrants. While she went neck-to-neck with Brown on other issues in the debate, among them education and water policy, Whitman was impaled on the issue of immigration.
Tight is an understatement in this race. The most recent poll shows that Brown and Whitman are virtually tied, with 38% support among likely voters for Whitman and 37% for Brown. So is immigration the X-factor that will blow open the poll numbers? Will Whitman’s popularity drop significantly with Latino voters? Will the Latino voter bloc prove to be deciding in this election (Whitman said that “she cannot win without Latino votes”)? And perhaps most importantly, will voters see the Allred accusations as truthful insights into a heartless businesswoman, or merely a political smear tactic? We can only wait in hushed anticipation for some answers, as Brown and Whitman duke it out for the third and decidedly final time on October 13.