One of the steps former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie has taken before jumping into the Virginia Senate race is to remove a clip of him arguing for comprehensive immigration reform.
Gillespie removing the clip from his website of him discussing immigration reform with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow (which you can view here) is likely a sign that Gillespie is making last-minute preparations before he officially jumps into the Virginia Senate race to take on incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). Politico first reported the clip’s removal.
Comprehensive immigration reform is not popular with tea party Republicans or the conservative base, both of which Gillespie will have to win over to have any chance of beating Warner.
Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), who Gillespie worked for as communications director when Barbour was chairman of the RNC, suggested to TPM that Gillespie is unlikely to run as a tea party candidate but he still is a conservative Republican.
“I don’t know what he is going to do, but if he were to run I guarantee he would run the kind of campaign to win a substantial majority, not a narrow majority, that he would cast his net wide — which is the right thing to do,” Barbour told TPM in a recent interview. “Ed’s a solid conservative but he is not a purist. He is someone who wants to see good policy adopted and he’s not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
