ELPAC Report January 2003

The ELPAC Report January 2003

Target: Tancredo?

Cong. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) has long been at the forefront of efforts to protect English as America's common language. As Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, for example, Tancredo grilled the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on its illegal policy of punishing employers who required employees to speak English in the workplace. ELPAC has strongly supported Cong. Tancredo's campaigns.

Tancredo, however, has also long been seen by Republican party officials as a threat to their plans to pander to language minority voters. Tancredo, for example, does not meekly accept the Bush Administration's effort to require government agencies to provide free translators to all applicants for social services.

Now, behind the scenes, Republican party operatives are moving to undermine Tancredo's re-election in 2004. Casting him as too conservative, they are seeking primary election challengers against the incumbent three-term Republican Member of Congress. They even claim that Colorado voters' defeat of a recent bilingual education reform initiative suggests that Tancredo should not continue in office because he supports English.

There is a lot of time before the 2004 elections, but these clumsy, and mean-spirited tactics are underhanded, even in a state where the anti-bilingual education forces used racist television ads against the initiative. ELPAC will continue to support Cong. Tancredo, and urges its members to tell their Republican party leaders to stop undermining a Congressman who stands up for English.