Was just on a conference call about yesterday's elections in Virginia, and the consensus, at least among the assembled Democratic pollsters, was that the immigration issue had really flopped for the Republicans, and actually harmed them. The pollsters said that the election became a contest between, on the Republican side, an issue, and on the Democratic side, a leadership style. So the Republicans ran on a crackdown and the Democrats ran on problem solving, technocratic governance, etc. The latter won out. And for good reason -- the Republicans overplayed their hand on immigration, making it more to their appeal than it was to the average voter's worldview. By expending so much effort on immigration, they robbed themselves of the ability to put out a coherent and wide-ranging platform, and so, as long as the Democrats could point to a plan on the subject and check a box, it was fairly easy for them to lope across the finish line. For more on the election results and the ways immigration played in, check in with Markos. --Ezra Klein
