Test Case

As Ryan Avent notes, yesterday's football games were full of advertisements from Virginia legislature candidates, almost all Republicans, almost all heavily emphasizing the immigration issue. I assume these races, where other factors would seem to presage the continued blueing of Virginia, are going to play as a test case for the emerging notion that immigrant-bashing is the Great Republican Hope for 2008.

One irony here is that in my view one of the big problems with Washington DC is, indeed, that Northern Virginia has too many immigrants and I wish more of them would move to the city. There's tons of great, affordable ethnic restaurants of the sort that usually provide the spice of urban life but instead of being in the city, they're overwhelmingly located in Virginia strip malls like the legendary Eden Center in Falls Church. This is great for Tyler Cowen, Northern Virginia's premiere foodie, but it's not so great for me. So on some level, I kind of hope Virginia politicians do come up with some scheme to drive immigrants out of their precious suburbs thus paving the way for a Brave New World of delicious DC cuisine (but do try Thai X-ing in the District which is great, albeit a logistical nightmare).