Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who also was the architect of Arizona’s SB 1070 law, endorsed Mitt Romney earlier this year. He had also had been reported to be informally advising the Romney campaign. But Politico reports that the Romney campaign is identifying Kobach only as a supporter now:
When I asked Boston if Kobach was still an “adviser,” a Romney spokesperson emailed back: “supporter.”
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About a month ago, when I wrote about the Kansas Secretary of State, author of the controversial Arizona and Alabama immigration laws, folks in Mittland were referring to Kobach as an informal adviser – and I picked up on a lot of anger at Kobach from Romney’s Hispanic supporters who blamed him for pushing the candidate to the right on immigration, which has cost him dearly in recent polls among Spanish-speaking voters.
The Obama campaign is jumping on the story as an example of Romney trying to shift his positions for the general election, with David Axelrod tweeting, “Etch-a-Sketch moment? After telling donors he’s ‘doomed’ unless he picks up with Latinos, Mitt puts kibosh on Kobach.”
Neither Kobach or the Romney campaign responded immediately to a comment request.
UPDATE: Well, as of earlier this afternoon, Kobach was disputing the change, per liberal think tank ThinkProgress:
However, Kobach disputes this claim. Reached by ThinkProgress this afternoon, Kobach said, “No, my relationship with the campaign has not changed. Still doing the same thing I was doing before.” Asked what that entails, he said, “providing advice on immigration policy.” “I don’t want to go into great detail, but I communicate regularly with senior members of Romney’s team,” he explained.