Meg Whitman's Latino-Voter Tap Dance

California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's come a long way. Just six months ago her campaign was touting its hardline stance on immigration. Now, she's ascending in the polls after an aggressive media campaign to court Latino voters.

Sally Khim writes over at Mother Jones:

Whitman's new ads have touted her opposition to Arizona's harsh new immigration law, as well as California's Prop 187--the anti-immigration law that poisoned Latino voters against the Republican Party in the 1990s when then-GOP governor Pete Wilson pushed it through.

But Whitman's Spanish-language makeover in the general election is a marked reversal from the tone that she struck in the GOP primary, when the challenge from conservative Steve Poizner pushed her to the right on the issue. During the primary, she touted her opposition to illegal immigration, screened an ad featuring Pete Wilson and a border fence, and accused Poizner of supporting "amnesty."

Meanwhile, Whitman's democratic contender Jerry Brown recently told the LA Times the state's Latino voters won't be so easily fooled. Though Brown may not have too much ground to stand on, either. His campaign hired its first fluent Spanish speaker this week, and still hasn't translated its campaign website in Spanish.