Staking out one's positions in 2005 for a 2006 race. Ralph Reed gets a jump on a "hot" GOP issue for the 2006 GOP primary. - Immigration.

Today's PI provides a heads-up for what is going to be hot issue during the 2006 GOP primary, at least as far as the lieutenant governor contest is concerned. I see this issue potentially having the same status in 2006 with Republican candidates as abortion did in the 2004 GOP U.S. senatorial campaign.

The issue -- immigration.

The PI notes:

Many Republicans in Georgia don't want any part of [President Bush's] proposal to allow 8 million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status as temporary workers.

"I am opposed to amnesty in any form whatsoever," [Ralph] Reed said.