From Talking Points Memo:

The campaign of gubernatorial candidate Tim James (R-AL) says that his ad proposing English-only driver’s licenses tests has been a big hit — and that it represents a simple solution to the illegal immigration problem that has become a huge issue in the state.

“Why do our politicians make us give driver’s license exams in 12 languages?” James asks in the ad. “This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it. We’re only giving that test in English if I’m governor.”

“There was no one catalyst, other than since we started this campaign about two years ago, and at least once a day someone asks us or calls our headquarters about what are we gonna do about illegal aliens in Alabama,” said campaign spokesman Brett Hall, when asked by TPMDC what spurred the campaign to create the ad. “And our ad doesn’t specifically address illegal aliens or talk about that. But we did see that the state of Alabama, in offering 12 foreign languages in addition to English for the driver’s test, was absurd. But we thought we would home in on that part of it, and it seems to have hit a raw nerve here in the state.”

If the issue is really illegal immigration, we asked, why not make an ad focusing on that as a specific issue? “Because we have a common sense solution focused campaign,” said Hall. “We wanted to look at one common sense solution that would save the taxpayers at least some money, but would be something that would be simple, make sense, and could make a difference for the people of Alabama.”

Click here to read the rest of this story.