GOP candidate’s past comments already haunting him

California GOP congressional candidate Brad Goehring provides a lesson on how not to talk with the media if you think you might run for Congress one day.

Goehring, a winegrape grower, is challenging Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.). In 2006, he was interviewed by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders and offered up this gem:

His labor contractor, Brad Goehring … requires new hires to show two documents that demonstrate they can work legally. Still, he estimates that 40 percent of workers whom he hires may be illegal — to judge by letters sent irregularly from the Social Security Administration long after harvest to alert employers that their employees’ Social Security numbers don’t match the worker.

Hajek and Goehring tell me they want to follow the law, but they also need laws that ensure them access to cheap immigrant labor. Americans simply won’t reliably do the work, they say.

Goehring explained to the Lodi News-Sentinel this week that he was speaking generally about the industry and that he has never knowingly hired an illegal immigrant.

But unless he got (or gets) a correction, this has “campaign ad fodder” written all over it.