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I don’t have reams of polling data at my finger tips, I’m not a highly paid political operative and there could be a ton of stuff at play I’m missing, but I’m having trouble reconciling the news of the day with the talk of the town.

A New York Times story Tuesday morning, laid out how Congressional Republicans had moved on from the immigration issue, in part, because they thought other issues would play better in the fall campaign. From the story:

As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

But as I mention earlier, I spent a good deal of my day wandering about Randolph County Tuesday afternoon, mainly Ramseur and Asheboro. During that time I interviewed two candidates, on a moderate-to-conservative Democrat the other a moderate Republican.

Both named immigration and the lack of federal action as a major issue in their race.

I also talked to a bunch of folks, leaving my notebook in the holster, just to chat. And while I ran across my share of politically disengage and party-line voters, of the folks who said they were swayed candidate-by-candidate, most said immigration was a big issue.

In fact, other than the war in Iraq, immigration reform or the lack there of was probably the most easily identified, discreet issue that one would naturally think of as a federal responsibility that came up time and again. That’s mind boggling considering a lot of the folks I was talking to were older, from whom I would have expected more talk of Social Security or Medicare.

Let’s be clear – this wasn’t an exhaustive sample, more than dozen but less than 20 folks chatted up during the course of a single afternoon. And the methodology wasn’t exactly scientific – I basically picked off people who looked like they had nothing better to do than talk to a scrubby reporter like myself. But it does jive with what I hear from folks in my own discussions outside of work.

The afternoon did make me wonder if the folks in Randolph County knew something the pols in Washington didn’t. (Heck, even the Washington Post named immigration as a “bell weather issue” this year.)

Bringing the issue into additional focus: In both Asheboro and Ramseur there are businesses, in what would argue is the downtown core, that cater to Spanish speaking customers. (The signs were in Spanish, etc...) And earlier this year, rallies in support of immigrant rights showed that a sizeable population of that community was intent on having its say.

Irrespective of how you feel immigration policy should be change, it seems like issue itself is more than some second-rate political player to be benched during the final quarter of the political football game.

Yes, this could end up being quite the clever strategy. Republican leaders and the rank and file seem to be split between reformer/integrators like President Bush (the path-to-citizenship lot) and the hard-liners (the use-school-buses-to-deport-‘em crowd.) By not having united behind one plan, it lets Republican candidates run whichever way serves them best in this fall’s election.

But today it felt like immigration was an issue where voters would like to see something done, and for those who are paying attention to the issue inaction is going to be as much of a black mark as “the wrong” action.

If nothing else, today’s wandering elevated the issue in my mind as potential issue in state races. I’ll be looking to see how it plays in Greensboro and other parts of Guilford County.