December 2. In a half-hour speech before a hometown crowd in Huntington Park, Marin painted herself as a moderate while at the same time embracing certain key conservative Republican issues such as national security and low taxes. During the ensuing campaign, she would continue to walk a political tightrope, trying to stress her centrist philosophy while not alienating the party's conservative base. Highlighting her Republican credentials, Marin evoked rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, proclaimed her support for President Bush's $726 billion tax cut, and gave tough speeches about Mexico. At the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda in February 2004, Marin called for tougher US pressure on Mexico in her first major policy speech of the campaign, including adjusting existing treaties in order to deport criminal aliens. At the same time, she emphasized her own immigrant roots, backed the president's immigrant worker program (which was unpopular with conservatives), and voiced her support for civil unions and abortion rights – the latter of which she tempered with opposition to late-term abortions and support of parental consent laws. During the same month of her Mexico speech, Marin utilized Garry South, former advisor of Gov. Davis, to send out a mailer addressing the Republicans' "white male problem" and offering her candidacy as the best chance to defeat Sen. Boxer.<ref>Howard Fine, "Can Marin succeed in knocking off Sen. Boxer?" San Diego Business Journal (February 16, 2004).</ref> Despite receiving an implied endorsement from the White House as the preferred candidate, Marin was attacked by her fellow Republicans, in particular, former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, the leading candidate for the GOP nod, for her perceived waffling on another hot-button immigration issue: driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Although she had opposed the state measure granting them signed by Gov. Davis in 2003, she refused to take a position on tough federal legislation to punish states that do so introduced by Congressman Tom Tancredo the same year. Marin was also passed over by key Republicans when Governors Schwarzenegger, her old boss Wilson, and George Deukmejian all endorsed Jones.Lynda Gledhill, "REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY; Marin's name is on the money," San Francisco Chronicle (February 29, 2004). Critics placed doubt on Marin's ability to raise the estimated $25 million she would need with relatively little name recognition. Her refusal to elaborate on key policy statements drew further criticism. Democrats, in the meantime, brought up her contentious terms and censure while