Last month we reported that long time Union-Tribune columnist Jim Goldsborough was quitting after having his column spiked. The UT editors then promptly announced they were on the hunt for a new columnist to fill Goldsborough’s controversial shoes.

Look no more … and welcome Ruben Navarrette Jr. to San Diego. On December 30^th, editor Karen Winner announced that the former columnist of the Dallas Morning News would be joining the editorial and opinion team of the UT. According to Editor & Publisher, Navarrette will continue to be syndicated in the Union Tribune until March when he “will write two columns a week, pen editorials, and serve on the editorial board of the Union-Tribune.”

The 37-year-old Navarrette was named one of the top syndicated creators of 2004 in E&P’s November issue. His column client list rose from 55 to 172 papers during the first 10 months of last year, with WPWG citing the feature’s unpredictability — conservative on some issues and liberal on others — as one reason for the growth.

Meanwhile, Goldsborough recently discussed his departure from the paper in an interview with PRWeek.

When asked why he thought his column was spiked, Goldsborough responded:

Pure stupidity. There’s no other answer. The owner read it and didn’t understand it. It was just a whole series of stupid mistakes. That column, by the way, is being printed in the Jewish magazine Forward. That is how anti-Semitic it is.

Navarrette is a pro-immigration, conservative, Latino. I have been following his column for some time now and I continue to be worried that San Diego’s mainstream media is inching further right.

His latest two columns, both printed in the U-T, are Blaming Mexico on Immigration and Some Advice For My Fellow Latinos.