Both presidential candidates have work to do to win Latino vote

Barack Obama and John McCain are coveting the ever-growing Latino vote and both have obstacles to overcome to win over these communities. Orange County Hispanics have some advice for the presumptive presidential candidates — talk to us up close and personal and resist the urge to pander.

McCain's California Latino Chairman Mario Rodriquez of San Clemente says he knows his candidate has to appeal to Hispanics one-on-one and that the candidate has to get beyond the intense anti-immigrant rhetoric that he concedes some in the GOP have engaged in.

And Norma Garcia Guillen, a Santa Ana lawyer who is president of the Hispanic Bar Association, believes once Latinos learn about Barack Obama's support for driver's licenses for all regardless of their immigration status and that he's supported making it easier for children of illegal immigrants to get a college education that they'll be in his corner.
Both camps say they are ramping up their efforts to win the Latino vote with more Hispanic staff, Spanish-language ads and Web sites.

But why? For years, political experts have talked about the promise of the Latino vote. So far low Hispanic turnout has belied those predictions. But this year, experts insist, the Latino vote could make a difference, especially in some key Western and Southwestern states that up to now haven't been considered battlegrounds.
"Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico will be critical states,'' says Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials. Both candidates will speak on Saturday at NALEO's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Vargas said McCain won the Florida primary because of the Hispanic vote and that vote could make the difference in November in that battleground state. President Clinton carried Arizona in 1996, he said, because he had 80 percent of the Hispanic vote.
It's calculus like that that has both campaigns determined to win over this segment of the electorate.
"We need to do things that we haven't done in the past,'' says Rodriquez. "We need to go door-to-door, on a city and county level. We're bringing in a lot of individuals not involved in presidential campaigns before.''

Rodriquez said McCain's eager acceptances of speaking engagements before NALEO and at the Hispanic activist group National Council of La Raza's conference next month in San Diego shows the Arizona senator's commitment to the Latino communities.

And, Rodriquez said, it would be great if some of the county's elected GOP leaders like Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Royce toned down the conversation about illegal immigration.

When it comes to the issues, immigration is an important threshold for Latinos – candidates who don't support comprehensive immigration reform are unlikely to do well among that voter group. But surveys have consistently showed that education, health care and the economy score highest when it comes to what will drive the Latino vote. READ MORE

By: DENA BUNIS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER