The massive movement of Latino voters to Obama has baffled some pundits and intrigued others. John McCain is arguably the most pro-immigrant Republican in the Senate and he took sometimes heroic stands in opposition to his own party's evolving anti-immigrantism. He was a frequent guest at Latino banquets and won awards from many major immigrant organizations.
Meanwhile, Barak Obama was clearly not the choice of Latinos during the primary season. I remember Obama's first test with this key demographic during the Nevada caucus. CNN televised a live caucus at a casino in which Hillary supporters were told to stand to the left and Obama backers took up the right. Almost all the Hillary fans were Latino. In primary after primary, Hillary considerably out-polled Obama among Latinos. Some commentators suggested that Hispanics had an antagonism towards African-Americans which precluded their support for a Black man.
So what happened to dash McCain's hopes of besting the 40% of the Latino vote that George Bush achieved?
Here are my ideas:
1. Some McCainiacs were sure that Latinos would not vote for a Black man. Liberals hoped that the same group would turn out for Obama as a ceiling-breaker, opening doors for non-White candidates. Both missed the way Latinos looked at Obama's ethnicity. Many Latinos did not see the election of Obama as an advance for all non-Whites. But they did come to identify with him as the son of someone who came from someplace else. Latinos have to often juggle the issue of having their hearts in two worlds. Obama's backstory, which seemed rootless to many conservatives, actually was similar to the lives of millions of Latinos, immigrant and native born. The Obamiad itself reminded them of their own stories.
2. The primaries were vicious and drawn out and Latinos did back Hil 60% to 40% but not for reasons of race. Bill clinton is incorrectly remembered by Latinos as "good on immigration" and correctly remembered as supporting democratization and development in Latin America. He was also extremely open to the Hispanic community. Hil got a lot of Bill's reflected glory in this community as well as credit from Latinas for her ground-breaking advocacy for women.
Latinos were not, bye and large, voting against Obama. They were supporting a family they viewed as their champions for more than a decade.
As the primaries went on, unlike many White Clintonians, Latinos did not become angry at Obama. They still voted against him, but they also got comfortable with the idea of him as president in a way they couldn't have had he wrapped the thing up in March. At the same time, the long primary season increased interest in voting tremendously in the Latino community as folks were convinced that their individual votes could really help determine who the next president was.
3. McCain's pro-immigrant stand hurt him with his base, but why didn't it help him with Latinos? How could a stand-up guy like hime do so much worse than Bush? Here, we have to look far beyond the four corners of this campaign.
In 2005 the Republican Party decided for tactical political reasons that anti-immigrantism was the only red meat that would sustain the party core through the 2006 election. Nasty ads like this one from failed Congressional candidate Vern Robinson proliferated. Republicans in the House passed legisaltion that would have tossed people like me in jail for providing help to immigrants regardless of their legal status. The Republicans said they were not anti-Latino, just anti-illegal, but they peopled their ads with pictures of brown men who could have been of any legal status but who were clearly Latino. And this assault on the Latino community and questioning of Latino loyalties and legality continued right up to March of this year. Then, just because McCain was the Republican nominee, Latinos were supposed to forget their wounds and vote for Juan. And, remember, by this time McCain himself was a diminished figure. He had once stood strong for the rights of immigrants, now, at the insistance of winger primary voters, he said he wouldn't even vote for the pro-immigrant bill he himself had authored.
Some commentators say that Latinos have proven ungrateful for McCain's leadership on immigration, but in reality, Latino voters have just watched this thing unfold a lot more closely than their Anglo counterparts. In the end, Latino voter liked 2007 John McCain who was the architect of comprehensive immigration reform. They were put off by 2008 John McCain who offered platitudes about Latinos being "children of God". Sorry John, Latinos already knew that without you saying it.
4. Bill Ayers and the whole culture wars thing just doesn't cut it with Latinos. Latinos are a younger demographic. Most of them came of age after the 1960s were over. A lot of them immigrated here in the last couple of decades. To them, The Weathermen are a meteorlogical association.
5. Whacky ministers like Rev. Wright don't scare them. Lots are evangelicals and they are pretty used to firebreathing preachers. Catholic Latinos are likely to brush off Wright as a "Black thing".
6. But the Number One reason Latinos turned their back on McCain is George Bush. Like everyone else, Latinos are worried about the economy and they view the war as a failure. They blame Bush for the messes. And they have a special grievance. They are particularly upset that Bush has launched huge immigration raids in their neigborhoods and at their workplaces this year. They wonder if John McCain, surrounded by Bush cronies, will just continue the perceived war against Brown people. With McCain indelibly branded as Bush's successor, the turn toward Obama is eminently understandible.
By Patrick Young
Long Island Wins
November 13, 2008
Why Did John McCain Lose the Latino Vote?
Obama won big among Hispanics -- with GOP's help
One of the big surprises of Tuesday's elections: Florida's Hispanic population voted heavily for Democratic candidate Barack Obama after decades of allegiance to Republican presidential candidates.
If the exit polls are correct, Obama won 57 percent of Florida's Hispanic vote, while Republican John McCain won 42 percent. It was the first time that a majority of Florida Hispanics voted for a Democratic president since the Hispanic vote started to be counted in the 1980s, pollsters say.
''It's spectacular,'' Democratic pollster Sergio Bendixen told me late Tuesday. ``It's the result of a structural change in the makeup of the Hispanic vote in the state, which is no longer as dominated by the Cuban-American vote as it used to be.''
This time, recent waves of immigrants from Puerto Rico, South America, Central America and the Dominican Republic made up more than half of the state's Hispanic vote.
WEAK NUMBERS
While a majority of Cuban Americans were expected to vote for McCain, their numbers were not enough to swing Florida's Hispanic vote to the Republican candidate, he said.
At the national level, more Hispanics seemed to have voted for Obama than for other recent Democratic candidates: The 67 percent of Hispanics who voted for Obama nationwide surpassed the 56 percent of Latinos who had voted for Kerry in 2004, and the 62 percent of Hispanics who voted for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
As far as pollsters recall, Obama got the second largest Hispanic vote nationwide since 1996, when President Bill Clinton received 72 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Frank Sharry, head of America's Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group, says the immigration issue hurt McCain badly among Hispanics at the national level.
''McCain's record on immigration makes him a hero for Latino immigrants, but the Republican Party is a threat to Latino immigrants,'' Sharry told me Tuesday night. 'And the `R' next to McCain's name was like an anchor that sunk his chances of winning the presidency.''
My opinion: Hispanics voted Democratic primarily because they are among the hardest hit by the economy and by the Iraq War.
But, as we have reported repeatedly in this column over the past two years, Latinos have good grounds for resenting the Republican Party's growing anti-immigrant stance. Many Republicans in Congress -- not McCain -- in some cases have bordered on racism.
McCain has a history of goodwill toward Hispanics and had sponsored a comprehensive immigration bill that advocated both securing the border and giving an earned path to legalization to undocumented immigrants.
GOP'S ROLE
But as the election neared, he shifted toward a let's-first-secure-the-border rhetoric to woo his party's hard-line anti-immigration vote, and the Republican Party's campaign platform pretty much advocated the unconditional deportation of millions of undocumented workers.
CLEVER TV AD
In the end, Obama won over many Hispanics by linking McCain to President Bush's economic policies -- 80 percent of Latinos disapprove of Bush, according to exit polls -- and by airing a clever television ad in the final week of the campaign in which he spoke to Latinos in Spanish -- or, rather, recited his lines in Spanish considering that he doesn't speak the language -- and likened his own life story to that of millions of Hispanic Americans.
And McCain gave him some extra help by failing to speak out forcibly against the most visceral anti-immigration advocates in his own party.
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
Miami Herald
Spanish Political Ads' Multiple Translations
Outreach Can Send a Mixed Message
How fitting that the most Latinized presidential campaign season in history enters its final week with the Democratic candidate looking deep into our eyes and carefully pronouncing 65 words in Spanish.
"Compartimos un sueño. . . . Este es el sueño Americano."
Just two questions about Barack Obama's new television ad: What is he saying, and to whom is he saying it?
The translation is easy enough: We share a dream. . . . This is the American dream.
But what is he saying, and who gets it? Also, what was the point of buying 30 minutes on Univision last night to run a translated version of his "American Stories" infomercial that simultaneously aired on several English-language networks?
The same can be asked of Republican candidate John McCain, who has aired several commercials with his spoken English translated into Spanish.
Is this just a little bit of linguistic showing off? Most Latino registered voters don't need to be addressed in Spanish. Those born in the United States tend to speak English fluently, and those naturalized as citizens had to pass an English test. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that 84 percent of Latino voters speak English very well or pretty well.
Also: Nearly a quarter of Latino registered voters speak little or no Spanish at all. Won't Obama's and McCain's messages in Spanish be lost on them?
Maybe not. The politics of language and the language of politics are full of bank shots, meta-messages. Sometimes the language is more meaningful than the words. The language is the music, never mind the lyrics.
"It allows that one-on-one cultural touch between the Latino community and a presidential candidate who simply cannot go shake everybody's hand," says Lorena Chambers, a Latina Democratic political consultant with Chambers Lopez & Gaitán.
"When you do something in Spanish, you're trying to communicate a bigger message than the message you're ostensibly sending," says Antonio Tijerino, president of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. "It resonates. The bigger message is, 'We care about Latinos.' "
But a candidate has to be careful. Latinos, like anybody else, don't like being talked down to. Fluent Hispanic English speakers are proud of their language mastery. They're galled by the charge hurled by some in the immigration debate that Latinos can't or won't learn English.
"They don't like to have people assume they speak Spanish, not English," says Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
But making that assumption is a social misstep between individuals -- like goofily breaking into Spanish every time you meet a Latino. That may not be a concern in mass advertising, Wilkes says. "The ad is addressed to everybody. . . . Why watch Univision if you don't want to see ads in Spanish?"
Complicating matters, in a single Latino family there may be, across generations, diversity in language, citizenship, even immigration status. Family members will put political information in English and Spanish to different uses. Tijerino says he gets most news and advertising from English-language sources, while still glancing at Spanish-language sources. His father and uncles speak English and are registered voters -- but their primary sources are in Spanish, secondary in English.
We've reached this point after a primary and general election cycle where Spanish has played a bigger role than ever, and the politics of language has seemed ready to explode at any moment.
You can date the new Latinized age -- with all its irony and paradox -- to the spring of 2007, when Newt Gingrich, not a candidate himself, apologized for saying that anything but English is "the language of living in a ghetto." To do penance, he went on YouTube -- and spoke for several minutes in grammatically flawless Spanish, which he studies assiduously.
There arose the first major Latino presidential primary contender and fluent Spanish speaker, Bill Richardson -- who never found a way to let Latino voters know he was Latino without coming off as too Latino. Another contender, Christopher Dodd, gave discourses in his decent Peace Corps Spanish, while Mitt Romney tried some phrases on the trail in Miami that backfired when he inadvertently quoted Fidel Castro's favorite battle cry.
Meanwhile, on the Hill, the Senate was debating whether English should be the "national" or "official" language.
Politicians have wanted to have it both ways ever since Jackie Kennedy delivered a campaign commercial in Spanish on behalf of her husband in 1960. They have wanted to reach Latinos by any means necessary -- but they have not wanted to show weakness in their allegiance to English and "American" culture.
Thus, when Obama does speak of his plan to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, he always makes clear it will include a requirement that they learn English.
But this week, he is speaking Spanish. Mano a mano, McCain hasn't matched Obama's linguistic feat. But his campaign reacted to the Spanish ad with a statement -- in English and Spanish -- from Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who said in part: "This election is about more than beautiful words."
Obama's campaign overstated the case when it claimed Obama is "the first presidential candidate" to deliver an ad in Spanish. John Kerry did it in 2004 in an ad created by Chambers's firm.
Spanish affords one subtlety lacking in English to communicate a candidate's personal style: Kerry used the formal "su voto" in asking for "your vote," while Obama has adopted the informal "tu voto" to make the same appeal.
Speaking Spanish is good as far as it goes, say members of the target audience. But there's more to Latinos than the language of the old countries.
"Thinking you're going to reach the entire diverse Latino population by doing a Spanish-language advertisement is as naive as thinking that you're going to connect with all Latinos by saying 'Happy Cinco de Mayo' to Peruvians and Nicaraguans," Tijerino says. "But I do appreciate the effort by Senator Obama."
By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Myth of the Latino Vote
Aside from passionate political discussions, populist promises and negative campaigns that flirt with libel, presidential elections also have the peculiarity of rediscovering forgotten groups of voters every four years.
Since the number of Hispanics began to increase rapidly in the 1980s, candidates to any elected government position, as well as the news media, started to speculate about the importance of the Latino vote and paid more attention to that electorate.
The myth that the Latino vote is decisive in presidential elections was born.
"(The Latino vote) is completely irrelevant," says Rodolfo de la Garza, a political science professor at Columbia University and vice president-research with the Los Angeles-based Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. "The myth was created by Latino leaders who wanted to convince politicians nationally about how important Latinos were.
"They believed that would make themselves and the Latino more important," he adds. "It was well-intentioned. It was also self-aggrandizing."
Although the Hispanic population has increased from 14 million in 1980 to more than 46 million in 2008, and has gained more political representation at the local and state levels, the Latino vote is still far from being decisive at the national level.
For de la Garza, a low voter turnout and the concentration of Latinos in states that are not competitive, such as California, Illinois, New York or Texas, cause the Latino vote to be less crucial than expected. While 58 percent of the nation's Latinos live in those four states, the Hispanic voter turnout stayed at 47 percent in 2000 and 2004, according to the Census Bureau.
Louis DeSipio, a political science professor at the University of California-Irvine, also considers the Latino vote irrelevant because, he claims, it will not determine victory in any major state or in the Electoral College.
"It reflects ignorance on the part of the media, because it lets them make a story where there isn't one," says DeSipio. "And it's reinforced by campaigns that very tactically want to tell the story about doing well with Latinos here and there."
Both de la Garza and DeSipio remember they began to see stories in the 1980s about how crucial the Latino vote would be. They think that the process of "mythification'' was produced and reinforced by different sectors: the news media, the two dominant political parties and some Latino leaders.
Some in academia, however, don't think it's a myth to say the Latino vote is decisive in presidential elections. Matt Barreto, political science professor at the University of Washington, acknowledges that the Latino electorate in states such as California, Texas or New York will not be decisive because the political inclination is already defined there, but points out that, in that context, the white or black vote will also be irrelevant in the majority of states.
"The states that do matter -- Florida, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada -- are on almost every list of battleground states, of the states that will cause the election to swing one way or the other, and they all have a very significant Latino population," says Barreto.
While the Latino population's increase has been significant in recent decades, Latinos are not sufficiently involved politically. The majority of them are young, less educated and have a smaller income, according to de la Garza. He says, however, there is another way of thinking about their importance:
"Latinos have changed the tone of American elections. They have created a more sophisticated electorate because they're perceived to be culturally and politically distinct, even if they're not. So it's deliberate and desirable for candidates to speak another language, for a candidate to be cognizant of another language.
"We change the context of the election, but not necessarily influence the outcome of the election," he concludes.
By: Alonso Yanez
Hispanic Link
August 1, 2008
McCain, in Orlando, will have to work for Hispanic vote
Republican presidential candidate John McCain is in town today to court black voters at the National Urban League convention.
He'll also try to show some love to Central Florida's Hispanics, the region's fastest-growing voting bloc.
Since 1990, their numbers have quadrupled to about 650,000, according to Democracia USA, a nonpartisan Hispanic voter-registration organization. Their voting population stands at 234,000 -- one in every eight registered voters. And unlike Hispanics in other states, who tend to be Democrats, Central Florida's aren't single-minded:
*44 percent are registered Democrats.
*22 percent are Republicans.
*34 percent are unaffiliated.
In the past two presidential elections, Hispanic voters here backed Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry. But they backed Republicans Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist in the last two gubernatorial elections.
So McCain has something to build on -- which is why he has scheduled a meeting with Puerto Rican voters today at Pancho's Spanish Bakery & Deli in east Orlando.
But he's also got a ways to go.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found Florida's Hispanic voters favor Democrat Barack Obama, 56 percent to McCain's 36 percent. And a recent national poll of Hispanics shows McCain trailing by almost 3-1 -- 23 percent to Obama's 66 percent.
The Pew Hispanic Center poll showed Obama leading among all Hispanic groups. His edge is especially pronounced among Puerto Ricans, who make up about half of Central Florida's Hispanic population.
Policy shift proves costly
Two years ago, McCain brokered an immigration-reform bill that was applauded by many Hispanics. But after the measure failed, he took a harder line during the Republican primary. That shift has mollified some of the GOP base, but it has cost him support among Hispanics.
Asked whom they trusted to handle immigration issues, 59 percent of Hispanics in the Pew poll said Obama. Nineteen percent chose McCain.
"There was a lot of talk in 2004 that Latinos might be becoming more Republican," said Mark Lopez, the Pew Center's associate director. "But we've noticed them leaning much more Democrat."
McCain may be able to buck that trend in Central Florida, but he'll have to do more than simply soften his tone on immigration, said Democracia USA President Jorge Mursuli.
"He's going to have to take a very aggressive stand," against what Mursuli describes as "plain old racism and bigotry" from some immigration hard-liners. "The fact that he hasn't done that yet has hurt him."
Mursuli said McCain also needs to ramp up his contact with Hispanic voters, adding they need a "metaphoric hug" before "they'll listen to your policies." His session today at Pancho's Bakery will be his first meeting with Central Florida Hispanics since Florida's GOP primary on Jan. 29.
The state's Hispanics form a voting bloc coveted by both campaigns.
As a group, they lean Democratic in presidential elections -- with the exception of South Florida Cubans -- and Democrats have launched a $20 million campaign to maintain that edge locally and nationally.
McCain has his own Hispanic-outreach network and has aired several Spanish-language ads. In Orange County, the local GOP paid the registration fee for some Hispanics to get on the ballot.
Moves might be too little
Despite that, Bill Negron, a member of McCain's Central Florida Hispanic Steering Committee, said he doesn't think McCain will win the Hispanic vote. Instead, he said, the Arizona senator must limit Obama's advantage if he expects to carry Florida.
"I think we can be in the high 30s or low 40s," said Negron, an Orlando mortgage broker. "That's realistic."
Negron is worried, however, that the campaign has some catching up to do in Central Florida. So far, he said, the Obama team has "been better at getting their message out."
Still, it's not clear how effective that message has been.
A new Quinnipiac University poll has Obama up 2 points statewide over McCain among all voters -- but trailing by 10 points in the Orlando area, despite his big lead among Hispanics. East Orlando resident Maritza Gonzalez supports the Illinois senator, but only reluctantly.
A Hillary Clinton supporter, she thinks McCain "is more interested in war, and I don't want the war to continue."
But, she added, "To tell the truth, I don't like either candidate. But if I have to choose, it's going to be Obama . . .; it sounds like he wants to make things better."
Gonzalez, a part-time Wal-Mart cashier, seems much like many voters at this point in the campaign. She's paid scant attention to the daily political chatter. What she's really worried about are things that concern voters of every demographic: her husband's job security -- his airline is laying people off -- and their looming mortgage, car and utility payments.
Jim Stratton
Orlando Sentinel
Democracia on McCain outreach: "I just don't see it."
Democracia USA, the Miami-based Hispanic political outreach group, held a press conference in Orlando Thursday to tout the region's growing swing Latino voting base and try to entice both presidential candidates to talk about their issues.
But Democracia President Jurge Mursuli was blunt when we asked what Hispanic outreach he was seeing in Florida from Republican John McCain.
"I don't," he said after the press conference. "I think he has some traditional allies here helping ... I just don't see a lot of investment by the McCain folks. I assume it's in the works. I just don't see it yet."
Democrat Barack Obama announced earlier this week his campaign and the Democratic National Committee were devoting $20 million for Hispanic outreach this election cycle. Obama's campaign has been up with Spanish-language radio ads. And according to last week's Pew survey and today's Quinnipiac poll, he's leading among Latino voters both nationally and in Florida. Quinnipiac found Florida's Hispanic voters favored Obama 56-36 percent over McCain.
Even so, Obama can't sit idly by, Mursuli said. Central Florida's Hispanic population has nearly doubled to 650,000 since 2000. Latino voters have grown from 6 percent to 12 percent of the total area’s electorate over that time, and have been hardly monolithic.
They went for Al Gore in 2000, then Gov. Jeb Bush two years later, then presidential candidate John Kerry two years after that. Given McCain's history with Hispanic voters in Arizona and his strong support they gave him in the primary, McCain can rebound if he moves away from hard-right anti-immigrant positions, he said.
Meanwhile, "Hispanic voters are very relationship-oriented, and most Hispanics don't know Obama yet," he said.
Quinnipiac assistant polling director Peter Brown agreed. "Sen. McCain is not doing nearly as well with Hispanics as President Bush did ... but clearly, Obama has not closed the sale."
UPDATE: McCain spokesman Mario Diaz said Florida Hispanics "gave John McCain a decisive victory during the primary and they will do so on Election Day because he has a proven record of fighting for their values and principles for two decades."
by Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
July 21, 2008
Are Obama, McCain reaching Hispanic voters?
TAMPA — Juan Velazquez's words made Evelyn Hale cringe.
"I'm going for (John) McCain," said the empanada shop worker of Puerto Rican descent. "I see him more as a leader."
"Not to be racist,'' he added, "but if (Barack) Obama wins, black people are going to want back what was taken from them. . . . A lot of racial things are going to start to happen if Obama wins."
Hale, 28, left frustrated because she thinks Obama's message isn't reaching Hispanics and the Democrats aren't connecting with them as voters.
A Democrat who is half Colombian, Hale started the Hispanic Vision Forum this year with Republican co-founder Angelette Aviles, 32, who is of Puerto Rican descent. It is a nonpartisan effort that the women fund out of their own pockets to encourage Florida Hispanics to realize their political power and vote.
They also use polls, focus groups and articles about Hispanics posted on a blog and Web site to educate the presidential candidates about how to reach the diverse Hispanic community in Florida — from Cubans in Miami, to Puerto Ricans in Orlando to a blend of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and South Americans in the Tampa area.
South Florida Cuban-Americans have historically leaned heavily toward Republicans, while Central Florida Hispanics lean Democratic. Still, the women acknowledge that Hispanics tend to vote for the person and the issues, not the party.
Hale and Aviles disagree on politics, but say both candidates have a long way to go to reach a population that could swing the presidential election.
For instance, the media and candidates have been focusing on immigration reform. But the forum's polls show that the economy is the top issue for Hispanic voters, with immigration reform ranking 10th on a list of priorities. Other polls reveal that education tops the list among Hispanic voters.
When asked about immigration in a forum focus group, more than 70 percent of Hispanic voters said that securing the border should be the top priority.
Hale says she's tried to get the word to Obama's campaign about the hesitancy that even some Democratic Hispanics have about him because of lingering tension between blacks and Hispanics involving, among other things, competition over jobs.
"What we're saying to them is that Obama is not flying, he's not connecting with (Hispanics)," she said following a voter registration project at the empanada store in Tampa.
Still, a recent AP-Yahoo News poll found Obama leading McCain 47 percent to 22 percent among Hispanic voters with 26 percent undecided.
Among Hispanics, Hillary Clinton beat Obama by large margins in the Democratic primary. Now, some of her Hispanic supporters are undecided about the general election.
Behind the counter at Amigos One Stop Grocery in Tampa, Mari Martinez said she backed Clinton in the primary. But now she doesn't know who to vote for in November. Revealing how much Hispanic votes can shift between parties, she'd also voted for Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
"Hillary, she went through a lot of stuff and supported her husband 100 percent," said Martinez, originally from Ecuador. "No matter if he was wrong, she protected her guy."
She doesn't know enough about Obama, she says, and doesn't like McCain because she thinks he's too old for the job.
McCain also has a lot of work to do connecting with Hispanics, said Aviles, who is also the area director of the McCain Hispanic Coalition and runs a communications consulting company.
But, she says, the real campaigning has only just started.
Both candidates recently spoke to large national Hispanic leadership groups.
Obama's campaign opened a state headquarters in Ybor City this week, and McCain has satellite offices in Tampa and Orlando.
The women say both candidates need to reach out to Florida's Hispanic communities with personal messages about family, education and the economy, important issues for them. They can't just translate speeches.
Voters want to hear more, too.
"I'm going to talk from a neutral position," said Noel Fernandez, co-owner of Florida Bakery, standing behind a counter of cookies and breads. "Obama will come with change. McCain is the same, the same. But still, I don't know."
The top issue for him is health care, he said. That's why he voted for Hillary Clinton. "She had a good medical plan a long time ago," he said.
Hale said she believes both candidates are trying harder with Hispanics. But sometimes the campaigns reach out to the same people. The Tampa Bay area and the I-4 corridor are a combination of new citizens and Hispanics with decades of roots.
"Tampa Bay has changed a lot in the last 10 years," said Hale, who also heads the Hispanic Alliance of Tampa Bay, which includes 40 organizations.
"If they really want to do a good job, either McCain or Obama, they need to focus and get people in there who truly understand the Hispanic culture," Hale said.
By Saundra Amrhein
St. Pete Times Staff Writer
July 19, 2008
A Quinceañera Election Party
The political story of the moment is the Latino vote. As presidential candidates John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) present their cases to the leading Latino advocacy groups, the message everywhere is about how pivotal the Latino vote will be this year. It almost feels like a quinceañera party for Latinos—where we will “come of age” as voters in the United States.
Sen. McCain, Sen. Obama, and the mainstream press are all embarked on a mini-Latino tour. The two candidates are issuing sound bites they think Latino communities wants to hear, and the media is eating it up. The bulk of the coverage is on what McCain and Obama say or don’t say about immigration, yet this is only one important piece of Latino politics, not the ONLY piece, as poll after poll shows.
This year’s election, when the Latino vote will be central to any candidate who wants to win the White House, was supposed to be the moment to laser in on the issues that have been at the top of the Latino concerns: education, the economy, health care, the war in Iraq. Yet the focus of mainstream media and even the blogo-sphere is about whether McCain should call us “God’s children”?
Please. Among Latinos today, unemployment is at a staggering 7.7 percent, and we hold 46 percent of all high-cost loans such as adjustable-rate mortgages or no-income documentation loans. Latinos represent 33 percent of those without insurance—the highest percentage of uninsured—and at 21 percent, the national Latino high school dropout rate is more than twice the national average.
The focus on Latinos in this election year should be on the educational, economic, and health care crises Latinos are facing, and how the candidates’ proposals will help alleviate them. There is plenty to explore: how Latinos are disproportionately affected by the economic downturn; how the digital divide is leaving Latinos behind; how Latinos’ political representation is not keeping pace with their population growth; or how the HIV crisis is affecting in the Latino community.
Or how about the fact that many Latinos who had hoped to participate in this election are in danger of being disenfranchised? Who is providing more substance on those stories? Who is asking the follow up questions?
Sadly, not many in the media are. Reporters, anchors, and pundits alike keep repeating over and over what we already know—that Latinos have the numbers and the votes to make or break a candidate in this election. Yet when it comes to reporting on the issues that matter—stories that would help shape the election debate, which after all is one of the key obligations of a free press—Latinos are clearly ill-served.
This election is important to our whole country, of course, not just Latinos. So perhaps it isn’t fair to single out mainstream media alone for the lack of awareness in the United States to the plight of many Latinos. An important political question, then, is whether Hispanics will demand better than they have had from both political parties. Now more than ever is the time for this community to firmly and unequivocally send the message that Mariachi politics and chanting “Sí se puede” will no longer be sufficient.
But for Latinos to be effective in drawing out the candidates on the issues, we can’t simply rely on the blessings of our so called “leaders” as perhaps they really are not in touch as much as we (and they) would like to think they are. We can’t solely ask our relatives for guidance because we believe they may have more insight into the political process. And as much as we love our media personalities, such as Jorge Ramos, Hispanic TV’s number one correspondent, or El Cucuy or El Piolin, the radio DJs credited with helping turn out millions during the immigration marches of 2006, we should not turn to them as our only source of political information.
This election year, Latinos must do their homework. We need to better understand the issues beyond immigration, and where the candidates stand on them—today and in the past. Otherwise, after we vote on the first Tuesday in November, we risk being “planchando,” or wallpaper flowers, in the greatest quinceañera election party Latino voters ever had.
By: Vanessa Cárdenas
Director of Ethnic Media at the Center for American Progress Action Fund
July 17, 2008
Analysis: What's wrong with pandering to Latino voters?
(CNN) -- "Pandering." According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to pander is to: "provide gratification for others' desires." So is that what John McCain and Barack Obama are doing with Hispanic voters?
If you follow coverage of their speeches at three Latino events -- the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the League of United Latin American Citizens and The National Council of La Raza -- the answer would be yes.
Why? Because the two candidates are talking about making immigration reform a priority if they reach the White House, and to make it there, they know the Hispanic vote can have a great impact.
More than 9 million Hispanics are expected to vote on November 4th. They traditionally favor Democrats, but many have supported Republicans in key races. In 2004, for example, 40 percent of the Latino vote went to President Bush -- so going after them makes political sense.
Do Hispanics care about immigration reform? Yes, they do. But it's not the only issue that concerns them. See where the candidates stand on immigration
They, too, pay more than $4 for a gallon of gas, and are worried about the economy, foreclosures, the war in Iraq and access to health care and education. But the debate on immigration has motivated many to apply for citizenship and many others to register to vote.
Hispanics aren't a monolithic group as many seem to believe. Some families go back six or seven generations. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth. Cubans can stay if they make it to U.S soil. Latinos from all over Latin America come by plane.
Surprisingly, a majority of Latino voters show a deep interest in immigration reform, even though it wouldn't benefit them directly because they are U.S. citizens.
They believe reform would help in a community that shares a common language, even though it has many differences. They aren't naïve and won't be swayed with tall tales.
But to pander has a negative connotation and the concept seems highlighted when it refers to Hispanics, the largest- and fastest-growing minority in the nation.
This electorate is familiar with politicians making promises they don't always keep -- and surely will see that McCain favors border security before immigration reform, a reform he put his name on at great cost.
They are aware of the need to learn English in order to succeed, and not necessarily for every child to learn Spanish as Obama suggested. That could fuel fears about Hispanic influence, and spur some to use that fear to score political points.
In this case, the approach goes in two directions. It can be seen as pandering to a specific group for political gain, but it can also be portrayed as a challenge to Hispanics.
With greater clout comes higher responsibility; it means not only registering to vote, but actually doing it on Election Day, making those numbers count, showing that Latinos are more than a group with great potential.
Is pandering to Hispanics any different from pandering to other groups? Why isn't there a similar outcry when candidates address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on the future of Israel? Or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Isn't that pandering?
Hispanics are coming of political age, and probably face a dilemma. But which is better -- being pandered to, or ignored? And no, it's not a trick question.
By Juan Carlos Lopez
CNN en Español Senior Correspondent
July 15, 2008
State May Be Getting A Touch Blue
TAMPA - Is Florida turning blue? Or just slightly bluish? Or even just a less reddish shade of purple?
Florida Democrats contend voter registration figures and recent election results show signs of a shift in the politics of a state dominated for more than a decade by Republicans.
The signs aren't overwhelming - a small but significant uptick in numbers of Democratic voters; a partisan shift in Hispanic voter registration; urban counties including Pinellas turning somewhat more Democratic.
But in a state with a Republican governor and big GOP majorities in the state House, state Senate, elected Cabinet and congressional delegation, any success for Democrats stands out. Those signals are being heard more loudly after the 2006 election, when Democrats made electoral gains in Florida for the first time in more than a decade.
"There could be a strong tide," is the optimistic view of Mark Bubriski, a former spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party who is working for the Barack Obama campaign. "But it's the type of change that doesn't happen overnight."
Baloney, respond the Republicans.
Republicans dominate government in Florida even though they have long trailed Democrats in numbers of registered voters, said state party spokeswoman Erin VanSickle. She noted that Gov. Charlie Crist won in 2006 by 400,000 votes, even though Republicans had 400,000 fewer voters on the rolls than Democrats. "All that matters is what happens on Election Day, and we've shown time and again that Republicans turn out voters at the polls, even when we're down in registration numbers."
University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus, an expert on demographic trends in politics, thinks the changes are real - "an example of the cyclical nature of politics," she said. MacManus said the change in registration figures comes partly from younger voters, who are becoming more likely to register Democratic and less likely to register no-party or in minor parties.
"Some of it's driven by the excitement of the primary - the Obama-Hillary race has sped up that process," she said. MacManus said the changes aren't big enough to mean Democrats are sure to win Florida in 2008, "but at least show a party that's on the upswing, not the downswing."
Reagan, Retirees Drove GOP Gains
For Florida Democrats, any glimmer of hope would be welcome. For more than a decade, they've predicted and hoped for a resurgence in every Florida election, only to see Republicans make gains. At one time, Florida was part of the Democratic-dominated Solid South. As late as the mid-1960s, there were four registered Democrats in Florida for every Republican.
GOP-oriented Midwestern retirees and the popularity of Ronald Reagan erased that advantage in the 1970s and '80s. In 1994, Democrats slipped below 50 percent of registered Florida voters, although they remain Florida's largest party. Between 1994 and 1998, Republicans won their first state Legislature majorities in modern history, then their first majority in the state's elected Cabinet, along with the governor's mansion, taking control of state government. They used that power to redraw legislative and congressional district lines to their advantage. With the favorable districts, they reached majorities of about 2-1 in the Legislature and Florida's congressional delegation early in this decade.
For Democrats, it has been an era of unrelieved gloom. The party couldn't raise money or recruit candidates. In 2002, there were more Libertarians than Democrats on the ballot for state House seats. No Democratic presidential candidate has received Florida's electoral votes since 1996, and in three straight elections - 2000, 2002 and 2004 - only one Democrat, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, managed to win a statewide race.
That era is ending, Democrats say. In 2006, the party made its first electoral gains, small but significant, since 1994. For the first time since 1998, a Democratic candidate who didn't already hold a statewide office won one when Alex Sink of Tampa became state chief financial officer. Democrats also took seven previously Republican state House seats, then added two more in special elections afterward; and won two previously Republican congressional seats. They now hold 14 of the 26 state Senate seats, 43 of 120 state House seats, and nine of the 25 congressional seats. Bad as those numbers are for the Democrats, they are still an improvement.
Democrats Add Voters To Rolls
Meanwhile, voter figures have shown signs of Democratic movement since 2006. For more than a decade, both major parties have declined gradually but steadily in their share of the electorate, as more voters registered no-party or in minor parties. Since the 2006 general election, while Republicans continued that decline, Democrats registered an uptick, from 40.4 percent to 41.2 percent - the first time since at least 1994 that either party hasn't declined in its percentage of total registered voters. As of the end of May, the most recent figures available on the state Division of Elections' Web site, 41.2 percent of Florida voters are Democrats, 37.2 percent are Republicans and 21.6 percent are minor party or no-party.
Steve Schale, a former state Democratic Party strategist who now works for the Obama campaign in Florida, listed other signs:
•In the two years the state has been keeping separate figures on Hispanic voters, Democrats have come from behind to lead Republicans, with 35.5 percent of the state's 1.18 million Hispanic voters, to 35.2 percent. Hispanics are the nation's and Florida's fastest-growing ethnic group.
•The percentage of Democrats is increasing in most of the state's large, urban counties. Democrats recently surpassed Republicans for the first time in Pinellas County, the birthplace of Florida's Republican Party.
•Out of Florida's 120 state House districts, 77 have become more Democratic since 2002, Schale said.
This year, with an unpopular Republican president leaving office, "Our brand is looking better than theirs," he said.
Changes May Be Misleading, GOP Says
Again, Republicans questioned the significance of such figures. Small changes in voter figures can be misleading, they noted, because of purges, when county officials remove inactive voters from the rolls. Registration figures can also be questionable because of Florida's closed primaries, in which only voters registered in a party can participate. Voters often register in a party they don't agree with, simply to be able to vote in the primary.
That has long been the case in North Florida, for example, where Democrats dominate in registered voters, but almost never win statewide or presidential elections.
MacManus agreed that the changes are too small to allow predictions of Democratic wins in Florida in 2008, but she said they could have a long-term effect, particularly if the young people registering Democratic because of Obama see their candidate win. "The first time somebody votes, if their candidate does well, they're likely to stay with that party for a long time," she said.
By WILLIAM MARCH
The Tampa Tribune
July 14, 2008
Winning Hispanic votes will require genuine engagement
Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has reignited an examination of race relations in America. It has led some to question how deep the divide is between black and white Americans. From my perspective, the question ignores the reality of our diverse society. We must also consider the divide between the majority from another group, one that I happen to belong to: Hispanics.
According to the Pew Research Center, Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, at 42 million people and 14 percent of the population. By 2050, that population will triple, to 128 million, which will be 29 percent of the American population.
Those numbers already are having a political influence. Just how strong it might be could become clear in November. In a close presidential election, the Hispanic vote could decide the outcome. For example, in the strategic states of New Mexico, Florida and Colorado, Hispanics make up, respectively, 37 percent, 14 percent and 12 percent of eligible voters.
The conventional wisdom is that Hispanics vote Democratic. But it’s not necessarily so. In 1999, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report published in 2007, Democrats enjoyed a 33 percent advantage over Republicans in partisan allegiance among Hispanic registered voters. However, in 2003, a sufficient number of Hispanics voted for Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger (over a respected Hispanic Democrat) to make Schwarzenegger the governor of California. In 2004, President Bush won a historic percentage of the Hispanic vote (more than 40 percent). By 2006, again according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the Democrats’ edge in partisan allegiance had dropped to 21 percent.
Pew’s numbers now show that Hispanic voters are heading back into the Democratic fold, but the message in these voting patterns and in the demographic projections is that neither party can afford to take the Hispanic vote for granted.
The great diversity within the Hispanic population presents a challenge for both parties. Mexican Americans in Texas, Cuban Americans in Florida and Puerto Rican Americans in New York do not agree on every issue. But — while I can’t speak for all Hispanics —I believe there are issues that resonate for us all.
Among them, of course, is immigration. Hispanic support will swing to the political party that has the courage and fortitude to put forward a specific immigration solution that is effective and efficient in securing our borders, that supports the economic interests of the nation and that is compassionate in a way that is consistent with the character of a nation of immigrants.
Beyond immigration, both parties need to forge closer relationships with Hispanic voters. More importantly, they need to embrace policies from the Hispanic point of view.
What is that point of view? For starters, while we wear suits on Wall Street or Main Street, we know the experience — personally or from our parents and grandparents — of working in the fields, on the docks and in the kitchen. We want a job, not a handout. We value opportunity over more government. We are risk takers, willing to bet on ourselves and start a business. We want a society that recognizes and rewards us based on our hard work and ingenuity, not our skin color.
We are unabashedly proud of America, and we are prepared to enlist, fight and die for this country, sometimes even without the right to vote for its leaders. We believe an education represents freedom in America, and we are willing to work multiple jobs so our children can go to college.
Finally, although we know that America strives to be a fair country, the harsh reality is we are not one nation with liberty and justice for all. And yet equal opportunity — to a job, to capital and to credit — is a cornerstone of American success. The promise of equal opportunity is what drew our parents and grandparents and what still draws immigrants to the U.S., and it is what firmly knits them into the country once they are citizens.
As we move to the next phase of the presidential campaign, some people might try to discourage discussion about race relations in favor of issues they say are of greater importance: the war against al-Qaeda, the cost of energy, the subprime mortgage crisis. However, we need leaders who appreciate — and who choose to confront — the crucial elements of racial inequality within these so-called bigger issues. Those are the leaders who are likely to be successful in finding effective solutions to our most important challenges.
I have often said that Hispanics share a common prayer: “Just give me a chance to succeed.” I believe that the candidate who will win Hispanic votes is the one who understands that desire and who will engage the issue of racial equality for Americans of all colors. It’s politically wise. More importantly, it is the right thing to do.
Written by: Alberto R. Gonzales
Former Attorney General of the United States
July 7, 2008
Immigration Not the Only Issue That’s Key to Latino Vote
Immigration is a hot topic on the talk-show circuit as prognosticators try to predict how the presumptive presidential nominees, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain , will fare among Latinos. But experts say that despite the importance Hispanic voters place on immigration, they remain more likely to be swayed by the candidates’ positions on a series of issues that have little to do with border fences and pathways to citizenship.
In part, that is because McCain and Obama both have supported a three-pronged approach to overhauling the nation’s immigration laws that would enhance border security, rewrite temporary-worker programs and create a route to citizenship for the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the country.
McCain, an Arizona senator, wrote immigration bills with Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, in 2006 and 2007, and Obama, of Illinois, was part of the larger group of senators who worked on the agreement.
McCain has been criticized by Democrats for saying during the GOP primary that he would have voted against the 2007 bill in its final form and for shifting his emphasis to the border-control elements of the legislation. Obama has come under fire for backing a “poison pill” amendment, adopted by one vote, that helped scuttle the bill.
But even if their positions on immigration were not similar, experts say there is reason to believe most Hispanic votes will hinge on how the candidates present themselves on the economy, education, health care, crime, taxes and national security.
Latino voters will be closely watched in a cluster of southwestern states -- Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico -- that President George W. Bush narrowly won in 2004, as well as in Florida and in a handful of swing states where less attention has been paid to growing Hispanic communities. The candidates’ dexterity in navigating the political nuances of courting Latino voters -- who have origins in a diverse set of nations and whose roots in this country range from one generation to many generations -- could determine how well they do in those states.
In a 2007 Pew Hispanic Center survey, immigration was deemed to be “very important” or “extremely important” by 79 percent of respondents, ranking it fifth among the issues tested. Education, health care, the economy and jobs, and crime rated higher, and the Iraq War finished behind immigration with 70 percent of respondents calling it very important or extremely important.
“When we think about Hispanic voters as opposed to the Hispanic community, Hispanic voters are all U.S. citizens and many of them are native born. So it’s not surprising that immigration is not one of the top issues for Hispanics,” said Susan Minushkin, deputy director of the Pew Hispanic Center. “The issues that you would expect to see important for a group of voters that tends to be younger than the population as a whole and is more likely to have children under the age of 18 living in their household.”
Democrats believe that all augurs well for Obama, who has adopted the slogan “si se puede” -- or “yes, we can” -- from the United Farm Workers, a heavily Hispanic labor union. “The Latino community is going to vote their self-interest and they’re going to vote their future and when they do that I think that it will be overwhelmingly for Barack Obama ,” said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Obama spoke about educational opportunities at a recent candidate forum held by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, saying “it is so important for us to make sure that every child in America is getting the education that will ultimately make us all stronger and improve our economy.”
The vital question is whether Obama’s expected edge among Hispanic voters will, indeed, be “overwhelming.” National exit polling from 2004 showed John Kerry winning Latino voters 53 percent to 44 percent, but some experts have questioned the methodology and accuracy of those surveys, suggesting that Kerry probably did better.
McCain has been elected four times from a state in which nearly one-third of the population is of Hispanic origin and which abuts Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.
On Wednesday, he released a Spanish-language radio ad slated to run in New Mexico and Nevada that features his Naval Academy roommate, Frank Gamboa. “He has earned the trust of Latinos and has a history of supporting us,” Gamboa says in Spanish. “So when it comes to our values and understanding Latinos this election, I know for John it’s not political; it comes from the heart.”
The ad underscores areas where McCain thinks he can appeal to Latino voters, including his military background and on social conservatism. “He shares our same conservative values and faith in God,” Gamboa says in a pitch that comes on the heels of a McCain trip to Latin American countries.
By Jonathan Allen and Andrew Satter
CQ Politics Staff
July 2, 2008
Hispanic voters gaining strength in key states
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting by Hispanics surged in the last congressional elections, showing strength that could swing this year's presidential vote in closely contested states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. A government report released Tuesday shows that 5.6 million Hispanics voted in the 2006 general election, an increase of 18 percent over 2002, the previous year for a federal election without a presidential race on the ballot. That compares to a 7 percent increase among white voters and a 5 percent increase for black voters.
"For years they called the Latinos the sleeping giant. Well, they woke us up," said Luis Vera, general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC. Vera said the debate over illegal immigration has energized Hispanic voters, a trend he expects to continue this year.
The presidential candidates are taking notice. Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama both addressed the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials last week and both are scheduled to speak at the LULAC national convention next week.
Hispanics made up only 6 percent of American voters in 2006, according to the report by the Census Bureau. But their numbers are big enough to be decisive in several battleground states, especially in a tight race.
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida all have a significant number of Hispanic voters. President Bush narrowly won all four states in 2004, and they could all be hotly contested this year. "When you look at the battleground states, at least four of them are very heavily Hispanic," said Simon Rosenberg, head of a think tank called NDN, formerly the New Democrat Network. "We will see more (campaign) media heaped on Hispanic voters than at any time in American history."
Hispanics, long considered part of the Democratic base, have become swing voters in recent elections. President Bush did well among Hispanic voters in his two presidential victories. But many swung back to the Democrats in 2006, when many Republicans staked out tough positions against illegal immigration. The Democrats regain control of both houses of Congress.
McCain and Obama have both supported comprehensive packages that included an eventual path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country illegally. McCain, however, now says he would secure the border first.
A recent AP-Yahoo News poll showed that Obama leads McCain among Hispanics, 47 percent to 22 percent with 26 percent undecided.
Still, Obama, who is trying to become the first black president, doesn't have a lock on the Hispanic vote. During the Democratic primary, Hispanics preferred rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to Obama by nearly 2-to-1.
The Census data comes from a national survey which asks 50,000 residents after each federal election whether they were registered to vote and whether they voted. The survey does not ask about candidate preferences or political affiliations. The Associated Press compared voting statistics from the 2006 and 2002 surveys. The 2004 survey was not included because voter turnout in presidential elections is much higher than in the off years.
Voter turnout was up for all racial and ethnic groups in 2006. Overall, 48 percent of voting-age citizens cast a ballot in 2006, the highest percentage in a non-presidential year since 1994, when the Republicans took control of Congress.
Hispanics are the nation's largest and fastest growing minority group, though they have been slow to gain political power nationally because only 60 percent of adult Hispanics are U.S. citizens, according to the Census Bureau. Both political parties, however, see their voting strength growing.
"Just looking at the demographics, whichever party ends up winning the Latino vote will be the majority party in the 21st century," Rosenberg said.
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
June 22, 2008
English language legislation gathers steam across the USA
English as an official language has gained momentum as proponents keep going to the ballot box with measures that discourage bilingual ballots, notices and documents.
Thirty states now have laws specifying that official government communications be in English, says U.S. English, a group that promotes the laws. This year such bills are under consideration in 19 legislatures.
"It's multiplying tremendously," says Mauro Mujica, a Chilean immigrant and chairman and CEO of U.S. English. "We've made huge progress."
Critics do not see progress. Some say the increase in the measures nationwide sends a hostile message to newcomers.
"It just poisons the atmosphere in local communities," says John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Typically the proposed laws require that documents, ballots and other communications be published in English. Exempt are communications to protect public health and safety or efforts to promote tourism.
This year:
•In May, the Ohio House of Representatives approved a bill making English the state's official language. It is now before the state Senate.
•In April, the Oklahoma House passed a bill requiring the majority of state business to be conducted in English. It is before the Senate.
•Missouri will decide this fall on an amendment to the constitution requiring English for "all official proceedings."
Advocates say they are not suggesting that English be the only language spoken but that it be the only language used in dealing with government.
Mujica, who speaks Spanish in his home, says requiring English for official business encourages immigrants to learn English. That will help them to assimilate into U.S. society and prosper in its economy, he says.
"We're making it too easy for people to function in other languages," he complains.
But the effectiveness of the movement is in question since federal sometimes trumps a state's official English law. For instance, the Voting Rights Act requires certain localities to publish bilingual ballots.
"They've raised the level of ire against languages other than English (but)… haven't really changed the government's or businesses' way of doing business," Trasvina said.
Rob Toonkel, spokesman for U.S. English, says that is not true. He says the laws do not cover everything but ensure that things like driver's licenses, zoning forms and the day-to-day activities are overwhelmingly in English.
"We want to be sure (immigrants) are becoming part of America and American society," he says. "That's what official English is about."
There is one issue the two sides appear to agree on — more can be done to help non-English speakers learn English.
Sam Jammal, legislative attorney in MALDEF's Washington, D.C. office, says making English classes more available for adult immigrants is a better solution than official English.
"We fully agree with that," Mujica says.
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
June 20, 2008
New-citizenship wave rises
MONTEBELLO — Ernesto Alonso came to the United States 20 years ago, alone and looking for work — and a better life. Over the years, he bounced around from job to job as he tried to make ends meet. But the North Hollywood resident never made becoming a citizen a priority until this presidential election.
"I'm becoming a citizen because I want to vote," Alonso said Thursday as his wife, Irene, and 9-year-old son, Miguel, stood by him during a citizenship ceremony at a Montebello banquet hall. "I want to be part of this country."
Alonso, 39, is part of a rising wave of Latino immigrants eager to become citizens and get involved in the political process. On Thursday, he was among about 3,600 people who waved miniature U.S. flags and recited the Pledge of Allegiance during a series of ceremonies in Montebello.
New citizens also sang the national anthem, watched a welcoming video by President Bush and listened to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American."
Alonso is part of a changing political dynamic of Mexican nationals, wielding increasing political clout, that could become an important factor in the United States presidential race.
Last month's citizenship ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center drew 18,000, and the biggest group, with more than 7,700 people, represented Mexico.
The University of Southern California's Tomas Rivera Policy Institute found that more Latinos are becoming naturalized for several reasons, most notably this year's election.
"It's not a question of who will get the Hispanic vote, but what percentage of the Latino vote will (Republican Sen. John) McCain get," said Harry Pachon, the institute's president and a professor of public policy at USC. "One thing we forget about in this discussion is that 30(percent) to 40percent of legal immigrants in the past 30 to 40 years have been from south of the border."
Latino voters increase
Some 9 million Hispanics will be able to cast ballots in the November election, a 23 percent increase since 2004, Pachon said. And since the 1980s, the naturalization rate has increased 10 times within the Mexican immigrant population, he noted.
While numbers for 2008 won't be available until later this year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials say there already is a backlog of prospective citizens, and there is anecdotal evidence of an increase.
"For brand-new citizens, we go out and provide the ability t0 sign up to vote," said Loretta Uriarte, an Obama campaign volunteer in North Hollywood. "It's important to welcome them into the process and include them."
Bilingual volunteers, eager to communicate with Spanish-speaking citizens, will be among those who attend events in North Hollywood Park reaching out to new voters, Uriarte said. The next event is set for Sunday, she said.
Obama has been shoring up his support with Latino voters after Sen. Hillary Clinton's departure from the race earlier this month. Clinton won roughly 2-to-1 among Hispanic voters against Obama in the primaries, according to the Pew Hispanic Center's analysis.
McCain trying, too
McCain hopes to pick up some votes from former Clinton supporters in the Latino community as well.
"Sen. McCain has a long relationship with Latinos," said Hessy Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the campaign. "He's traveled to states such as California, where there are large Latino populations. During the Republican primaries, he got the Latino vote in contrast to the other Republican candidates."
Both sides will be looking to sway voters like Erika Rodriguez, 34, of Glendale, who became a citizen Thursday, something she had put off since moving to the United States illegally at 15.
"I'm proud of who I am and where I came from," said Rodriguez, a restaurant manager. "The first thing I want to do is go celebrate."
Alonso already was holding a passport application he received moments before he became a citizen. He also planned to go to the voter-registration table after the ceremony.
"It was my dream to be a citizen," said Alonso, who added that he's leaning toward Obama. "It's not easy. You have to do a lot of things, but when you get there, you feel good."
Written By:
Justino Águila, Daily News L.A.
June 11, 2008
Spanish-language media key to victory with Latinos
While the dust was still settling last week in the Democratic presidential race between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain was kicking up his general election advertising war — on Spanish-language radio.
Smart move.
Obama, the Democratic survivor, is still figuring out how to win over the huge Hispanic voting bloc that strongly favored Clinton in the primaries. But McCain already has begun his Hispanic media campaign — in Spanish and English — in the hopes of copying the successes that President Bush had with those voters.
Republican candidates spent more advertising dollars to woo Hispanic voters in recent presidential elections, and Bush won two terms in the White House with 40 percent of the Latino vote.
But with the Democratic Party finally realizing it cannot take Hispanics for granted, the McCain campaign is bracing for the toughest competition ever for Latino support.
After introducing its first Spanish television ad in April and then going back onto Spanish radio in New Mexico and Nevada last week, the McCain campaign has produced 10 other ads targeting Hispanics that will roll out when the time is right.
“We know that what’s going to be different is that we have a smarter opponent than ever before,” said Lionel Sosa, McCain’s top Hispanic media strategist, who has worked with Bush and other Republicans for decades. Obama’s campaign will be “bigger, stronger, smarter than ever before,” Sosa predicted.
There is another striking difference in this year’s Latino campaign.
In the 2000 and 2004 presidential contests, Bush was comfortable enough with Spanish to regularly use it in his campaigns against former Vice President Al Gore and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, who did not speak the language. This year the situation is reversed, as Obama recently proved when he spoke directly into the television camera in a Spanish-language ad that aired during the Puerto Rico primary.
Obama’s Spanish ads are “quite good,” and Obama “apparently has learned Spanish well enough to do his own commercials,” Sosa said. “But it’s not who knows the language best. It’s who knows Latinos best, and there’s no doubt that McCain knows Latinos best.”
The candidates’ messages are more important than the language in which they are delivered. Still, the changing demographics of the U.S. Latino population have complicated how the candidates communicate with Hispanic communities.
In previous years, English-dominant second- and third-generation Latinos were the likely voters. Now, almost half of Hispanic voters are foreign-born. NDN, a progressive Democratic group, estimates that about eight out of 10 Hispanics speak Spanish at home.
There are other signs of the growing Hispanic market. There are now 872 Spanish-language radio stations in the U.S., up from 587 in 2000, according to Arbitron, which tracks radio listeners.
Arbitron also noted that the “key growing and emerging” Hispanic markets — in addition to those that are already well-established — are outside the Miami area and in South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana and Nevada.
Hispanics could determine the outcome of the McCain/Obama contest in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Florida, states that Bush won by less than 5 percent of the vote in 2004.
English and Spanish radio is considered the best media source for Hispanics, but Spanish-language television news also is a powerful presence in the lives of Latinos.
The local television newscasts of the top-rated Univision Spanish-language network lead in 16 markets, including Las Vegas, Miami and Albuquerque, N.M., according to an NDN study.
“We are going to see the most money spent on Spanish-language media than we have ever seen before,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN. READ MORE
By: GEBE MARTINEZ - Politico.com
May 2, 2008
Hispanics Not A Political Force To Reckon With
Washington, DC (AHN) - Despite the rapid rise of the Hispanic population in the U.S., the group is not yet a political force to reckon with.
According to latest U.S. census data, Hispanics numbered 45.5 million by July 2007, a 1.4 million rise within just 12 months. The states which registered fast increases in their Spanish populations were South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida.
The rise in Hispanic numbers has led political groups to observe a voting pattern in the November polls, when 10 million Hispanics are expected to cast their ballot.
Previous elections indicated a weak Latin voice in the ballot box. Clarissa Martinez, director of immigration and national campaigns of the National Council of La Raza, told the AP, "We obviously know that Latino population growth is not perfectly mirrored in the Latino voting population."
There is not only a low Latino voter turnout, but even underrepresentation. In January 2006 there were 5,132 Hispanics elected to various posts in local, state and federal offices. A year later the number was even reduced to 5,129, William Ramos, Washington director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, told the Houston Chronicle.
Another disadvantage observed among Hispanics in the U.S. are their inability to communicate well in English because they are raised in Spanish-speaking homes despite having been born in the U.S.
Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News Writer
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