Posted on 05/11/2011 11:14:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Barack Obama’s campaign is heeding the political siren song of Texas, telling supporters he hopes to make a real effort in a state where the growing Hispanic electorate has long raised — then dashed — Democratic hopes.
Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, speaking to big-money Lone Star State Democrats at closed-door meetings in Austin and Dallas in March, predicted Obama could make a “serious play” in the cornerstone of GOP presidential politics, according to people in attendance.
And Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe has told fellow Democrats the nation’s second most populous state might add to his national “map” of contested states, arguing that the huge increase in voting-eligible Hispanic Texans in recent years could bring the state into play sooner than expected.
On the surface, their rationale seems compelling. The state’s population is about 35 percent Hispanic, almost identical to California’s proportion. The voting-age population in Texas is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the U.S. — with an estimated 1.2 million eligible minority voters, most of them Spanish speakers, added to the state’s population between 2008 and 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Those trends have been emerging for a decade, but Democrats have, by and large, been unable to capitalize on them, owing to the state’s geography and abysmal voter registration and turnout patterns among Latinos. Obama talked enthusiastically about contesting Texas in 2008 but virtually abandoned the state to Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain as Election Day drew near, eventually losing by a million votes and 12 percentage points.
Texans wonder whether the same thing will happen this time: Is Obama just messing with Texas, or will he spend the $15 million to $25 million needed to mount a serious effort to boost Hispanic support and turnout?
“Look, if he’s really going to be a billion-dollar candidate, why not spend some of that money on Texas?” said Marc Campos, a Houston-based Democratic political consultant who is encouraging the campaign to go all in.
Obama previewed his public pitch to the state during his first visit as president to the Texas-Mexico border Tuesday, calling for a balanced immigration policy that offers a path to citizenship for undocumented workers and continued enforcement of the borders.
But the most compelling part of his message to Latinos was left largely unsaid: He’s already on record as strongly opposing the Arizona law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants with roadside searches, and he’s spoken out against GOP efforts to require voters, in Texas and elsewhere, to show photo IDs at voting booths.
California-based consultant Ace Smith, who managed Hillary Clinton’s March 2008 Texas primary victory over Obama, said the logistics of the state — with the Latino population scattered throughout almost every county — make it far more expensive to organize there than in other states with high Latino populations.
“It’s a long shot, but it’s by no means impossible,” he told POLITICO.
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By refusing aid for the wildfires?
When he spends money there, I’ll believe him. He’s delusional if he thinks he’ll carry Texas.
Now I know how my home state: New York is going to vote but I want to hear other voices from all over and especially the GOOD PEOPLE OF TEXAS!!!!!!!!!
Well, he better start kissing up to more than just Austin if that’s what Obama hopes. Even Mitt Romney would walk away with Texas. Call me cynical but if he targeted a set of ads just at Texas with the theme “Yee Haw! I shot Osama Bin Ladin!” he’d probably gain 15% from that.
Title should read:
Obama’s campaign manager insults Texans.
Wow,, exactly!
Anything is possible.
RE: He’s delusional if he thinks he’ll carry Texas.
His team is hoping against hope to galvanize the Hispanic vote ( and maybe gather enough illegals in the process ) to make it a competitive state. Just sayin’...
BTW, is it correct to assume that Most Hispanics everywhere in the US WILL AUTOMATICALLY GO FOR THE DEMOCRAT?
I think it is a case of they really believe perception trumps reality. If they can gin up a facade of uber-confidence, they believe it will mean the difference between winning and losing.
Given the sad state of the populace, they may be correct.
Obama will win Hell before he wins Texas.
Sadly, Texas might be closer than we like...
The dems recruited Gen. Sanchez to run for the Senate to attract the (38%) Hispanic vote.
And Obama will carry the (12%) black vote.
“(His campaign team believes he has a chance of winning Texas)” then his team is on drugs.
My son-in-law is 1/2 Hispanic and staunch Republican.
The Hispanic demographic BS will not fly in Texas.
The Lying Commie Muzzie “Barry the Bastard” had best not mess with Texas.
If Bin Laden had camped out in El Paso he’d still be alive. We only care about terrorists who are half a world away - not the ones who are beheading our people and trashing their bodies right here in this country.
Or so seems to think the “hero” who bravely ordered (or didn’t order, depending on which day’s story you believe) our SEALs to kill Bin Laden.
Even the latinos need to think whether they really want to allow the same people who have made Mexico into a hell on earth to be able to follow them and their families into the US. Why do they think the drug wars would stop here, or the beheadings, or any of the stuff?
What they should be pushing for - if they really wanted a way to escape the hellish conditions their own corrupt government winks at there - is a border with integrity so people don’t have to wait forever to get legal permission to enter the US from the southern border. Then they could apply to enter the US, get approved, and come here legally while the crooks who are making their lives miserable now are stuck staying there.
It doesn’t help anybody if the lifeboat has an open hole in it. It just means there is NO PLACE where the water is held at bay. If we let Mexico’s “water” invade the US “boat”, it will just sink the boat and we’ll ALL be under water.
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