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Posted on 10/08/2006 8:05:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats are hoping Hispanic voters will help them win control of Congress in midterm elections next month, and are promising help for immigrants in return.
Turnout is historically low for this swelling segment of the US electorate, but the community showed its political potential with massive demonstrations on immigration reform earlier this year -- and the Republican-controlled Congress has delivered little joy on their top issue.
"The key is getting Hispanic voters out to vote," Democratic Party president Howard Dean said ahead of November 7 elections in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs.
"If we do that, I think we all see a Democratic Congress, and then I think you'll see a comprehensive immigration reform," Dean said recently.
Other Democratic leaders agree with the strategy, since Congress, which adjourned Friday to allow members to campaign, wrapped up its work by approving of a 700 mile (1,100 kilometer) wall on the US-Mexico border to keep out unwanted immigrants, a policy many Hispanics find offensive. Hispanics are the largest minority group of Americans, and most of them -- more than 60 percent -- are of Mexican origin or descent.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urged Hispanic voters to get active in politics.
"The Hispanics are sitting on the bench and watching how others make passes and make touchdowns," Reid complained.
Democrats are also trying to regain lost ground. Hispanics have traditionally voted Democrat, but in 2004, President George W. Bush won between 40 and 45 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Numbering some 42.7 million people, Hispanic US citizens account for almost half of US population growth. But the number of Hispanic voters increased by just ten percent between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
This November, some 17.2 million Hispanics are eligible to vote, about 8.6 percent of the total electorate, and a million more than were eligible in 2004, a Pew Hispanic Center study showed this week.
In the past, however, Hispanic turnout has been low. Two year ago, only 9.3 million Latinos registered to vote, just 58 percent of those eligible. By contrast, 75 percent of eligible non-Hispanic whites, and 69 percent of eligible African Americans, registered to vote.
This year, however, the equation many be different.
In giant demonstrations held all over the country in the first part of the year, Latinos demonstrated their potential clout, in a political awakening some compared to the African American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
For the first time in US history the Hispanic community joined nationwide to demand broad legalization of undocumented migrants and to protest legislation approved in the House of Representatives that would criminalize them.
The majority of the country's nearly 12 million undocumented migrants are of Latin American origin.
According to a poll by the conservative Latino Coalition, 84 percent of Hispanics favor what they call comprehensive immigration reform, blocked thus far by Republicans in Congress.
Democrats and many Hispanic groups are hoping that turnout on November 7 will reflect the numbers seen in the demonstrations earlier this year, and Hispanic discontent with the anti-immigrant tone set by some conservative Republicans this election year.
"Latinos stepped up this spring in support of immigrants and comprehensive immigration reform. Now we need them to step up the to the ballot box and make a difference in November," pleaded Manuel Mirabal, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition.
"Members have expressed growing concern over the politicization of the immigration issue and the demonization of Latinos in the 2006 campaign," said Ron Blackburn-Moreno, president of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.
"We are saying 'Ya Basta' (enough already) to elected officials who engage in this kind of bashing, and will work to educate Latino voters about theses issues," Blackburn-Moreno said.
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They are assuming that those Latino marchers are registered voters.
The 9th Circus is "urging" them to vote also. No ID required. Vote early and vote often. Cast the votes Americans don't want to cast. That U.S. citizen requirement crap is way overrated anyway.
I'll bet more Latinos vote GOP this year than Howard "Yaaeergghh!" Dean thinks! Many Latino/Hispanic/whatever don't like illegal immigration anymore than we do! Who authorized 700 miles of fence?
I wish the dems urge the 'crimmigrant' latinos to mobilize their butts out of the United States.
"We are saying 'Ya Basta' (enough already) to elected officials who engage in this kind of bashing, and will work to educate Latino voters about theses issues..."
But many 'Latinos' are saying "you don't speak for me."
Go here:>http://dontspeakforme.org/<
I thought they have already won the elections and November 7th is just mere formalities, why are they urging people to vote for them?!
"This November, some 17.2 million Hispanics are eligible to vote, about 8.6 percent of the total electorate, and a million more than were eligible in 2004, a Pew Hispanic Center study showed this week.
In the past, however, Hispanic turnout has been low. Two year ago, only 9.3 million Latinos registered to vote, just 58 percent of those eligible. By contrast, 75 percent of eligible non-Hispanic whites, and 69 percent of eligible African Americans, registered to vote."
Hispandering idiots. They are talking about pissing off 95% of American voters to cater to 5% hispanic voters.
Stupid is as stupid does. Can you hear me, Carl "La Raza" Rove? You are barking up the wrong tree.
Your right, the polls have already decided who won so were just wasting money having the election.
No they aren't..and neither are we...
We plan to get evidence and video of all
the Dim criminals, committing treason and
election fraud, by promoting, soliciting,
aiding, and abetting, hundreds of thousands
of illegals and inelegibles to vote, as well
as their stuffing ballot boxes full of dead
peoplds votes. And be ready to indict them
and deport all their illegal "best friends"...
Yeah they can rally around vicious outings and phony outrage to win! Yeah RIGHT!!!!!!
The rat thinks of EVERYONE as stupid but especially anyone with brown or black skin. That's just not the case and they will be reminded of that in a month.
May I suggest that you also try to determine whether Bush-hater Hugo Chavez (and other Central and South American governments) is illegally involved in US elections--cueing his citizens in the US illegally to vote against Bush.
America haters like Chavez must be licking their chops at the prospect of New Jersey Sen Robert Menendez in Washington, a Senator who will defend the interests of Central and South American dictatorships----to the exclusion of the US.
Sen Menendez would be a lapdog for dictators like Chavez, allowing Third World haters to exert unprecedented power over US immigration policy.
Americans should tell the Chavez-Menendez team, “No thank you. You will not inflict upon our Nation the failed customs, politics, and ignorance that frame the foundation of Third World class-conscious tyranny, universal lawlessness and eternal poverty.“
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