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McCain campaign steps up efforts to win over California's Latinos
Riverside Press-Enterprise ^ | 8/09/08 | Shirin Parsavand and Michelle DeArmond

Posted on 08/09/2008 11:42:33 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez joined local and state Republican political leaders in Ontario on Friday as part of an effort to build support among Latinos for Sen. John McCain's presidential bid.

In his speech to about 100 people at Ontario's Doubletree Hotel, Gutierrez focused on broad economic issues and McCain's experiences as a prisoner of war and in Congress to make the case for why McCain is a better choice for president than Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Gutierrez did not stick to Latino-specific themes but talked instead about McCain's proposals on taxes, trade and energy. He said McCain, R-Ariz., has shown leadership by taking unpopular stances

"It doesn't really matter that much what someone says in an interview," Gutierrez said. "What really does matter is what they've done."

Courting Latino Voters

Both candidates are expected to fight hard for the Latino vote this year, especially in battle- ground states with growing Latino populations such as New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida.

Friday's event ended with music from a five-piece mariachi band playing instruments decorated with "Unidos con McCain" bumper stickers. Gutierrez's campaign swing also included events Thursday and Friday with Latino groups in Seattle and Portland, Ore. Gutierrez is scheduled to go to Nevada today to meet with another Latino group.

Friday's event was the kick-off for California Latinos for McCain.

Arizona, McCain's home state, has a significant Latino population. Before his campaign, McCain co-sponsored a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to become citizens after learning English, paying fines and back taxes, and clearing a background check. He now says his first step in immigration reform would be securing the border.

McCain and Obama both addressed the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil-rights organization that once couldn't get either the Democrat or Republican presidential candidate to attend its annual meeting. At a July meeting in San Diego, the group's leader predicted that the Latino vote will play a big role in this election.

"I promise you America will hear our voice loudly and clearly in state after state across this country," President Janet Murguia said. "It is time for us to stand and deliver."

Mario Rodriguez, former vice chairman of the California Republican Party and chairman of California Latinos for McCain, said the Latino vote is particularly important in California.

"If we're going to make California red, it's going to take every single one of us," he told the audience at the Doubletree.

A June poll showed Obama has opened a wide lead over McCain among Hispanic voters. The nationwide poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, showed Obama leading McCain 66 percent to 23 percent among Latinos.

Obama's campaign has been pushing to shore up his support among Latino voters, who overwhelmingly supported Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the presidential primaries.

A Public Policy Institute report last September said about 61 percent of likely Latino voters in California are Democrats. About 20 percent of likely Latino voters in California are Republicans and the rest are decline to state or with a third party.

Clinton carried the Latino vote in California in February, receiving 67 percent to Obama's 32 percent, according to a Pew Research Center study.

Obama's campaign has been holding strategy sessions with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which is expected to play a major role in getting out the Latino vote.

Many of the caucus members, including Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, previously supported Clinton. Baca, the caucus's chairman, will be the only Inland superdelegate at the Democratic Convention. Superdelegates are not bound to a particular candidate.

Baca said Obama has promised him that he will campaign in the Inland area.

In the Inland area, the Riverside-based National Alliance for Human Rights has been organizing "Viva Obama" clubs in an effort to register and rally Latino voters for Obama.

Fighting for California

Although California has gone to Democrats in presidential elections for the past two decades, McCain has said he will not concede the state without a fight.

McCain plans a visit to California later this month and may come to the Inland area, said Hector Barajas, a California Republican Party spokesman.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, who was one of a dozen political leaders standing at the podium with Gutierrez on Friday, said the McCain campaign is right to focus on bread-and-butter issues in its outreach to Latinos.

"It's about educating your kids, putting food on your table, being able to have the American dream, to own a house," she said.

Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said events such as the one on Friday help to energize people. But in California, the payoff is raising money to fight in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, he said.

"I want Sen. McCain to be elected," Pacheco said. "Of course it would be nice if he won California, but that's not the goal."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: aliens; calatinovote; california; campaign; efforts; electionpresident; hispandering; immigrantlist; laraza; latinos; mccain; mccainlist; mccaintruthfile; nclr; openborders; stepsup; winover
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1 posted on 08/09/2008 11:42:33 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
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“Unidos con McCain”


2 posted on 08/09/2008 11:44:05 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed ... ICE toll-free tip hotline 1-866-DHS-2-ICE ... 9/11 .. Never FoRget!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Why?


3 posted on 08/09/2008 11:44:22 AM PDT by comebacknewt
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To: NormsRevenge
‘Obama leading McCain 66 percent to 23 percent among Latinos.’

Shucks. Perhaps McCain can get off the amnesty express now.

4 posted on 08/09/2008 11:46:03 AM PDT by BGHater (Democracy is the road to socialism.)
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To: BGHater

off the amnesty express

haaa.. old dog, new tricks on that one I’m a’feared


5 posted on 08/09/2008 11:50:33 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed ... ICE toll-free tip hotline 1-866-DHS-2-ICE ... 9/11 .. Never FoRget!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge; AuntB

McPanderer strikes again!


6 posted on 08/09/2008 11:52:29 AM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: NormsRevenge

Why bother? The bay area will still vote 90% democrat. Republicans might make some gains in the other, more conservative areas of the state, but not enough to offset that liberal stronghold.


7 posted on 08/09/2008 11:53:55 AM PDT by eclecticEel (men who believe deeply in something, even wrong, usually triumph over men who believe in nothing)
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To: NormsRevenge
All that hispandering and Juan McCain will still lose California by double-digits! He won't improve over Bush's score despite being a chic La Raza go to kind of guy! He has learned you can't out pander the Democrats in selling out the country.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

8 posted on 08/09/2008 11:58:25 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: NormsRevenge

Hey McCain, Screw California’s latinos. Your only approach with California’s latinos should be to sort out those who are here illegally and get them the hell out of here. Screw them, they bring very little to this region, other than an open hand looking for us to continue putting benefits into.


9 posted on 08/09/2008 12:02:04 PM PDT by raptor29
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To: eclecticEel
Republicans might make some gains in the other, more conservative areas of the state, but not enough to offset that liberal stronghold

The only thing that can unseat that Liberal stronghold is a mighty big earthquake.

10 posted on 08/09/2008 12:03:50 PM PDT by chaos_5 (Nancy "Mad Cow" Pelosi, call the House back into session!)
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To: raptor29

He’s not gonna carry CA anyhow.


11 posted on 08/09/2008 12:04:13 PM PDT by no dems ("Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice...." Barry Goldwater)
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I saw some polling data on CA Hispanics.

Only about 60% knew who McCain was, but 97% knew who Tom Tancredo was

12 posted on 08/09/2008 12:11:36 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: NormsRevenge

Poor old MacCain, working over time to insure the complete alienation of conservatives and their support inside and out of his party in exchange for a thin handful of Latino votes. He wasn’t kidding when he said he didn’t understand economics.


13 posted on 08/09/2008 12:21:18 PM PDT by E. Cartman (Would you want your surgeon graduating at the bottom 1% of his class?)
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To: no dems
He’s not gonna carry CA anyhow.

...which makes it easier for me to sit out voting for that office in November; if I lived in a state where he had a chinaman's chance, I'd probably hold my nose and do it.

14 posted on 08/09/2008 12:33:07 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (...forward this to your 10 very best friends....)
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To: Ben Ficklin
Knowing Tancredo is why we will have trouble in Nov. All McCain needs to win is to do almost as well as W did with the Hispanic vote. He doesn't need campaign advice from those on the right that won't vote for him no matter what he does.
15 posted on 08/09/2008 12:37:13 PM PDT by mimaw
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To: E. Cartman

it’s hard to take you seriously when you can’t even spell his name right.


16 posted on 08/09/2008 1:09:08 PM PDT by Libertarian4Bush (McCain concedes American Idol to Obama, moves on to presidential election)
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To: NormsRevenge
Gutierrez focused on broad economic issues and McCain's experiences as a prisoner of war and in Congress to make the case for why McCain is a better choice for president

I wonder if they showed pictures of what McCain used to look like too?

17 posted on 08/09/2008 1:28:38 PM PDT by Lijahsbubbe
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To: NormsRevenge

W tried this in 2000. It didn’t work.


18 posted on 08/09/2008 1:38:03 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.)
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To: indylindy; calcowgirl; djsherin; Sunnyflorida; SoConPubbie; Sybeck1; Ricebug; ...

The Just Say No to Juan McCain Ping List.

"It's like traveling around with a circus."
—Lindsey Graham, on McCain's campaign

To join: FReepmail rabscuttle385 to subscribe or to unsubscribe from this ping list.

This can be a very high-volume ping list at times.

This list is pinged by rabscuttle385 and AmericanInTokyo.

Take care to check the "mccainlist", "mccaintruthfile", "mcbama", "mcqueeg", and "mccain" keyword search links for related threads, since we can not possibly ping you to every relevant article that is posted. To flag a relevant thread, please add the keywords "mccainlist" and "mccaintruthfile".


Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the irrational rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of deeply confused conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless trolls who simply want to meet a new overlord.

Per FR posting guidelines, we kindly ask that you be civil and polite in your comings and goings. Bonus points for being optimistic and in good cheer.


19 posted on 08/09/2008 1:55:33 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 ("When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." Ronald Reagan)
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To: Libertarian4Bush
it’s hard to take you seriously when you can’t even spell his name right.

Almost as hard as trying to take seriously someone who doesn't know enough to capitalize the first word in a sentence?

When McaCnia becomes a serious candidate in more than just name, I'll learn how to spell his name.

20 posted on 08/09/2008 2:07:39 PM PDT by E. Cartman (Would you want your surgeon graduating at the bottom 1% of his class?)
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