United States Embassy in Mexico
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United States Embassy in Mexico
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
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U.S. Democratic, Republican Parties Reaching Out to Hispanic Voters
(Parties see Hispanics as key to winning in Nov. 5 elections)
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Mindful that Hispanics now are the largest minority group in the United States with 35.3 million people, the Republican and Democratic parties are going all-out to woo the Hispanic vote in November 5 elections for the U.S. Congress, state governorships, and other local offices.
Hispanic voters are a "hot item right now," says trade union official Oscar Sanchez. He warned that both parties ignore at their peril the fact that Hispanics account for 12.5 percent of the nation's population, compared to nine percent a decade ago, which makes their vote more crucial than ever. The number of Hispanic registered voters grew from 2.5 million in 1972 to 7.6 million in 2000. One other trend is that the increase in Hispanic voters has been accompanied by a groundswell in the number of Hispanics running for political office.
The National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group for Hispanics, highlights what is at stake. In a July report, La Raza said the number of Hispanics casting ballots could increase from 5.7 million in 2000 to at least 7.9 million by 2004. But La Raza added that politicians must do more than court Hispanics with surface appeals. The group chastised politicians who deliver speeches in Spanish or eat at Mexican restaurants but fail to focus on issues of concern to Hispanics.
On one level, said Sanchez, candidates are "running down to Mexico" to learn Spanish in hopes that they can solidify their credentials with the vital Hispanic voting bloc. Leader of the Democratic House minority Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who is considered a likely candidate for his party's presidential nomination in 2004, recently studied Spanish in Mexico, appears often on Spanish-language television, and has a Spanish-language web site.
But he is hardly the only politician who recognizes the importance of the Hispanic voting bloc. President Bush, for instance, rarely misses an opportunity to speak a few words of Spanish before Hispanic groups to establish his affinity with those audiences. Sanchez said the Berlitz School of Languages is "making a good chunk of money" teaching Spanish to all the political candidates seeking to appeal to Hispanics.
But Hispanic voters are politically astute, he said. They are scrutinizing what both major parties are saying about "core issues" most dear to Hispanics, which -- according to polling data -- include immigration, education, jobs, and housing.
If the 2000 U.S. presidential election serves as a guide, the Hispanic vote can be a determining factor in whether a candidate wins or loses, Sanchez suggested. For example, in New Mexico's "neck-and-neck" presidential race that year, 32 percent of the state's considerable Hispanic vote went to Republican George Bush compared to 66 percent for Democrat Al Gore.
From that result, "we can easily conclude that the Hispanic vote was a determining factor" in Gore's narrow win over Bush in New Mexico by 366 votes out of more than 573,000 votes cast, said Sanchez, who is executive director of the Washington-based Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
New Mexico's large Hispanic population has translated into heavy Hispanic representation on the state's ballot for this year's November election. Seven out of eight nominees for top political offices in New Mexico are Hispanic, Democratic officials point out. This number includes Gloria Tristani, who Democrats say is the first Hispanic woman ever to win a major party nomination for high office. Tristani, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, says on her Web site that she is "proud of her Latino heritage -- a combination of New Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban."
New Mexico also features an all-Hispanic match-up for governor, pitting Democrat Bill Richardson against Republican John Sanchez.
In addition, Hispanic candidates are on the ballot in such unlikely places as Kansas and Indiana, states not traditionally known for large concentrations of Hispanics. The trade union's Oscar Sanchez said that in 122 of the 435 congressional districts in the United States, Hispanics constitute between 10 and 65 percent of all registered voters. In about 20 of those districts, 50 percent or more of all registered voters are Hispanic.
Sanchez said the formula for a party's political success is voter registration, especially of new U.S. citizens who turn out at the polls in higher percentages than those who have been in the country longer. With the recent wave of Hispanic immigration from Latin America into the United States, registration of these voters in "swing" districts can mean the difference between winning and losing.
The Democratic and Republican national parties are employing extensive -- and expensive -- outreach efforts to win the allegiance of Hispanics. Democratic National Committee (DNC) official Andres Gonzalez says his party has begun a multi-year, multi-million-dollar outreach project to broaden its appeal to Hispanics.
The plan includes conducting for the first time a national poll aimed strictly at Hispanics. The goal is to find out how issues advocated by the Hispanic Congressional Caucus and the Democratic leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives are playing in the Hispanic community, said Gonzalez, who is executive director of Hispanic Outreach for the DNC.
The DNC, said Gonzalez, is also pushing a "very aggressive" media campaign to convince Hispanics to vote Democratic. He noted that in 2001, the DNC bought time on Spanish-language television praising the Democratic Party's record on immigration while attacking the Republicans' "lack of proposals" on that issue.
Gonzalez claimed that more than 92 percent of the 5,000 Hispanic officials elected to office in the United States are Democrats. Most of these officials are elected on a non-partisan basis to such bodies as city councils or school boards. But he said a large majority of these officials responded "Democrat" when asked which party they support. One Democrat Gonzalez expressed particular pride in is Susan Castillo of Oregon, who he said was only the second Hispanic woman outside of New Mexico to be elected to state-wide office. Castillo won the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
In the campaigns for seats in the House of Representatives, which Republicans control by a six-vote margin, and the Senate, which Democrats control by a bare one vote, both parties are intensifying efforts to win Hispanics to their side. For instance, the DNC dispatched a staffer to work in North Carolina, which has races for the U.S. Senate and House, and whose Hispanic population has grown 400 percent since 1990. Democrats also sent organizers to Arkansas and Oregon, where Hispanic candidates are running, and plan similar efforts in many other states.
Meanwhile, Annie Mayol of the Republican National Committee (RNC) said her party has founded the Hispanic Team Leader Project, in which speakers from the Bush Administration inform local communities about Republican legislative proposals designed to assist Hispanics. For instance, she said the Republicans had proposed the "American Dream Down-Payment Act" to help low-income Hispanics buy their own homes. Republican support for an immigration provision called "245(i)" allows eligible immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere to remain in the United States while making the transition to permanent-resident status.
Speakers in the Team Leader Project will crisscross the United States until November advocating the Republican cause, said Mayol, director of the RNC's senatorial outreach campaign to Hispanics.
Republicans, she said, are directing their efforts at such "battleground" states as Colorado, with a population 17 percent Hispanic, and Texas, with a 32 percent Hispanic population. Another key target is California, which is 33 percent Hispanic, including six million Hispanic residents in southern California alone. New Mexico leads the United States in the percentage of population that is Hispanic, at 42 percent.
Republican polling, said Mayol, reveals that issues important to Hispanics -- such as education and health care -- replicate the aspirations of non-Hispanic voters.
What Hispanic parents care about, she said, is their children having "a better future than they did."
Adding that "a lot of parents didn't get a proper education" in their native countries, Mayol said: "They feel a better life for their children will happen through a better education. And that's why they are strong supporters of school vouchers," which are advocated by the Republican Party. School vouchers give parents the choice of having their children attend public or private school.
Republican polling data indicate that many Hispanics are small-business owners who believe in less government regulation, lower taxes, family values, and having the chance to pursue the "American dream" of home ownership.
These are all issues that Republicans traditionally support, Mayol said. Her party, she said, intends to make a better effort to communicate its message to the Hispanic community through another plan called the New Citizens Initiative. She explained that this involves getting all Hispanics, not just those who are U.S. citizens, [???] involved in politics.
"We want to tell Hispanics that their voice does matter in the political system," Mayol said.
As an example of Republican appeals to Hispanics, New Mexico Republican gubernatorial candidate John Sanchez has a Web site showing pictures of himself surrounded by his family and schoolchildren. He tells voters "to dream big." The Web site says Sanchez is running for governor "to create higher-paying jobs by cutting taxes and reforming education. John wants to make sure every New Mexico child gets a chance at the same American dream that worked for him."
A leading independent pollster of Hispanic voting trends, Sergio Bendixen, issued a May survey report on the Hispanic electorate's views on issues. He found that Hispanics have very warm feelings for President Bush, if not for the Republican Party as a whole.
Bendixen's survey found that nearly 40 percent of those Hispanics surveyed were more likely to support a candidate endorsed by Bush. Other findings showed that, among Hispanics, Bush led the Democrats by 49 percentage points -- 75 percent to 26 percent -- on who was better at protecting society against terrorism, by 23 points on improving relations with Latin America, by 16 points in supporting family and moral values, by two points in improving education, and by one point on controlling taxes and government spending. On one issue, immigration, the Democrats led Bush by three points.
Bendixen said, however, that the Democratic Party and its candidates "still have a significant advantage among Hispanic voters over the Republican Party and its candidates in the upcoming congressional elections because they are perceived to be better on the issues that the Hispanic electorate considers to be most important." The Democratic Party, he said, has a much better image than the Republican Party among Hispanics.
Bendixen added that the immigration issue may very well be the "Achilles heel" of the White House's Hispanic political strategy. By overwhelming numbers, Hispanics support legalizing undocumented immigrants who work and pay taxes in the United States, and protecting the rights of illegal immigrants. Hispanics, he found, view the Democratic Party as more likely to protect undocumented immigrants than Republicans.
Jongho Lee, director of survey research for the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Claremont, California, said both parties are intensifying efforts to "excite" the Hispanic population to vote their way. He noted that in the 2000 presidential campaign, both Bush and Gore appeared at almost every major event organized by national Hispanic organizations.
Lee said politicians recognize that they need the Hispanic vote, especially in tight elections and in states with large Hispanic populations.
A telephone poll conducted by Lee's institute found that Hispanics mention education (for example, public schools) most frequently as the leading problem facing the nation. The poll found that other leading issues for Hispanics include the economy, crime, and drugs.
With the exception of Cuban-Americans, Hispanics have a long-standing attachment to the Democratic Party, according to an Institute report that released the poll findings. Starting in the 1930s, Hispanics have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in past presidential elections with the notable exception of 1984, when Republican Ronald Reagan made significant inroads into the Hispanic vote.
The Institute said it did not expect that Hispanics' affinity for the Democrats would change dramatically in the near future, "unless Republicans switch to a liberal position on socio-economic issues" that would appeal to a majority of Hispanics.
But the Institute added that "with luck, Republicans might expect modest gains by taking advantage of some conservative elements among Hispanics on social issues." For instance, the Institute said, "a majority of Hispanics support school vouchers, and a significant minority take a pro-life stance" on the abortion issue.
"How and to what extent such conservative elements, coupled with a growing number of Hispanics with a higher level of income and education, would help the Republicans is still an open question," said the Institute.
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(Highlights - mine)
Your govt tax dollars used seditiously politically pander to illegals and dual citizens, advertizing "come to America" for goodies like education and health benefits. Vote Bush!
This is sickening.
Sedition.
