Hispanic Texas

Arizona Daily Star ^ | March 16, 2002 | Unnamed

[Love America or move to ......]

Hispanics nationwide have a stake in the Texas governor's race. Laredo businessman and millionaire Tony Sanchez won the Democratic primary by about a 2 to 1 margin. If Sanchez unseats Republican Gov. Rick Perry in November, he will become the first Hispanic governor of Texas. Texas, following California, also would become the second state in which Hispanic voters put an end to Republican dominance.

In California, Hispanic voters were something of a sleeping giant. That all changed with the administration of Pete Wilson, the Republican governor who stupidly decided to exploit the state's xenophobes and bash immigrants. Wilson blamed immigrants - legal and illegal - for just about everything from lousy schools and health care to the failure to achieve world peace.

Faced with such abuse, the sleeping giant woke up. Voter registration drives became a favorite pastime in Hispanic neighborhoods. In 1998, Gray Davis became the first Democratic governor of California in 16 years.

He trounced his Republican opponent Dan Lungren, drawing 58 percent of the vote; Lungren got 38 percent. Davis captured just about every voter block except for white men, Republicans and Protestants. He carried Hispanics by a great margin.The Texas primary race, similarly, drew a heavy Hispanic vote in the southern part of the state. Observers said more Hispanics were moved to vote. While the major Democratic candidates both were Hispanic, Sanchez said his opponent, Dan Morales, was embarrassed to be Hispanic.

Sanchez reportedly spent about $18 million to defeat Morales. This is a record for a Texas primary, and it reflects an odd element to the general election. Sanchez is new to politics and wealthy. The family fortune is said to be $600 million. He reportedly threw as much as $13 million of his own money into his campaign kitty.

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the country. And as they increase, so too does their political influence. This is the most important political trend since Richard Nixon launched his successful southern strategy in which he urged conservative southern Democrats to switch to the Republican Party. It's a trend that could affect Illinois, New Jersey and some southern states where there is growing Hispanic influence.

[navyblue]

In your freakin dreams Mechista! Americans will fight to the death in the streets for thier country! And if it means turning Mexico into a wasteland in order to stop it, then we can do that too! God bless the United States of America and you clowns---- get the hell out of OUR country!

[Dog Gone]

People who talk about the immigrant problem, and there is one, are not being hysterical.

Immigration, legal or otherwise is a very important topic. It has many ramifications, and it very worthy of extensive discussion, especially since it is clear that we have to do something about it.

But there are plenty of hysterical comments on any thread where we attempt to discuss this here at FR. If you don't think so, it must be because you agree with them.

[4Freedom]

I don't believe you've thought this all the way through. How will the Democrats stop Hispanics from doing anything they want, once they're in the majority?

This illegal immigration game is one the Republicans and the Democrats will both lose, someday.

[Paulus Invictus]

Who said I believed this? Many Latinos in SOCAL and Texas do believe this. All you need to confirm their belief in Aztlan is to check out their propaganda. It's everywhere in print, on the radio, TV and on the web. If they are serious and expect to achieve their dream, we all may need professional help, including you.

[Paulus Invictus]

Then why have the dumos been working for years to sign up Hispanics?

[x]

The problem with this sort of editorial is that it seems to take a perverse joy in the defeat of minority groups like "White men, Republicans and Protestants." It will be up to our grandchildren to decide whether the California dream as it existed in the postwar period was a success or a failure, whether mass immigration doomed it or whether it was ultimately unsustainable, and whether what replaced it was better or worse.

Also, anyone who takes the problem of illegal immigration and the problems it brings in its wake seriously and tries to do anything about them will be stigmatized as "opportunistic," "racist," "xenophobic" or whatever. I don't know enough about Pete Wilson to judge what his motives were, but it might be an interesting test case for this editorialist to ask himself which measures to cope with immigration he or she would support and under which circumstances, rather than tar anyone who tries to do anything to deal with the problem as bigoted or demagogic.

But Republican outreach efforts among Mexican-Americans might bear fruit. We will have to put up with a lot of fruitless debate and vituperation on this subject so long as the ancestry, ethnicity and tribalism are seen as the crux of the issue. Maybe a Latino Republican governor could raise questions and put through policies that the non-Latino whites couldn't. Or maybe Mexican-American Republican voters could put Democratic officeholders in a bind if they try to ignore immigration issues.

[Don Myers]

"But there are plenty of hysterical comments on any thread where we attempt to discuss this here at FR. If you don't think so, it must be because you agree with them."

And there also seems to be a lot of anomosity. Sorry, immigration is a big problem, and we must do something about it, regardless of where that leads us. This nation is the first priority, and there are many immigrants who have other thoughts on that subject.

[navyblue]

To Moderator:

I posted a reply to post # 30. Will you please advise me why it was deleted?

[Dog Gone]

When you say it's your prediction, it does imply that you believe it, I think. How else could I interpret that?

There is no doubt that some hispanic activists want this to happen, just like there are some folks in the northwest who envision a breakaway Aryan nation.

They are fringe lunatics, and it's not going to ever happen, much less in the next three years.

[BOBTHENAILER]

I've thought it through. Dems will resort to their time proven tactics of turning one racial group against another. What are the numbers, excluding Hispanics, of all the Dems. Typical Dem 95% black vote, plus all other Dem, less Hispanic, will equal a majority against any Aztlan BS.

I also think this fever laden issue ignores a lot of obvious past history, that has not gone away.

I grew up in New Mexico, went to college at UNM in Albuquerque, lived in Denver and have relatives in Bisbee, AZ on the border. Two high school friends (Hispanic), grace the Wall in D.C. My best friend in college was named Rafael and his parents were both WWII veterans, Narcisco-Army combat, Ruth- Army nurse. While in Denver, one of my Hispanic friends was a highly decorated Airborne Ranger (Viet Nam), and one of my current friends and business associates is an Hispanic female who is on the Executive Council of Latino Republicans in Denver. She is from the San Luis valley in Colorado and New Mexico. Her relatives, and they are many, are all conservative, hard working and very religious. The Hispanic population is not a Monolithic liberal voting block that is anti-American and pro-Aztlan.

Everybody all worked up about this issue needs to take a look at history.

We are currently at war with a racial group whose persons are without exception Islamic or Muslim. Can someone please tell me which ethnic group in America is predominately Islamic or Muslim? Not to get racial about this, but who do we really have the most to fear from? Personally, I'm not in fear of any racial group.

[varon]

"Texas, following California, also would become the second state in which Hispanic Mexican voters put an end to Republican American dominance."

[PatrioticAmerican]

"Latino's are a natural fit for the Republican party, they are cultuarlly conservative"

Really? So whay are most on welfare and commit a large portion of the crimes?

[BOBTHENAILER]

The work to recruit them just like Repubs work to recruit them.

[antidemocommie]

"Texas, following California, also would become the second state in which Hispanic voters put an end to Republican dominance."

ATTENTION GW BUSH! Stop Kissing Butt! You're wasting time on this group. Why Aren't You Going After Black American Voters!?!

[Righty1]

There it is!

[WOSG]

To me the trouble with Governor Perry, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary on March 12, is that he does not seem to be "in charge." We hear so little from him. There is no Perry presence in the state media. Thus far, he has run no ads. Sanchez's ads, professionally prepared, are everywhere. Of course, Sanchez ran the ads prior to his primary, and it would presumably have made little sense for Perry to run ads early. But the clintoids taught us the value of early advertising. It can pay long-term dividends. I do not think Sanchez can be taken lightly. If a black, Ron Kirk, wins the senatorial nomination on April 9, the Democrats will have a black-brown-white slate, consisting of senatorial candidate Kirk, gubernatorial candidate Sanchez, and lieutenant governor candidate John Sharp, who nearly beat Perry for lt. gov. in 1998. There is a theory that Sharp helped to assemble this Democrat team so he can be guaranteed nearly 100 percent of the minority vote in the fall. Republican lt. gov. candidate David Dewhurst also ran impressively against weak opposition in the primary. Even if Kirk is not nominated, there will still be nearly unanimous black support for the Democrat ticket from the Senate seat to the justice of the peace positions. I think the GOP is much too lackadaisical in TX for its own good. "Everyone" just presumes that Perry will win because he "leads in polls." This is potentially dangerous. Am I the only one who senses such danger? And even Republicans are already conceding that they will not likely do well in the races for the U.S. House in TX because Democrat federal judges drew the lines to favor Democrats.

I see the danger too. We cannot be complacent. Perry needs to get out there and campaign hard ... he's an Incumbent In Name Only, he hasnt won the Gov mansion from the people yet.

As for the hispanic vote, Sanchez does *not* have it locked up. GOP shouldnt concede it and should not fall into trap of race-baiting, which will ony backfire in media. And the rainbow slate may be a positive for Dems, but can be turned around; if the Dems take extreme positions, then moderates will vote GOP.

Frankly of all candidates, I am most worried about Kirk Watson for AG. he is too smart and too liberal to let loose in that position. :-(

Note your final point: Sharp nearly beat Perry in 1998. that , in a race where GW Bush buried the opponent in a landslide ... that should be wakeup call enough!!!

[Sabertooth]

Think they want to lose all those electoral votes that Pete Wilson's anti-mexican policies got them? Think they will let all those Senate seats and House seats, which are a given, fly away to some internet fantasy?

Bob, I'm afraid you're misinformed here, and are repeating the RINO talking points that have been so divisive since Prop #187 passed by 2 to 1 in CA, across all racial demographics, except Hispanic, where just under 50% voted yes.

In the last weeks of the #187 campaign in '94, Latinos were leaning about 55% to 45% in favor... what happened? Our friends Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett came out against us, and became accomplices to the Leftist, L.A. Times driven smear campaign. That and only that kept a majority of Latinos from voting for #187, and even then it was close.

Since then, the Democrats have built on this myth, and with the aid of voter fraud and RINO cowardice, put together a string of victories in statewide elections (although referendums against racial quotas and bilingual education still won handily).

It's high time Republicans stopped believing the lie.

A strong stand against illegal immigration is a natural GOP strength, and if handled correctly, could break the Dem stranglehold on the black vote. Illegals are a plague in black underclass communities, and blacks know it... But Republicans have failed to make the easy case that blacks themselves have been betrayed by Democrat perfidy and vote fraud.

And is it not obvious how divisive soft-on-illegal policies are to our party? Look at this forum in the past few weeks. Resistance to Surrender on illegals has hardened, with fair warning.

Surrender would be disastrous for our country, and the GOP.

[varon]

Now let's look at what I'd call a typical 'mezzican. Ask 'em what's important to them and the usual answer is "freedom for my family".

I don't buy that for a minute. That answer might have come from political refugees escaping Communist dictatorships but the typical 'mezzican' is not a political refugee but someone that is chasing the Yanqui $$$.

[WOSG]

good answer! cheers from Tx.