Democrats Wooing Hispanic Voters
For every reaction there is a counterreaction. And nowhere do you see that as often as in politics — so this story should come as no surprise:
Helped by the fight over immigration, Democrats seeking their party’s presidential nomination are moving to court Hispanic voters like never before, as a string of early primary states with sizable Hispanic voting blocs prompt candidates to hire outreach consultants, start Spanish-language Web sites and campaign vigorously before Hispanic audiences.
The battle for Hispanic voters is a result of the decision by several states with large Hispanic populations to move their presidential primaries to early 2008, including California, Florida and New York. Roughly two-thirds of the nation’s Hispanic residents live in nine of the states that will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses on or before Feb. 5.
But there’s also another factor involved in this. Can you guess what it is? CORRECT:
Strategists say the influence of Hispanic voters is likely to be amplified next year because of an unusually intense response in many Hispanic communities to immigration policy. Conservative Republicans, with the help of some left-leaning Democrats, teamed up to derail an immigration bill in the Senate on Thursday that would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
It is in the new early primary states where Democrats hope the outreach efforts bear fruit. In the last presidential election, Hispanic voters accounted for a significant part of the overall Democratic primary electorate in California (16 percent), New York (11 percent), Arizona (17 percent) and Florida (9 percent), all states that will hold primaries by Feb 5.
The situation now ostensibly benefiting Democrats and ostensibly posting a long-term danger to GOPers is somewhat ironic.
It’s no secret that President George Bush and his political maven Karl Rove came to office planning as part of a grand plan to institutionalize and solidify Republican the wooing and consolidation of a sizable chunk of the Hispanic vote. It was believed Hispanics could help provide a winning margin in key states.
By all accounts Bush deeply believes in the immigration reforms being proposed, partially due to his experience in Texas. But fierce conservative backlash — egged on by increasing indications in opinion polls that immigration reform’s backers have not convinced the bulk of Americans about the wisdom of the yanked plan — kicked in.
The reaction to Bush’s plan led to the reported “intense” reaction in Hispanic communities. And where will it end?
Hopefully (for the Republicans) not the way it ended for the Republican party after California Governor Pete Wilson’s 1994 successful campaign for a proposition that cut off public service assistance to illegal immigrants. The California Republican party never really recovered from it. No, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s victories don’t really count: he won with huge margins of support from independent voters and even some Democrats who felt he was a different kind of Republican. And he’s not a favorite of California Conservative Republicans who also agree that he is a different kind of Republican (spelled by them this way: R-I-N-O).
The questions heading into 2008 will be:
(1) Is the Hispanic vote all it’s cracked up to be? Will the unification of the party’s conservative base on the immigration issue — in line with the sentiments of most GOP Presidential wannabies (except for Senator John McCain’s whose political stock is rapidly falling ) — offset likely losses among some Hispanic voters (keeping in mind that no voting block is monolithic)?
(2) Will the Democrats’ gain due to the GOP stance on immigration? Or will they suffer because of key party officials stand on immigration reform and also by alienating some voters as they woo Hispanic voters?
One tipoff will come in these primary states.
Will the winning candidates be the ones who secured large number of Hispanic votes? And how can the voting power of these groups be harnessed? Can Hispanic groups be counted on to help the Democrats organize and get out the Hispanic vote in 2008?
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10 Responses to “Democrats Wooing Hispanic Voters”
It’s an interesting question, but I don’t look for a clearcut answer in 2008. First, the grand bargain was presented as bipartisan and centrist. So, those strongly opposed to it get to disparage their bad-guys-of-choice all the more fiercely.
Second, while the coming election should provide a chance to sort out matters such as economic equity and security, our horrendous trade imbalance, immigration reform, ridding the federal government of incompetents and people appointed specifically to subvert the mission of agencies they head or help manage, coming up with a workable health care plan for all, etc., it probably won’t.
Instead, the Iraq debacle (with recriminations), the war against terrorism and America’s badly damaged reputation throughout the world are likely to dominate.
Those things, of course, on top of the obligatory distractions of campaign-season gotchas and personality nonsense that make for gee-whiz headlines and broadcast blurbs, but are absolutely meaningless. (Perfect example: the brouhaha over John Edwards’ $400 haircut.)
The title should really say that Democratic candidaes woo Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters (other than Cuban-Americans) overwhelmingly support Democrats. Thus, the Democratic candidates need to find a way to get their votes and to motivate them to the pools.
Even though Edwards is probably making the biggest push to appeal to them (talking about taxing the rich to pay for social welfare programs plays well with working class and poor hispanic voters). However I expect them to support Clinton because of name recognition.
P.S. There was nothing the Republicans could go to maintain being relevent in California as the asian and hispanic population grew and the white population shrinks, there is nothing that the Republicans could have done to win state wide elections.
start Spanish-language Web sites and campaign vigorously before Hispanic audiences.
Right My new Immigration bill would be all for keeping everything the same with one minor change.
No more Hispanic or Latin American Immigrants for 10 years. I propose we ban them from entering the country and allowing other Immigrants from around the world their fair chance at entering the United States.
I mean if this is NOT about Hispanics influx but is truly about Immigration then there should be no opposition to stopping Hispanics if we replace them with Say Somalians. Somalians can do the same job as Hispanics and they come from a country that is far worse to live in then Mexico or South America. We would be doing Somalia a big favor.
While we are at it. I think we should throw out the Jews, the Irish, the Italians, the Muslims, the French and the Vietnamese.
Once we are done with those groups we can start on the Chinese, Japanese, Africans, and keep it up till we are back to the Native Americans. The only ones who are truly deserving of being here.
I have often wondered if they stood around their campfires at night complaining that these damn “WHITE MEN” did not speak Apache. Did not adhere to the same traditions as they did.
Ah they are no threat to us, other Native Americans would proclaim. I met some of them. They seem nice. Only want to have a place to live and have a family and live in peace.
Death to the White Man. Some would say. Some fought back but it was too little to late and in the end those who finally conceeded the White man was a threat to their way of life nodded their heads in agreement as they were slowly marched across their beautiful land to the badlands and to reservations that the White Man could see no use for.
The Native American looks out on America today and says. This was once our land. But no more. We failed to see the threat. We failed to Assimilate the White Man.
Americans are in this same boat. Where we have a real chance to do something about it we have politicians who are more concerned with lining their pockets and letting the next congress deal with it.
Just as the White man might have been nice people they did not adhere to the principals which the Native Americans held dear.
There is a great quote from someone, somewhere that sums this one up nicely: “demographics is history.”
The future of the US (by the end of this next century) will be in the hands of a majority Hispanic population regardless of what we say or do now. The US will continue to thrive (as it always has) but in a transformed way – combining and adapting larger portions of Latin American civilization with its European predecessor.
No civilization in history has remain unchanged especially after a protracted era of population shifts. We are no different.
Want to really woo the Hispanic/Latino voters? Go to Tu Grito 2008 (http://www.mygrito.com/candidatos), the newly and only political page on Latino social network. Presidential candidates can now have direct access to Latino voters through MyGrito.com, a a bilingualsocial networking site with a Latino twist. We invite both candidates and Hispanics/Latinos voters to sign-up and put their own “grito” (voice/shout/scream). Information and communication is critical, and this page gives both candidates and voters the opportunity to communicate by members asking questions and candidates having the option to respond directly to each comment or question.
Gracias Raymond Hernandez for this article. This is just the beginning for the Hispanic/Latino voter. We are becoming more and more important and powerful with each coming election and this article proves it.
En buena hora, MyGrito es tu grito. http://www.mygrito.com
Somebody,
What you propose seems to suggest that we follow the same path that we took with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
History has shown that the Exclusion Act was a non-productive and wrongheaded way to deal with immigrants.
Are you proposing we do that again or am I missing something?
FWIW – I really enjoyed your ‘snark’, a little humor makes debate easier, and I know that you know we’ve already practiced on the Chinese (What have you done since you built our railroad?), the Japanese (Japanese American internment), and the Africans (1776 – present).
No snark intended. It was directed quotas that enabled immigration to remain constant without a prevailing ethnic minority attempting to dominate the United States with massive immigration.
IF…IF….IF you are pro immigration and NOT pro HISPANIC then it does not matter where the immigrants come from as long as we are allowing immigration.
Therefore I propose that we ban all Mexican, Latin Hispanics for a number of years and increase immigation from other parts of the world to make up for it.
Simple solution.
Yeah Im not even going to argue the merits of quota system. As of 2006 the United States allowed more immigrants permanent status in our country then the entire world combined.
The entire WORLD!!
It is time that the USA adjusted her immigration policy to a more realistic policy that includes assimilation. Yes. I am a firm believer in Assimilation and Americanization of our Immigrants.
If immigrants want multiculturalism they can go to any one of the other 199 countries and be multicultural.
Post number five helps to reinforce the point those of us have been saying for years now.
We dont want the Hispanics, Black, charlatans, Iranians, Bosnians, Irish, Turks or any other Ethnic group to become powerful in America.
We want Americans to stand up for America. We want to empower Americans to be powerful regardless of SKIN COLOR OR RELIGION or NATION OF ORIGIN.
Thank you mygrito for reinforcing what some of us already understand about the Hispanic movement in America.
Why must I press one to continue in my native tongue in my own country? Lets fix that! I'm willing to vote for anyone that would like to take my constitution (The United States Constitution) seriously. And enforce Article IV section 4 without prejudice. Lets take our country back! I've reverted back to my old carnivorous self in an attempt to remove the illegal workers that produce it.