Thread: Perry campaign targets Latino voters

06/29/2010 06:43 PM
Perry campaign targets Latino voters

By: Karina Kling


The Texas Democratic Party has a grip on the Latino vote. But Governor Rick Perry's trying to break that.

Perry's strategy to garner Latino votes: communicate better and they will come. Facebook, Twitter and a section of the Perry campaign website is all in Spanish.

"Hispanics, for the most part, tend to vote Democrat, but their values are in line with Republicans. What's wrong with that picture? Well, we need to make sure we're communicating Governor Perry's message correctly," Alejandro Garcia, Perry's campaign Press Secretary, said.

Garcia speaks Spanish and said Perry's message of creating jobs and conservative leadership resounds with Latinos. He said they just haven't had a good chance to hear it. So he's helping ramp up the bilingual social media efforts and traveling the state to tell Latinos, in Spanish, why Perry's message mixes with their own.

"We do not have to have special media presentations or roll out websites to let Latinos know they have a place in this party," Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, Chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said.

At their own party's convention this past weekend, some Democrats applauded Perry for recognizing the role Latinos play in Texas. But others said the issues where they care most, Perry's administration, have failed.

"Latino voters are not dumb. They vote where the issues are, and the issues of today have to deal with college education, having access to it, access to health care, having access to wonderful public schools in their neighborhood, and I think the Republican Party's been miserable in those aspects," Fischer said.

About one in every three Texans is Hispanic. More than half are U.S. citizens who could register to vote and the number is growing.

"If that Latino population were accurately informed and mobilized, they could be a major force in deciding many elections, including the gubernatorial one," Dr. Federico Subervi, who directs the Center for the Study of Latino Media and Markets School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Texas State, said.

Subervi said the added efforts from the Perry campaign are smart, but the party's anti-immigration stance will be hard to win over those voters. He also admits he thinks it's a future Perry ploy.

"The effort Perry is doing to get the Latino vote is not just for the Gubernatorial campaign, but it's certainly setting up an infrastructure if he were to run, and I'm predicting he will run for higher office," Subervi said.

But the office that counts first is here in Texas, and turning out Latino voters could be key to who wins.

A recent poll by Public Policy Polling showed gubernatorial candidates Perry and White tied. The poll showed White's rise in numbers against Perry came largely from increasing Hispanic support.


http://www.news8austin.com/content/t...-latino-voters[/b]

About one in every three Texans is Hispanic. More than half are U.S. citizens who could register to vote and the number is growing.

Gawd I hate these globalist propogandizers. If Texas passed an Arizona law the number of Hispanics would be dropping and politicians would not be falling all over themselves for the "Hispanic vote".