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Dean: '08 May Hinge on Race, Immigration

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Race and immigration could determine the 2008 presidential race, Democratic Party chief Howard Dean told a group of Hispanic leaders Saturday.

Dean said he's trying to encourage the turnout of minority voters who support Democrats, particularly in the Albuquerque, N.M., area, by encouraging their use of mail-in ballots, a tactic he said Republicans have used effectively.

"If that works, we're going to do that in 2008 all over the place, but in the meantime this is a great opportunity for us in 2006," Dean told 225 people attending a luncheon at the party's annual Hispanic leadership summit.

In New Mexico's largely Democratic 1st Congressional District, home to what Dean called a Democratic National Committee pilot project, five-term Republican Rep. Heather Wilson is fighting to get re-elected. Her opponent, Democratic Attorney General Patricia Madrid, grew up in a Hispanic household near the Mexican border.

Democrats hope to turn back the Republican Party's advances among Hispanic voters in recent years. President Bush's efforts to court Hispanic voters have helped double the GOP's share since 2000.

"We can't afford to have 45 percent of Latino population voting for Republican presidents. That diagram has to change," said Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif.

Dean and Solis said issues such as public education, health care, affordable housing, the minimum wage and immigration protection should continue to be party priorities.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) _ Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a potential presidential candidate for 2008, called on Democrats to embrace the national security debate in the campaign's closing weeks.

"I am happy to have a national security debate with the Republican Party," Obama said Saturday during his second visit in two weeks to Iowa, which traditionally opens the presidential nominating season. "What we need is a tough and smart national security agenda."

Obama said Democrats must stand up to Republicans' strategy of portraying them as weak on national security. He said Republicans "have a lock on the tough and dumb strategy" that Democrats must expose.

"We can't afford to be bullied because there's too much at stake," Obama said. "The only strategy the other side has is fear. That's what you're seeing and you're going to see more of it."

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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., on Saturday launched a new TV ad that compares his nearly 18 years in the Senate with challenger Ned Lamont's relative inexperience.

The 30-second ad features a light bulb and a voice that asks: "Still waiting to hear a new idea out of Ned Lamont? Here's an idea for you."

The bulb lights up and the voice continues, "Experience matters."

In a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, voters by a margin of 47 percent to 38 percent said Lamont does not have the "right kind of experience" to serve as a U.S. senator.

Lieberman, who was defeated by Lamont in the Democratic primary last month and is now running as an independent, has a 10-point advantage among likely voters in the poll. He leads Lamont 49 percent to 39 percent in a three-way race. Republican Alan Schlesinger trails with 5 percent.

Lamont campaign spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl said Lieberman's experience has led to the Bush-Cheney energy bill, increased terrorist activity and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney supported plans to reduce illegal immigration from Mexico but said Saturday the U.S. should do more to keep foreign students who come here and earn advanced degrees.

"There's only one condition on getting your Ph.D. here in the U.S. and that is: You leave as soon as you get it," he told New Hampshire Republicans gathered for their annual convention. "Let me tell you, you get a Ph.D. here in one of our great institutions, I want you to stay. ... It makes no sense that we put up a big concrete wall against those who have education and skills but our doors have been wide open to people that have neither."

Romney, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, spoke about a growing gap in technology and education between countries like China and the United States. He described a conversation he'd had with a leader of a Massachusetts high-tech company, who said he expected that in 10 years, 90 percent of his employees will be in Asia.

"I was shocked," said Romney. "China alone graduates seven times the number of engineers that we are."