Thread: Pandering for California's estimated 2.8 mil Latino voters

To capture Latino votes in California, presidential candidates have to go beyond photo opportunities.
By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 22, 2008
Hillary Rodham Clinton has munched on tacos in East Los Angeles and Barack Obama has joked around on Southern California's top Spanish-language radio program "PiolÃ*n por la Mañana," both carefully orchestrated attempts to connect with wavering, undecided Latino voters like stay-at-home mother-of-two Denise Mendoza.

"I think it's funny, comical even," said Mendoza, 25, of Glendale, who has tuned into most of the presidential debates and surfed through the candidate's websites. "I guess they have to do these desperate things in an election, but I'm not going to vote for someone just because they go to King Taco."

Mendoza's amused indecision shows the difficult task candidates face to win over California's estimated 2.8 million Latino voters, an increasingly influential and diverse bloc that draws political power from multiple and sometimes contrasting sources: labor unions, foreign-born Spanish-speakers, activist organizations and established political bulwarks in the Legislature and in cities such as Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

Opinion polls consistently have shown that Latino voters, like Democrats overall, favor Clinton, but the overall margin has shrunk.

That, and the lack of a consensus candidate supported by labor leaders and organizers of the massive immigrant rights rallies of 2006, have provided an opening for Obama and to a much lesser degree John Edwards.

"I think there will be a contest. There is no champion for the Latino community at this point in the political season. Nobody has separated out," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project in Los Angeles.

"They have to make their case now. And we are different," he said. "If Latinos ran America, we'd have no border wall, illegals would be legal, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq, and we'd have universal healthcare."

Latinos probably will account for 20% to 25% of the vote in the Feb. 5 Democratic primary, Gonzalez said, which explains Clinton and Obama's devotion to Southern California's Latino neighborhoods over the last weeks. Latinos will be a lesser factor in the Republican primary as they account for only 8% to 10% of likely voters, he said.

Though Clinton's and Obama's tactics have differed, their messages have been somewhat similar, with both promising to preserve jobs, address healthcare needs, withdraw troops from Iraq and protect immigrant rights while still securing the border.

The Obama campaign has targeted Latino union organizers and left-leaning immigrant rights groups, scoring a major victory with the personal endorsement of Maria Elena Durazo, the influential head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and a leader in the immigrant rights rallies.

Clinton has stuck to a more traditional political path, lining up high-profile Latino leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, to help rally support.

Edwards and the Republican candidates have been focusing most of their energy on South Carolina and other state contests, and have yet to make high-profile pushes for Latino support in Southern California.

Mike Garcia, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1877 in Los Angeles, said Clinton appears to hold an edge among many Southern California Latinos who count themselves among working poor.

But that support is fragile, said Garcia, whose union members include janitors and security guards. "I think the support for Hillary is not that deep, but it is wide. That is my impression from talking to people, and my members," Garcia said.

The service-employee union's state council backs the pro-union Edwards, but local organized labor -- especially among those representing large numbers of Latino workers in the service and construction sectors -- is splintered.

The national International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has backed Clinton, and Durazo said her decision to back Obama was in part influenced by her national home union, Unite Here, which endorsed the Illinois senator. The county federation she leads has not endorsed a candidate.

Durazo said she believes that Obama's compelling life story -- the son of an immigrant father, raised by a single mother, ultimately devoting himself to public service after graduating from Harvard Law School -- will resonate with working people.

"The Latino community doesn't know about Senator Obama, his name is not automatic like the Clinton name," Durazo said. "I think that once the Latino community has the opportunity to know who he is, then they can have the choice between whoever they want. I wouldn't want our community to learn about him after that fact and when it's too late."

Still, Obama begins at a disadvantage among Latinos, who have often found themselves in competition with African Americans for jobs. The results in Saturday's Nevada caucuses underscore the issue.

Entry polls showed Clinton won two-thirds of the Latino vote, despite an aggressive effort by the Obama campaign to court those voters.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... ?track=rss

In the nevada caucus ,union bosses admitted that there is no requirement to prove citizenship and they will continue not to ask.It is estimated that about as many as half of casino wokers are illegal aliens which means there had to be at least some legal voters defruaded.

"They have to make their case now. And we are different," he said. "If Latinos ran America, we'd have no border wall, illegals would be legal, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq, and we'd have universal healthcare."

Seeing Hiliary munching tacos with Villaraigosa virtually guarantees that a huge amniesty is just around the corner if she is elected.

If this does not scare the hell out of Americans then nothing will.....

"They have to make their case now. And we are different," he said. "If Latinos ran America, we'd have no border wall, illegals would be legal, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq, and we'd have universal healthcare."

LOL!!! If certain latinos were so successful at running a country, WHY are they coming here? I'm sure he also means only illegal latinos would be made legal.
What drivel.

I have no problems with U.S. Citizens running this country...not one

It sounds like they want this country to be just like Mexico. I kind of have an issue with that You know, the country they all want to leave. What drivel. And I'm tired of the we vs them attitude. We are one country so it is US, not us and them. I raised two 'hispanic' children that were not mine and I never thought of them as being different from myself. Maybe Hillary should have painted herself black and walked into racial hatred of Los Angeles. She'd be shot, wouldn't she? Just because she wasn't hispanic.

They have to make their case now. And we are different," he said. "If Latinos ran America, we'd have no border wall, illegals would be legal, we wouldn't have invaded Iraq, and we'd have universal healthcare."

The truth comes out Latinos want to run America. They have done such a good job of running Mexico.

I have talked to about six naturalized immigrants (men and women), and all of them tell me the same thing; they will not vote for a woman President. They think a woman is not mentally tough enough to run the USA. I think most of the Latinos are going to vote for Obama.

Originally Posted by ArticleIV

I have no problems with U.S. Citizens running this country...not one

I have a problem with "US Citizen" anchor babies like Fabian Nunuz running it.

"I have a problem with "US Citizen" anchor babies like Fabian Nunuz running it.'

Well said Bowman.

Does anyone believe for a minute that an anchor baby will not do everything in their power to undermine this country in an effort to promote and protect the illegal invaders. Of course they will.

The anchor baby issue is honestly the most serious threat we face as a country because that citizenship allows people like Fabian Nunez and many more like him to further their pro-illegal agenda.

The thing I do not understand is how someone like Fabian Nunez could be elected unless illegals were casting votes.

Must be a whole bunch of anchors out there voting and ignorant Americans Citizens. That's all I can say....