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  1. #1
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
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    Dems up Latino Outreach

    Dems up Latino outreach
    By Alexander Bolton

    A group of former Clinton administration officials not fully satisfied with the Democratic National Committee’s outreach to the Hispanic community are participating in a soon-to-be launched multimillion-dollar effort to brand the Democratic Party among Hispanic residents.

    While Democratic leaders and party officials say they will continue what they call their aggressive and long-standing efforts to court Hispanics, outside allied groups such as the New Democrat Network, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and People for the American Way are stepping up operations in hopes of translating the high political energy among Hispanics into Democratic votes.

    The efforts resemble the outsourcing of party operations in 2004 to the so-called shadow Democratic Party.

    Massive demonstrations shook the nation’s political landscape Monday as pro-immigration crowds took to the streets in dozens of cities. Democratic strategists called the widespread political mobilization of the Hispanic community an opportunity to win over potential Hispanic voters.

    Specifically, liberal activists and Democratic strategists say that the rallies, which are a reaction to the Senate failure to pass a guest-worker program to balance a strict House-passed border-security bill, provide them an opportunity to roll back President Bush’s close to 40 percent support among Hispanics in 2004.

    The New Democrat Network, a centrist Democratic-allied organization, in conjunction with a group of former Clinton administration officials, has formed the Hispanic Strategy Center to help incubate groups around the country that could help Hispanic residents become more politically effective. In the next few weeks, the New Democrat group will launch an advertising campaign intended to work with the on-the-ground organizational development of the center.

    Meanwhile, the SEIU is looking to expand its Hispanic-targeted civic-participation program significantly, from a few cities to across the county, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union has mobilized members at rallies nationwide.

    Former Clinton administration officials who are also prominent Hispanics say the effort is needed because the national party does not have a major outreach effort focused solely on Hispanics. Instead, they contend, the party is attempting to mobilize Hispanics as part of a larger strategy of building up the Democratic state parties in all 50 states.

    “How do you transform that high energy into voters?” asked Maria Echaveste, former Clinton White House deputy chief of staff, referring to the energy of the pro-immigrant rallies. “That’s something we at the Hispanic Strategy Center are going to be looking at very closely.”

    Organizers of the New Democrat effort and the Hispanic Strategy Center say that their plans were in place long before immigration reform blew up on the Hill but that they are now well-poised to react to the new political environment.

    Echaveste, also a member of the strategy center’s advisory board and a member of the national party’s executive committee, said that while she is supportive Howard Dean’s work as party chairman she and other former Clinton administration officials are worried about the party’s lack of a national, solely Hispanic-focused outreach effort.

    “To the extent they are looking at the Hispanic vote they are doing it within the context of each state’s plan,” she said. “That didn’t go over really well with a lot of Hispanic and minority leaders around the country. State parties have been an obstacle to the real inclusion of minority groups. … There wasn’t room for what the Hispanic Strategy Center is about.”

    But Luis Miranda, the director of regional and specialty media at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), explained that because the African-American, women’s and Hispanic outreach programs are part of the 50-state strategy, they are now housed in the chairman’s office, giving them greater access to committee resources.

    “Hispanic outreach is part of everything we do,” he said.

    Mickey Ibarra, another advisory board member and the former Clinton White House director of intergovernmental affairs, said that the DNC’s Hispanic outreach is “entirely inadequate.”

    The leader of a Republican-allied Hispanic group said that the New Democratic Network was a major force in the 2004 election and that Republicans would have won a majority of the Hispanic vote if not for the group’s efforts.

    Robert de Posada, president of the Latino Coalition, the Republican-allied counterpart to the New Democrat Network (NDN) in the 2004 election, said that the Republican National Committee (RNC) would have to counter the Democrat plans.

    “If they don’t match the NDN, they’re in deep trouble,” he said.

    That’s because the mission of Hispanic outreach on the Republican side of the political battle is conducted almost entirely by the White House and the RNC.

    A GOP strategist said party Chairman Ken Mehlman has been active in recent weeks courting Hispanic leaders. The source said that Mehlman has conducted 24 Hispanic outreach events as chairman and that the RNC has held monthly conference calls with a 100-member Hispanic advisory board.

    Liberal organizers plan eventually to spin the strategy center off from the New Democratic Network, once it is strong enough to stand on its own. Other Clinton administration officials on the advisory board include Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and former secretary of energy; Aida Alvarez, former administrator of the Small Business Administration; Henry Cisneros, former secretary of housing and urban development; and Federico Peña, the former secretary of transportation.

    While congressional leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have gone to lengths to avoid the appearance that they are trying to capitalize politically on the widespread Hispanic anger directed at the enforcement-oriented House Republican bill, DNC officials helped organize the rallies and promote the party at the gatherings.

    Miranda said that DNC staffers in Washington were given Monday off to help organize the rallies and that organizers in other states were encouraged to support them.

    Reid’s staff said their boss will continue his aggressive outreach to the Hispanic community but will not change or step up its efforts in reaction to the nationwide rallies.

    Reid significantly expanded Senate Democratic outreach to the Hispanic community after he succeeded former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as Democratic leader. Specifically, Reid hired a director of Hispanic media and a policy liaison to the Hispanic community to supplement the work of the Democratic Steering Committee, which traditionally handles outreach to constituent groups.


    http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/T ... news1.html



















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  2. #2
    Senior Member gofer's Avatar
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    “How do you transform that high energy into voters?”
    It's all about VOTES, and apparently they don't give a damn about the vote of the American People. It baffles me how they can ignore the majority of voters. I heard on a talk show that they think we are apathetic and tend not to vote whereas Hispanics do vote. I guess all the Illegals will vote too, huh? How about all the LEGAL Latino's that they are ticking off by all this? It is mind-boggling!

  3. #3
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
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    Can't believe they let some off Monday to help with the protest marches.

    Are only hope would be with the Republican party and the House.....if they would only get the hint that they would win the elections, if they supported millions of Americans, like us.

    Sadly, it seems they think Hispanics are the only people in the Country now.
    Do not vote for Party this year, vote for America and American workers!

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