Latinos on the agenda at DNC
By Ed Morales, August 28, 2008



This year, Latinos should be encouraged by their increasing visibility and political power, as well as their growing standing in the Democratic Party. But there is still much work to do.

The Democratic National Convention did better by Latinos this year.

The amount of Latino speakers was way up from 2004, when there were several complaints about their relative paucity. This year’s convention featured Reps. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., and Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., as well as former Secretary of Energy Federico Pena and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who, of course, ran for president.

While it may have disappointed Latinos that Richardson was not strongly considered for the vice presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign knows that Latino voters should not be taken for granted. Recent polls show that only 60 per cent of Latino voters have expressed a preference for the Illinois senator, a figure that should be improved on.

Census data from 2007 reveals that minorities are making up a growing share of the population in all but 12 of 129 counties designated as “swing counties.â€