Thread: THE NUTMEG ANTI-LATINO COMMERCIALS START OCTOBER 2

Maid dispute could hurt Whitman's Latino strategy

By SAMANTHA YOUNG (AP) – 30 minutes ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The airwaves in California have been dominated by images of a teary immigrant housekeeper claiming she was mistreated by her billionaire employer and turned away when she asked for citizenship help.

It's far from the message Republican Meg Whitman wants to send to the state's crucial Latino voting bloc as she runs for governor.

Whitman is accused of knowingly having the illegal immigrant housekeeper from Mexico on her payroll for several years in a revelation that has throttled her campaign just as she prepares for a Spanish-language debate Saturday against Democratic opponent Jerry Brown. She needs Latino voters to win in Democratic-leaning California.

Whitman has sought to cast the story in a positive way — careful not to demonize the housekeeper while calling her an extended member of the family. Whitman noted how she and her husband paid her the usual $23-an-hour fee even when they were away on vacation and said the woman is being manipulated by Democratic operatives connected to the campaign of Brown.

Even so, the image of a tough-on-immigration gubernatorial candidate getting ensnared in a messy controversy over the legality of her household help is not helpful to a Republican trying to attract the Hispanic vote.

The narrative of a Hispanic maid feeling she was mistreated by her wealthy employer is a personal one for many in the Hispanic community, and such a scenario playing out in a campaign will hurt Whitman, some experts say.

"The message she sent is a distant, patronizing figure who is willing to use immigrants but doesn't understand their plight," said Louis DeSipio, chairman of Chicano-Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. "To the extent Meg Whitman did reach out to Latinos, she's probably lost that initiative."

Whitman addressed the controversy head-on during a news conference Thursday in Santa Monica and will get another chance Saturday when she and Brown meet in their second debate in Fresno. This one is sponsored by Univision and is targeted toward a Hispanic audience.

At the same time, the controversy also could risk Whitman's support among two other key voting blocs: independent voters, who comprise about 20 percent of the electorate, and conservatives, who might question why Whitman didn't report her housekeeper to federal immigration authorities when she acknowledged being in the country illegally in June 2009.

The allegations have dominated the governor's race since Nicky Diaz Santillan came forward this week with accusations that Whitman and her husband should have known for years she was an illegal immigrant.

Whitman said she only realized the worker was illegal last year — and she promptly fired her.

Her attorney, Gloria Allred of Los Angeles, said she will file a claim against Whitman for unpaid back wages and mileage. Whitman says she will vigorously defend against any such claim.

At the heart of the controversy is a 2003 document from the Social Security Administration alerting the Whitman household to discrepancies with the maid's Social Security number, saying it did not match the name on file. Allred produced the letter with what appeared to be handwriting from Whitman's husband, a Stanford neurosurgeon, suggesting that at least he was tipped off to questions about Diaz Santillan's status.

Whitman has responded with compassion for her former maid, whom she described as an extended member of her family, while also trying to preserve her campaign pledge to be tough on immigration enforcement. The former chief executive of eBay says it broke her heart when she fired her maid, she was obligated to do so under federal law.

When asked why she didn't offer to help the woman, Whitman said she felt she had to do what was right at the time. She said it would be up to federal immigration authorities to decide whether to start deportation proceedings against Diaz Santillan, who Whitman's campaign said acknowledged using some of her sister's records when she signed an immigration document and submitted a driver's license and Social Security card.

Hispanics are a growing part of California's population, accounting for roughly 37 percent of the state's 38.6 million people. While many are not U.S. citizens or have never registered to vote, Hispanics are projected to make up 15 percent of voters in the Nov. 2 general election, according to a recent Field Poll.

A growing number of those voters are relatively new naturalized citizens who don't have any allegiance to a political party, representing a key opportunity for the Republican Party, said Harry Pachon, president of The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California.

Whitman has aggressively courted Hispanics with Spanish-language radio and television ads, including spots during 15 games of the World Cup. Her campaign also has included billboards, bus-stop posters and a Spanish-language website.

She opened offices in the predominantly Hispanic areas of East Los Angeles, Fresno, Chula Vista and Santa Ana, and has held a number of campaign events with Hispanic leaders.

Much of her outreach has focused on job-creation and improving public schools, top issues in the Hispanic community that up until now have overshadowed her views on immigration.

Whitman has said she does not favor a pathway to citizenship for the roughly 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally. Instead, she advocates for tighter border security and an expanded guest-worker program.

"Immigration is something we always care about, but we also think about schools, jobs being lost from East L.A. and Pomona to the Chinese and Asian manufacturers," Pachon said.

He said it was too early to know whether the controversy over Whitman's housekeeper would influence Hispanic voters.

Whitman has tried to refocus the campaign on such issues since the controversy erupted on Wednesday, saying voters care more about the state's high unemployment rate and failing schools. She also has sought to divert negative attention to Brown, whom she accused of being behind efforts to manipulate her former housekeeper.

Allred, the attorney, is a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates.

"I think Latinos are really smart," Whitman told reporters Thursday. "I think they will see this for exactly what it is, which is one giant political stunt and smear campaign by a desperate Brown campaign. Thirty days out, this is so obvious what is going on."

The Brown campaign and his labor-backed allies have denied any involvement.

In an effort at damage control, Whitman's campaign launched an immediate response to counter Diaz Santillan's allegations, dispatching Spanish-speaking surrogates to explain Whitman's side of the story. One of their key points: Diaz Santillan was hardly mistreated when she worked just 15 hours a week for the Whitman family and was paid $23 an hour.

"Most of the discussion now is what is going to happen to this woman and her family," said Whitman Spanish media spokesman Hector Barajas. "Is she being used? Did they force her, knowing she was undocumented, to testify?"

One of the state's largest public employee unions intends to keep the incident fresh in voters' minds as part of a $5 million Spanish-language media campaign starting Saturday. It accuses Whitman of saying one thing in her Spanish-language campaign ads and another when she speaks in English.

"I think they're going to see what's happened to their grandmothers, their mothers, their sisters," Eliseo Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, said of Latino voters. "They get hired by rich people, get exploited and they put up with it in the hope that it will lead to help legalizing their status. Finally, when they ask for help, they find themselves fired and put on the street."

Sin Los Latinos, Ella No Es Nada!

Spanish Speaking Station Covers Whitman's Hypocrisy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6li8S_hxwkY

Lawyer: Meg Whitman Is A Liar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Z4370eyCA

Calif. Governor's Race Upended by Immigrant Maid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Z4370eyCA

The narrative of a Hispanic maid feeling she was mistreated by her wealthy employer is a personal one for many in the Hispanic community, and such a scenario playing out in a campaign will hurt Whitman, some experts say.

How about this scenario? The posturing of an illegal alien employee feeling she was mistreated, being paid $23-25 an hour (A job no American will do? Doubt it.), while millions of US citizens are out of work, is a personal one for many in the US citizen community. So how many unemployed US citizens in CA are royally ticked off that an illegal alien was being employed at a high salary???

Methinks the illegal alien community is gonna take a hit on this one and they rightly should! Whitman should get penalized the same as any other employer of illegal aliens in CA.

DEPORT the illegals! Punish all employers, not just Whitman.

A friggin illegal invader making $23.00 an hour is like hitting the lotto for these third-world invaders! When is this criminal going to be deported? That's all I want to know!

THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ANTI-NUTMEG COMMERCIALS START TOMORROW - SATURDAY OCTOBER 2, 2010

So illegal alien housekeepers get around $23 to 25 an hour.

Well that blows the MSM's propaganda that illegal aliens are only doing the jobs Americans won't do. That tired old phrase can now be put to bed. It has been proven to be an enormous bogus liberal media lie!

Well , the illegal was probably getting about $9 hr ,

$23 is what Meg paid to the agency and they paid the illegal bimbo

First off , Meg is a criminal , she aided and abetted an illegal alien even after she knew she was illegal, The fact she was illegal should have been reported to Ice

Meg is guilty and the illegal needs to be deported asap

Originally Posted by Justthefacts

Well , the illegal was probably getting about $9 hr ,

$23 is what Meg paid to the agency and they paid the illegal bimbo

First off , Meg is a criminal , she aided and abetted an illegal alien even after she knew she was illegal, The fact she was illegal should have been reported to Ice

Meg is guilty and the illegal needs to be deported asap

Meg continued to pay the agency $23 for every hour the housekeeper worked, and the agency then paid the housekeeper $9 an hour out of the $23......for nine years? I don't understand that.

The Real Housekeeper of California

Look, she's never been a beloved candidate. Even Meg Whitman's supporters have never really been able to get excited about her. For most of them she may simply be the only ideological game in town. The rest are likely more blinded by the endless array of ads bought with her personal fortune than they are dazzled with her promise as a leader. What's truly astonishing is that this woman is literally trying to purchase an election and the best she can get is layaway. Up against Jerry Brown, a septuagenarian fixture in California politics, she casts herself as the fresh face in this race and she's not only significantly behind him in the polls, but she actually comes across as the stodgy, self-entitled insider to his scrappy, fighter-for-the-people.

That was all before the remarkable events of the past two days. This is a woman who has campaigned heavily on getting tough with employers who hire undocumented workers and then yesterday, incredibly, we learn that she was one of them! She had an undocumented immigrant working in her house for nine years.

It's not like Meg Whitman's problems with hypocrisy are new. Since the beginning of her campaign, she's been forced to answer questions about the uncomfortable fact that when she casts a vote for herself in a few weeks it'll be the very first time she sets foot in a voting booth! She wants Californians to come to the polls on her behalf and yet she's never deigned to go and vote herself?

Whitman has an ad in which she says that other politicians don't realize how serious the unemployment situation is because "they don't see it every day." However, she declares, "I see it every day." Sure, Whitman sees unemployment every day. That's because she shipped 40% of eBay's jobs overseas! The California Labor Federation called her a "serial outsourcer."

I love California. I've been here for twenty years and I won't ever live anywhere else. The state is as vast as it is varied, but there is a common theme that this is a place where anything is possible. Even if you spend $120 million dollars of your own money, you can still lose.