Hispanics Key in Midterm Elections
Among Hispanics, the law has spurred renewed calls for comprehensive immigration reform, something Obama promised to tackle in his first year in office. He urged Congress to quickly approve reform, but Democratic leaders failed to take up the controversial issue in an election year.
So will all this lead Latinos to the ballot box? While midterm elections are usually driven by local issues, Arizona's controversial law could provoke a political "spillover" to other states, says Evan Bacalao, director of civic engagement for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. "And there are a lot of places where Latino votes can make a difference."
Hispanics may decide elections in Florida — where Cuban American Republican Marco Rubio is running for the U.S. Senate — and California, where Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is facing challenger Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and chair.
There are also tight races in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and New York, states with high percentages of Hispanic voters. Like many Hispanic advocacy groups, NALEO plans get-out-the-vote efforts in those and other states, including public service announcements on registering and getting to the polls, phone calls to Latinos who rarely vote and a bilingual voter information hotline (888-VE-Y-VOTA). The National Council of La Raza, which spearheaded a boycott of Arizona in response to its new law, also is mobilizing the Latino electorate this year.
Political parties are also stepping up. The Democratic National Committee is spending $50 million to entice the 15 million first-time voters who helped elect Obama in 2008 — many of them Latinos like Villalobos — to turn up at the polls again in November. The committee's Vote 2010 effort includes house parties, canvassing and phone banks.
The Republican National Committee has no national campaign, says spokesman Doug Heye, but the RNC is helping individual candidates reach out to Hispanics. And RNC Chairman Michael Steele is trying to foster relations with the community by meeting with conservative Latino organizations such as The Latino Coalition and Hispanic chambers of commerce, Heye says.
Lety Garcia, 56, needs no get-out-the-vote campaigns for motivation. Low voter turnout among Latinos hurts the Hispanic community by eroding its political power, says the manager of a fire equipment company in San Diego. While Garcia thinks mistrust of government could be keeping some Latinos away from the polls, "voting is a privilege we have and we should use it," she says.