US politicians court Latino voters
SAN FRANCISCO: Politicians across the United States are courting the votes of one segment of the population that made a big difference in several states in the presidential elections of 2008 -- the Latinos.
The Latino voters are believed to have the power to change the outcome of a number of crucial races.
In California, Latinos are influencing the race to replace Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with either former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman, or Attorney General Jerry Brown, who's a former governor.
The two candidates battling to become California's next governor are fighting a close race.
Analysts say the winner may be the one who inspires the most Latinos to vote.
UC Berkeley's Education and Political Science assistant professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla said: "Given that Latino voters make up at least 18 per cent of the voters in California, you cannot win state-wide without significant Latino support".
Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman and their supporters have pulled out the stops with millions of dollars of television commercials aimed at the Latino community.
Other groups across the state are targeting one voter at a time.
PODER executive director Antonio Diaz said: "The task before us is to increase participation and to get people involved in the electoral process just as they're engaged in addressing issues in their communities through churches and neighbourhood organisations".
Meanwhile, Antonio Diaz is mobilising his 'small army' in the centre of San Francisco's Mission district.
He is using teenagers to spread information to first-time voters.
These teenage volunteers knock on doors and ring doorbells to educate the voters about ballot initiatives of particular interest to this Latino working-class community.
Volunteers say this is not an easy task.
"I knock on about a hundred doors every day, and usually out of the hundred doors, only about three to five people actually open the doors to talk to us," volunteer Edgar Molina said.
In San Francisco's Mission District, more than half the residents are Latino. In California as a whole, it represents more than a third.
Such statistics are important to Republican candidate Meg Whitman, especially after a recent incident in which she fired her housekeeper Nicky Diaz because of Diaz's immigration status.
Nicky Diaz had been employed as Whitman's housekeeper for nine years.
Diaz recently accused her former boss of knowing about her undocumented status and mistreating her.
Whitman, who has campaigned as a hardliner on immigration, said she fired Nicky Diaz as soon as she learned of her status in 2009.
"You know, Nicky came to me. She said she was here illegally. We let her go as we needed to do," Whitman said.
Meanwhile, demonstrators have come out in support of Whitman's former employee.
Carrying brooms and cleaning supplies, the demonstrators paint Whitman as an uncaring hypocrite.
Analysts are debating what impact the revelation will have on the Latino vote, and whether it will make a difference in the November election.