Hispanic vote important for Democrats, but harder to get
WASHINGTON — Democrats are courting Hispanic voters to blunt a likely Republican advance in US legislative elections Tuesday, but they may prove hard to get after three years of hard economic times.
"The Latino community, like the rest of the country, has gone through a very difficult two years. And so it's understandable that people feel frustrated," President Barack Obama said last week in an interview with Hispanic news organizations.
"Now, if I'm the Latino community, the notion that somehow I would sit back and not participate and not have my voice heard (...) that makes no sense whatsoever," Obama said.
Two years ago, Obama won the presidency thanks in part to a record turnout by 9.7 million Hispanics, casting 7.4 percent of the ballots nationwide. Obama got 67 percent of their votes.
And as this campaign goes into its last frenetic week, the Democratic Party spent a million dollars to air nationally a spot featuring Obama speaking Spanish in its latest attempt to get out the vote.
In contrast, the national leadership of the Republican party is under pressure from a conservative base that is up in arms over illegal immigration.
Candidates like Sharron Angle, the Republican fighting for a Senate seat in Nevada, has been unflinching in her use of illegal immigration as an issue that plays to the fears of the electorate.
In her ads, which Latin organizations have denounced as racist, dark complexioned youths, clearly of Hispanic origin, climb fences at night or seek social services they are not entitled to because they are in the country illegally.
The Hispanic vote is important in a close election, but it is especially so in a dozen US states with large Latino populations.
Half of all registered Hispanic voters are residents of California and Texas, said Marc Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.
The Hispanic voter is younger than the rest of US society. "This is part of the reason we've seen lower participation, historically," he said.
According to polling by Pew Hispanic, 65 percent of Hispanics would vote for Democrats again, which appears to be a stable trend at least since 2006, when 69 percent of Hispanics voted for Democrats in that year's mid-term elections.
But only half the Hispanics currently registered to vote are sure they will actually go to the polls.
Another firm, Latino Decisions, this week found that 58 percent of registered Hispanics were unsure if they would vote.
"We're not seeing that kind of intensity that we saw in '08, at all, certainly not by Democrats. If anything we're seeing more intensity in the reverse way, by the Republicans," said Janet Murguia, president of La Raza, a Hispanic organization.
Hispanics were disappointed that Obama did not come through on promises to push debate on immigration reform in Congress.
A group called "Latinos for Reform," organized by a conservative Hispanic strategist, went so far as to call for abstention, but television networks like Univision refused to run his ad.
The lack of excitement on the Democratic side contrasts with Republican voters at the national level, who are determined to go to the polls to punish Obama's policies, including the possibility of passing immigration reform.
Because it is so concentrated, however, the Hispanic vote could tip the balance in elections for governor or senator in a dozen states, according to Latino Decisions and Naleo, an organization that represents Hispanic office holders.
In 2006, Hispanics accounted for 13 percent of the electorate in Nevada, 15 percent in Arizona, 17 percent in California and 17 percent in Texas.