|
|
Democracy: Accountability & Civic Responsibility
Presidential Candidates Quietly Court the Texas Latino Vote
By E. J. Rangel, MATT Editorial Contributor
Friday, July 6, 2007
Earlier this year, while the Texas Legislature was in session, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson visited the statehouse for a couple of hours.
To no one’s surprise, Richardson was given the rare honor of addressing the lawmakers, albeit briefly. After all, he is the governor of a neighboring state.
But that’s not necessarily what made his visit unusual. The Texas Legislature meets only for 140 days every other year and when the legislators are in session they welcome a good number of distinguished visitors.
What made Richardson’s visit unusual is that his main objective was to meet the nearly 50 Latinos in the 181-member legislative body. He told a large group he is running for president and asked for their endorsement.
And, of course, Richardson told the Latino lawmakers – and a throng of reporters who covered his visit – that being Hispanic is a big plus in his White House bid.
Richardson may be the only Latino running for president but other than that, his visit to Texas was no different than similar stops Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and other presidential hopefuls have made in recent months.
Each has visited the state several times and judging by the reception they have received, they will continue visiting for as long as they are in the race.
And though for the predominantly-Anglo media the candidates visit the Lone Star State mainly to raise money, in each visit they also court the Latino vote.
No wonder. Texas may be among the reddest of the red states but the Hispanic population is rapidly growing.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35 percent of the state’s 23 million residents are Latino, compared to 14 percent nationwide. What’s more, it’s projected that if the state’s population keeps growing at the rate of the last 17 years, by the middle of this century the majority of Texans will be Hispanic.
However, there are two points that must be addressed. First, so far Republican presidential candidates are not courting Latinos as aggressively as President Bush did in 2000 and 2004.
Some pundits have already suggested that the GOP candidates have written off the state’s Hispanic vote, mainly because of the volatile immigration issue.
Recent polls show that a growing number of Latinos view Republicans as anti-immigrant because of the votes and comments of U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both from Texas, and particularly from anti-illegal immigration hardliners such as U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
However, this issue is not as white and black as it seems. Republican candidates have not courted the Texas Latino vote because it is not battleground state. They just visit the state to raise money (Texas has become the equivalent of a giant ATM, particularly for Republicans) and Latinos are not exactly swimming in cash.
Equally important, unlike California, the Texas Legislature refused to move up the state’s presidential primary from March 4 to Feb 5 of next year. That cost Texas Latinos political clout.
The second point is that the Democratic presidential hopefuls know that when they court the Latino vote in Texas, they are not looking at next year’s election but at building a strong political base.
Let’s face it, even though the Latino vote in Texas remains largely Democrat, like most Hispanics in the United States, the majority cannot vote because they are not citizens or are too young.
As Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, wrote in a Washington Post article two years ago, “a third of the Latino population increase between 2000 and 2004 came from an influx of adult immigrants who cannot vote here.”
So, “Hispanic political power is growing, just not as fast as one might expect from the population numbers,” Suro concluded.
But despite those factors, the presidential hopefuls – again mainly the Democrats – will keep courting the Latino vote in Texas because even though it is Bush’s home state and it has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976 and no Democrat has won a statewide race in 13 years, the political wind is changing.
Cornyn, who is up for re-election next year, is finding that out. Recent polls show he is vulnerable, something unthinkable a year or two ago.
|
|
|
