Home > The Border Line > Archives > 2007 > December > 06
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Poll: Republicans losing Hispanic support
Republican gains with Hispanic voters have dissipated in the past year, according to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.
About 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters now call themselves Democrats or say they lean to the Democratic Party, while 23 percent align with the Republican Party — a 34 percentage point gap in partisan affiliation. In July, 2006, the gap was 21 percentage points.
The report also showed that Hispanics could be an important swing vote in the 2008 election. Four of the six states that President Bush carried by five percentage points or less in 2004 have large Latino populations, including New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado.
Hessy Fernandez, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said that Hispanic voters judge candidates based on where they stand on the issues and that the Republican Party is more closely aligned with Hispanics “than liberals like Hillary Clinton who want to create a government-run health care system financed by garnishing wages, massive tax increases that hurt small businesses and families, and surrender from the War on Terror’s central front.”
To read the report, click here.
Democratic candidates look for “amigos” online
Democratic White House hopefuls are looking for voters everywhere — including Spanish-language social networking sites such as MiGente, MyGrito and MyBatanga, reports La Politica, a Web site devoted to Hispanic voters.
Sen. Barack Obama’s profile page on MiGente.com has more than 43,000 “friends.” The Illinois senator also has a presence on MyBatanga and MyGrito.
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has a page on MyGrito and her campaign plans to be up on Batanga before the end of the year, the story says. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico is on MySpace en Espanol.
Peter Leyden, director of the San Francisco-based Institute of New Politics, which recently issued a report on social networking as a campaign tool, said the sites are “a particularly effective way to reach young people,” La Politica says.
To read more click here.
House Democrats face quandary on immigration
House Democratic leaders “are being whipsawed on immigration policy” by two groups — the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who is concerned about enforcement-only bills, and vulnerable Democrats from swing districts who say a “get tough” approach is necessary to keep their seats in 2008, The Hill newspaper reported Thursday.
Rep. Joe Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, plans to address his fellow Democrats at a meeting next week to reassure colleagues that they can be tough while creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the story says.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders have let conservative members join legislative forces with ardent illegal immigration foe Rep. Tom Tancredo and allowed passage of a non-binding motion prohibiting the government from suing groups that require employees to speak English at work.
To read more, click here.