McCain, McCain Everywhere

After several weeks of getting very little coverage on Latino-related topics, Senator John McCain’s name is popping up in a bunch of places.

Henry Cisneros mentioned him in an interview with the Dallas Morning News saying,

“Of the Republicans running for president, only John McCain ‘has any potential to woo Latino votes,’ Mr. Cisneros said.”

“He said the Arizona senator has been ‘very responsible on immigration. … It has cost him votes among Republicans that he’s been so courageous and balanced.’”

Ruben Navarrette talked about him in his weekly column: “Meanwhile, McCain has a history of appealing to Hispanics in Arizona and earned more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in his 2004 U.S. Senate re-election bid. The maverick stood his ground on immigration reform and took on the dishonest arguments of those who opposed it, such as the insistence that Americans would happily do the hardest and dirtiest jobs if the wages were right. McCain dared a roomful of angry union members in the Midwest to spend the summer picking lettuce in Yuma, Ariz., for $50 an hour, much more than the minimum wage most pickers earn. There were only a few takers, who apparently know little about picking lettuce and even less about Arizona summers.”

And Immigration Talk With A Mexican American also mentions him in a positive light:“Of all the Republican Candidates, most Hispanic Voters favor John McCain. Why? He is forthright. He is a War Hero (Most US Hispanics are Pro Military and enlist in the Military at a higher rate than other groups.)

“McCain relates to Hispanics needs.
… “John McCain understands the issues and he RESPECTS Hispanic Citizens and seeks out Hispanic Voter support. “

More About Obama’s Mini-Novelas

I’ve written previously (here and here) about Miguel Orozco’s plan to release three mini-novelas as a means of independently drumming up support for Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy. Well, today, all three videos have been posted to YouTube. San Francisco-based Vote Hope paid for the video production.

According to the group’s press release, “The Hispanic community is a key battleground in California and nationally, and Vote Hope is aiming to increase political participation among this rapidly-growing demographic group. The mini-novelas address the fact that many Latinos are not registered to voter and many who are, do not vote regularly.”

Each of the videos tackle subjects that don’t get much of a hearing, at least within the Latino community. The first episode implicitly criticizes those who are willing to march but unwilling to vote. In the second episode, the impact of deportation on friends and family is discussed. And the last topic is Black-Latino relations.

As with all but the very best of its genre, some of the dialogue in the mini-novelas can seem simplistic or stilted and some of the acting can seem forced. However, taken as a whole the videos can be oddly affecting.

Obama

Mel Martinez

The Miami Herald carries an interesting AP article about Florida Senator Mel Martinez:

“U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez had to give President Bush two pieces of bad news recently.

“Not only was Martinez quitting a Republican Party job the president lobbied him hard to accept, he was also planning to help Democrats override Bush’s veto of a multibillion dollar water bill with Everglades cleanup money.

“It was a landmark for both Bush and Martinez, whose political history is rich in mutual benefit. The first override of Bush’s career, and one of the first times Martinez importantly told the president “no.”

“Perhaps not coincidentally, it came as his approval ratings tumbled toward Bush’s.”

Romney Campaign Derides Giuliani’s Strategy

Yesterday, La Política’s Daily Update included an item about how Giuliani’s campaign manager and strategist are placing almost all of their emphasis on Florida and the February 5th primaries. At the same time, they go to some lengths to stress they are not quite ignoring the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

After seeing the Daily Update, one of Romney’s staffers sent me a note from which I’ve excerpted below:

Mayor Giuliani continues to hang his hat on national polls that show him garnering around 30 percent support, yet fully 100 percent of the electorate knows who he is. That is a very big gulf to have between the number of voters that know him and the number that actually support him.

National poll samples are largely a reflection of name awareness at this point in the campaign. The polls taken of voters in the early primary states reflect the opinions of voters who are the most engaged and most informed about the candidates. For Mayor Giuliani to have 100 percent of Iowa voters know who he is, yet only around 11 percent of those voters support him…that’s a major problem for his candidacy.

The latest polls out in New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina show that Governor Romney is perfectly positioned to be competitive in the early election contests.

The fact is both Giuliani and Romney are pursuing a strategy that plays to their respective strengths. Giuliani enjoys strong name recognition as well as strong support in Florida, New York and New Jersey. Romney has invested heavily in resources, time and effort in both Iowa and New Hampshire and it has paid off. The arguments of both campaigns are a mix of convenience and conviction.You work with the hand you’re dealt.

Republican Take On Last Week’s Elections

The Republican National Committee sent out the following article as an “In case you missed it”, which is a tactic used by almost every candidate and both parties to highlight what they consider favorable press coverage:

“Republicans lost the governorship of Kentucky and the state senate in Virginia last week. But the elections were not as bad as they looked for Republicans. Knocked down and trampled on by Democrats in 2006, Republicans are at least back on their feet in 2007. “

…

“Taking into account Republican Bobby Jindal’s election last month as governor of Louisiana and the strong (but losing) performance of Republican Jim Ogonowski in a special House election in a heavily Democratic district in Massachusetts, Republicans are in considerably better shape now than a year ago.”

Veteran’s Day

The San Francisco Chronicle today carries an article entitled “Veterans Day is a time for forgotten Latinos to be recognized.” Two paragraphs stick out:

“Carrillo wanted to become a pilot, so despite the skepticism of his examiners, he applied for the Air Corps cadet program. He passed the physical and aptitude tests but he lacked the required college degree, so he wrote on his application that he was a graduate of the College of Hard Knox. By the time military officials noticed, Carrillo was being inducted, a trained bomber pilot they couldn’t afford to lose. (“It was the best college in the world,” he told them unapologetically.)”

…

“Another serviceman, Armando Flores, had roots in Texas dating back to the 1700s. One winter day after enlisting, he was standing around on a frigid Army base with his hands in his pockets when an officer barked that American soldiers stand at attention, not with their hands in their pockets. What struck Flores was not the dressing-down, he recounted in his oral history, but the fact that, after years of being called a spic, a greaser and a wetback, for the first time in his life, he had been called an American.“

Update

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Dennis O. Freytes sent me an op ed he wrote for the Orlando Sentinel:
“Let us also remember, however, the service to our nation by Hispanic-Americans, particularly the often-forgotten U.S. 65th Infantry Regiment from Puerto Rico, the only all-Hispanic unit in the history of the U.S. Army.”

…”Even before this regiment, Hispanics participated in most every major U.S. military conflict. From the American Revolution — when volunteers from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico fought the British in 1779 under the command of Gen. Bernardo de Galvez to the present-day world war on terrorism, Hispanics have served bravely.”

La Política Issue Number 2

La Política’s second issue is now out and you can read it here as a PDF newsletter or as a series of individual articles:

GOP Candidates Start Competing for Sunshine State Votes

South Carolina’s Latino Voters Matter Even If They Don’t

Latino Youth Nets Prod Viewers To Vote

Latino Voter Mobilization Group Relies On Star Power

Q&A With Author Kenneth C. Burt

Clinton Backlash Scares Latina Voters and Politicians

Granma on Cuban American Politics

A South Florida Republican strategist alerted me to two articles that appeared on Friday in Cuba’s state-run daily, Granma. Not surprisingly, the pieces were critical of President Bush and South Floriday’s trio of Cuban American Representatives (Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart). The article is noteworthy because it clearly represents the Cuban state-run daily’s take on electoral politics in Florida:

“In the Senate, Mel Martínez appears to be weakened after being obliged by his colleagues to resign as president of the Republican Party. In the House of Representatives, the three Cuban-Americans have for years enjoyed a block community vote in their favor during Florida Congressional elections. They have welded political and economic power coming from Washington with mafia threats and the corrupt wheeling and dealing typical of their Miami districts in order to win their seats for the Republican Party. Now, however, they face serious challenges according to The Hill, a capital newspaper that circulates daily when the U.S. Congress is in session.

THE MAYOR’S THREAT

“The opposition is going to be significant, according to The Hill, if Raul Martínez, former Democratic Party mayor of Hialeah for 24 years, is convinced to run for the seat in Congress held for eight years by Lincoln Díaz-Balart, descendent of one of the prominent Cuban families that supported former dictator Fulgencio Batista.

“’Martinez is exactly the kind of candidate the Democrats would need to seriously challenge Diaz-Balart because their battle would take place in a district where cultural ties matter more than party affiliation,’ according to David Wasserman, U.S. House editor for The Cook Political Report.

“Florida Democrats think, as do many analysts, that the political climate within the Cuban community in Florida is changing and, therefore, have begun a media campaign criticizing Republican votes in Congress against the expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“Joe Garcia, former director of the Cuban-American National Foundation (from which the Cuban fundamentalist group split), and the current chairman of the Democratic Party in Miami-Dade County, has declared that the politics of Díaz-Balart are losing ground. The Republicans respond that their ideas are those of the majority.”

The Republican strategist wrote “pretty obvious who they would favor in potential races.”

UPDATE

Joe Garcia called up and said “whoever runs against the Diaz-Balart family will inevitably be running likewise against the hardliners in Cuba. They are bookends to the same problem. They enshrine the status quo.”

Q & A with Kenneth C. Burt

Christina Hoag, La Política’s Los Angeles correspondent, recently interviewed Kenneth C. Burt, author of The Search for a Civic Voice: California Latino Politics. The bulk of the interview is included in this week’s newsletter but here are a couple of questions and answers that we couldn’t squeeze onto the PDF:

Q: What lessons, if any, do Latinos have to learn to advance politically?

A: A steady increase in the number of Latino voters should lead to an ever-larger number of Latino and Latino-friendly elected officials. The lesson from history is that voter registration and voting is not automatic. From 1947 to 1960, CSO systematically signed up more than 400,000 Latinos to vote, and ran get-out-the-vote drives. There is not a comparable statewide organization today. Voter registration is more episodic.

The other lesson from history is the centrality of coalition politics. In heavily Latino areas, candidates form competing coalitions. In recent Democratic legislative primaries, we have seen bitter contests between labor and business-backed Latino candidates. For example, Núñez won his first election with the backing of the AFL-CIO, beating a candidate funded by the Chamber of Commerce.

In multicultural districts, the biggest breakthroughs came through coalition politics. I mentioned Villaraigosa’s mayoral campaign, but the same was true for Edward Roybal. He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949, and to Congress in 1962. Latinos were not the majority in either election.

What is interesting is that the Roybal and Villaraigosa coalitions are so similar. For Roybal it was Latinos, Jews, progressives, labor, African Americans, and Asians. In 1949, the pastor at St. Mary’s, Monsignor O’Dwyer, endorsed, and he helped deliver the Irish vote as well as to help animate the Latino turnout.

Q: You worked on “The Search for a Civic Voice” for 20 years. Why did you decide to write the book?

A: I realized that a lot of the stories of the political pioneers had never been told. I also realized that I had a unique vantage point as an academic engaged in practical politics. Previously I worked for former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and I currently work to help elect politicians on behalf of the California Federation of Teachers. It’s also about family ties, which are so important in the Latino community.

As a young man I worked for the United Farm Workers, and was eager to learn how the UFW grew out of CSO, which in turn was shaped by the union movement and the World War II veterans. While at UC Berkeley, I attended the 1980 Democratic Convention as a Ted Kennedy supporter along with Dolores Huerta.

At Berkeley I also met, and later married, a Latina whose father had helped organize the GI Forum in California in the 1950s. The first assemblymen, congressman, and the first judge in LA were all WWII veterans who were part of this network.

After grad school at Harvard, I also interviewed President Kennedy’s Latino liaison, the architect of Viva Kennedy. He told me that no one else had approached him about his role in the historic election, or how he had helped facilitate the appointment of the first Latinos to high-ranking positions in the federal government.

So, I just found myself having a lot of information that I believed would be of interest to others. The result is The Search for a Civic Voice.

Weekend News Update

A quick round-up of the most important news between Friday and Sunday.

- Representative Joe Baca went “toe-to-toe” with the much taller House Majority Leader Representative Steny Hoyer on Friday. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair is peeved that even senior Democrats are caving into GOP ‘make-votes’ designed for no purpose other than campaign advertising.

- Spitzer, for all intents and purposes, gave up on his driver’s license plan.

- The Austin American-Statesman has an exceptional and extensive package looking at the differences between longtime Mexican American residents and recent Mexican immigrants.

- The Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and the St. Petersburg Times together sponsored a poll that shows Giuliani enjoys huge support among Florida’s Hispanic Republicans – 70 percent.