Al Cárdenas Memo on Romney and the Hispanic Vote

The following is a memo from Al Cárdenas about Mitt Romney’s candidacy and Hispanic voters. It is long but a worthwhile read.

To: Interested Parties

From: Al Cárdenas – Chairman, Romney for President National Hispanic Steering Committee

Date: December 5, 2007

Subject: Mitt Romney & the Hispanic Vote in 2008

 

 

As most of the Republican presidential candidates look forward to Sunday’s Univision Presidential Forum at the University of Miami, a great deal of attention will deservingly be focused on the impact of the Hispanic vote in determining our next Republican nominee and President. Coming off two presidential elections in which President Bush made significant inroads with the Hispanic community, now the media, pundits and our opponents are doubting whether any GOP contender can continue this effort that began in 1972 with Richard Nixon’s “Spanish-Speaking Committee,” greatly expanded with Ronald Reagan and was then revived under Bush.

While I believe the candidates in this Republican field are fine gentlemen, many of whom I have known for years, I believe Mitt Romney would be our Party’s best ambassador to the rapidly growing Hispanic community.

First, I must admit that up until a couple of years ago, I only knew about Mitt Romney from what I had read and seen in the news. Following the advice of a good friend, I began to study his record before eventually meeting him. After many conversations and meetings with Romney, I determined that he is the best candidate to continue the Reagan tradition that has defined our party since I was a Reagan delegate in 1976 – a party built on strengthening our economy, our military and our families. Mitt Romney is a man of honor and integrity who shares my values, has the proven experience and competence to lead organizations, and can actually win the nomination and beat the Democrat nominee.

MITT ROMNEY’S HISPANIC OUTREACH EFFORTS

In addition to having the honor of co-chairing Mitt Romney’s campaign in Florida, I was also tasked with chairing his National Hispanic Steering Committee and expanding his base of support in the nation’s Hispanic community. Since the beginning, I knew this would be a challenge given Governor Romney’s initially low national name identification. He faced an especially larger challenge in the Hispanic community because, unlike his top competitors who hail from Hispanic-rich Arizona and New York, Massachusetts has a relatively small Hispanic population. As you’ll recall, the pioneers of our efforts also had some built-in advantages when they first ran – both Nixon and Reagan hailed from California, while both former President Bush (41) and the current President had deep Texas roots.

As expected, however, Mitt Romney and his campaign have invested the necessary time, effort and resources into introducing him to the Hispanic community and expanding his support. To summarize:

· In February, the campaign formed a Latin America Policy Advisory Group to advise the Governor on hemispheric issues. Governor Romney has also actively spoken out about Latin America, Cuba, Venezuela and the pending free trade agreements with Latin American nations.

· In June, Governor Romney became the first Republican presidential candidate to announce a National Hispanic Steering Committee (it has since been expanded):

· He has met with leaders from the Hispanic communities on a regular basis and in July was the only Republican presidential candidate to attend the Republican National Hispanic Assembly’s (RNHA) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

· Governor Romney’s Spanish-language website, which features a welcome video from his son Craig, was launched the week his campaign began and is still the only one of its kind in the Republican field.

· In March, his was the first campaign in either party to run a Spanish-language ad:

· In October, he began running a second Spanish-language ad featuring his son Craig.

· He has conducted several Spanish media interviews with outlets like Univision, Telemundo and Azteca America, in addition to other TV, print and radio outlets. In fact, during the campaign’s announcement week in February, one of the few interviews Gov. Romney did that week was with a Spanish media outlet.

· Craig, his youngest son, is a fluent Spanish speaker and has also done interviews and events in the Hispanic community.

· This summer, Mrs. Ann Romney addressed the annual dinner of Esperanza USA, a national organization of Hispanic clergy.

While the mainstream media has lambasted the Republican field as a whole for “ignoring” and “driving away” the Hispanic vote, Mitt Romney’s efforts have drawn praise. For instance:

• “Despite these sentiments, some argue the GOP will recover. Once the primary elections are over, the nominee will ‘take a much more focused approach in reaching out’ to Hispanics, says Rafael Bejar, former director of Hispanic coalitions at the RNC. Already, two of the GOP candidates earn more favorable marks than their Republican peers among Latino politicos: Mitt Romney, who’s got an energetic outreach effort led by Al Cardenas, the former chair of the Florida Republican Party; and McCain, who championed immigration reform in the Senate. It will be up to them to undo any damage their party has done.” (“Is GOP Erasing Gains It Made With Hispanics?” Newsweek, 9/24/07)
• “Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign said he had a scheduling conflict with the proposed Republican Univision debate, but his campaign is in ‘regular contact with Univision about other opportunities in the future,’ said Alex Burgos, who handles Hispanic outreach for Romney. Burgos was quick to note that Romney was the first candidate from either party to run Spanish-language ads, is the only G.O.P. candidate with an Hispanic steering committee and has an extensive Spanish-language website. Romney was also, notably, the only Republican candidate to put out a statement on the Democratic debate Sunday, contrasting his record with Democratic statements on taxes, health care, trade, relations with Latin America and abortion.” (“The Republicans Flunk Spanish,” Time, 9/11/07)
• “Senator Hillary Clinton and former Governor Mitt Romney each lead their opponents when it comes to the depth and strength of their current Hispanic voter outreach efforts. Both have competent Spanish-language sections on their website, both have aggressive Hispanic media relations efforts, both employ some heavy-duty Hispanic staff or strategists and both work with high-profile Latino surrogates. … Mitt Romney has sent his Spanish-speaking son Craig to South Florida several times. Craig has also voiced over the most recent of three Spanish-language radio ad campaigns that have aired in Miami. ‘You want to demonstrate to folks that you not only address the concerns that they have but you want to address those concerns in a language they speak,’ says Alex Castellanos senior advisor to the Romney campaign. … As for the Republicans, Romney is not yet facing much competition in his Hispanic voter outreach effort.” (“Clinton, Romney Top Hispanic Outreach Efforts,” La Politica, 11/5/07)
• Even The Miami Herald echoed La Politica’s assessment, writing, “The first edition’s interesting mix of articles shows promise. It justly anoints Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney as the 2008 leaders in Hispanic outreach. Who would have imagined a major presidential contender like Romney giving interviews to Spanish-language outlet Azteca America, a corner grocer competing against the Wal-Mart of Univisión? And who would have imagined the son of a major presidential contender — Romney’s Spanish-speaking son, Craig — praising mi papá on Spanish-language radio in Florida?” (“Net Newsletter Takes Pulse Of Hispanic Vote,” The Miami Herald, 11/10/07)

WHY UNIVISION?

Some might be asking why Republicans are participating in this Spanish-language event. The reality is that Univision is one of the nation’s most popular news networks, which regularly draws larger audiences than ABC, CBS and NBC. Spanish-language media is a popular source of information for millions of Hispanics and other Spanish-speaking Americans. While Mitt Romney believes English is essential for success in the United States, he also understands that there are millions of future voters whose impressions of the Republican Party are being shaped by Spanish news sources today. He believes it’s important to communicate his message through these mediums to current voters who depend on Univision for news, as well as future voters.

ISSUES

For Governor Romney, Univision’s Forum will be a great opportunity to introduce himself to voters, share his views, outline his policies and explain how these will benefit all Americans, specifically the growing Hispanic community. Voters will have a chance to hear about his background as a successful businessman and at the Olympics. They will learn about his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts during which he cut taxes for families and businesses, enabled successful students to attend college tuition-free, signed into law landmark health care reform and defended traditional family values. They will also learn about the detailed policy solutions he has outlined on the following issues:

Values

As President, Romney will protect marriage, family and the sanctity of life. Our Party’s natural base of Hispanic evangelicals, churchgoers and social conservatives has been expanding since the 2004 elections. On the issue of values, these voters will gravitate towards Mitt Romney because of his support for a Federal Marriage Amendment, a Human Life Amendment, his overall comfort discussing family values and his willingness to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to highlight their importance.

Economy

On economic issues, they will learn about Romney’s pledge to make the Bush tax relief permanent, roll back tax rates for all taxpayers, abolish the death tax, make health care expenses tax deductible, oppose Social Security tax increases and make the corporate tax rate more competitive with the rest of the world. They will also have a chance to hear about his plan to allow the middle class to save tax-free by changing the tax rate on interest, capital gains and dividends to absolutely 0%.

In the U.S. today, there are approximately 2.5 million Hispanic-owned businesses. By 2010, they will continue their explosive growth and are expected to represent 1 out of every 10 U.S. businesses. Mitt Romney’s extensive business background and understanding of the policies necessary for economic success will make him especially appealing to these Hispanic entrepreneurs and business owners.

Defense

Hispanics serve with great honor and distinction in our nation’s armed forces. They deserve a Commander-in-Chief like Mitt Romney who understands a strong America requires a strong military that is well-equipped and takes care of our troops when they return home. In addition to pursuing policies that would increase defense spending and add 100,000 troops, Governor Romney has outlined policies that would improve access to higher education for military families.

Latin America

As the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer wrote after a July interview, “He knows Latin America better than most of his rivals …” Just as he has done throughout this campaign, Governor Romney will continue discussing his strategy to strengthen our relationships in Latin America and promote democracy in the region in the face of the Castro-Chavez threat. He will continue insisting on the immediate passage of the free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru and Panama as a way to strengthen our ties with these friends and allies. Speaking in Miami, the home of a large and predominantly Republican Cuban-American community, he will also stress that we will not weaken our policy on Cuba until the Castro regime is dismantled, all political prisoners are freed and a transition to free and fair elections takes place.

Health Care

With 47 million uninsured Americans, a group that includes 13 million Hispanics, Governor Romney will be able to articulate his vision of healthcare reform that puts conservative, market-based principles to work in order to give every American access to affordable, portable and quality health insurance. On this issue, other candidates are sure to offer a broad array of prescriptions, but Governor Romney is the only one who has actually accomplished something to resolve this problem.

Education

With studies showing that 1 out of 3 Hispanic students do not graduate from high school, Romney will be able to highlight his ideas to remedy this alarming reality. As he has said time and time again, “Closing the achievement gap in our schools is the civil rights issue of our time.” As President, he will promote school choice because when parents and kids are free to choose their school, everyone benefits. He will improve upon No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by giving states additional flexibility in measuring student performance. He will also honor teaching as the profession it truly is by supporting performance-based pay and other initiatives that encourage our best teachers to teach in our highest-need schools. He will re-focus our nation’s efforts on fields like math and science while promoting innovative approaches such as charter schools and public-private partnerships. Together, these initiatives will help ensure that America’s youth have the intellectual capital and skills they need to compete in the new global marketplace.

By the end of the night, Univision’s audience will also be delighted to see that contrary to the media’s coverage, the Republican candidates have ideas about many other issues that affect their lives, not just immigration.

Immigration

Of course, immigration will come up. Governor Romney will be able to make clear what he believes and has campaigned on – that legal immigration is a great source of strength for America, but it cannot remain so if we as a nation do not stop illegal immigration. On Sunday, Mitt Romney will leave no doubt that he is not anti-immigrant. He will also be able to make this clear to one of the forum’s moderators, who in August wrote a column entitled, “The race of the anti-immigrants,” in which Romney was accused of “[embarking] upon a battle [with Giuliani] to determine which one is more anti-immigrant. … to make sure members of their party get the message that they are willing to go the extra mile to crush those ‘illegals.’”

Sunday night will allow Governor Romney to set the record straight. Immigration reform failed in 2006 and 2007. The next President will have to work within his own party to find consensus and demonstrate the ability to work across the aisle. On issue after issue, Governor Romney was able to do this in Massachusetts. I believe he can do the same for the nation.

THE HISPANIC VOTE IN 2008 & THE CASE FOR MITT ROMNEY

With the Hispanic community’s rapidly growing voting population, no presidential candidate of either party can win the White House without its support. In fact, it would be fair to say that President Bush would not be president today had he not carried 33 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2000 and over 40 percent in 2004. With many current voter registration drives successfully bringing new Hispanic voters into the political process, the next Republican presidential nominee will have to build on the gains achieved by President Bush. Here are several reasons why I believe Mitt Romney is the best-equipped candidate to achieve this:

1. BIOGRAPHY: Mitt Romney is not another career politician from Washington. He has spent a lifetime leading organizations in the business world, the Olympics and as Governor. Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s leadership experience pales in comparison. With the American public longing for change in Washington, Governor Romney is the only candidate that can bring about this change.

2. VALUES: Romney’s values are evident in the life he has led – his marriage of 38 years, as a father of five sons and grandfather of 11 children. He will be a President all Americans can look up to.

3. ISSUES: Ronald Reagan won landslide victories because he was able to unite fiscal, defense and social conservatives. This coalition has proven to be the winning formula for the GOP ever since, and I believe Mitt Romney is the candidate who can do this in 2008.

4. RESOURCES & COMMITMENT: Mitt Romney has the political infrastructure in place to compete for the Hispanic vote in the primaries and the general. Democrats have woken up from their slumber and are ready to compete for the Hispanic vote again. A GOP candidate waiting until now or until the general to strenuously pursue this vote will find himself facing an uphill climb.

CONCLUSION

In closing, I would respectfully urge my fellow conservatives and Hispanics to consider doing the following:

1. Don’t let the media convince you that Republicans have abandoned the Hispanic vote. Democrats and others have long been dismissing the Republican Party’s progress with Hispanic voters. Largely because of Ronald Reagan, we have become a viable contender within the community. As we’ve seen over the last several elections, that relationship has grown stronger.
2. Don’t allow anyone to brand our Party as “anti-immigrant” because we understand that strengthening our immigration system requires upholding the rule of law.
3. Encourage people to actively participate in this election.
4. Learn more about Mitt Romney at www.MittRomney.com
5. Encourage people to support the candidate who best represents their values. I am confident that candidate will be Mitt Romney.
6. Recognize the dangers of conceding crucial GOP principles like opposing tax increases, defending the sanctity of life and upholding the rule of law.

For several decades, the Hispanic community has proven to be an essential pillar of the Republican coalition. Our vote will help determine our nominee and ultimately our next President. I hope you’ll join me in this worthy effort by supporting Mitt Romney. Thank you for your consideration.

Presidential Candidates Flunk Spanish

Editor’s Note

An earlier version of this story appeared at Clemenseando.

Amusing malaprops and glaring grammatical mistakes mar the Spanish-language websites of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Hector Orci, chairman of Hispanic marketing agency La Agencia de Orci & Asociados, derides the websites as “not particularly interesting, nor effective, nor well-written …If they were doing as bad a job in English as they are doing in Spanish none of [the candidates] would get elected with the exception of Bill Richardson.”

Except that even Governor Richardson’s Spanish-language website has its share of embarrassing errors. In fairness, the fixed portion of the site contains a welcome video in the Governor’s flawless Spanish and topical information of relevance to Hispanic voters. However, the campaign blog en español is a linguistic morass.

Spanish is obviously the second language of the campaign´s Spanish-language blogger whose very first post includes the phrase “Bill Richardson está corriendo porque el próximo presidente.” In Spanish, unlike English, you cannot write a candidate is ´running´ for office. Yet, the writer opted for the literal translation of ´running´ as ´ corriendo´. The second sentence of the second post manages to misspell five words. The third post includes a videotaped testimonial by Rep. Ben Lujan, speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, who praises the Governor for “dando relief en los tax issues”.

At a total of 174 words, the flimsiest Spanish-language effort belongs to John Edwards. The section is headlined “El Mañana Comienza Hoy“, which is a literal translation that literally means nothing.

The opening line at “Bienvenido a BarackObam.com” is another grammatical train wreck “Esta campaña se trata de construir un tipo diferente de política y eso comienza contigo.” Translated, that reads “This campaign is trying to construct a different type of guy of politics and that commences with you.”

“If you have a Spanish-language website and it is really bad then what kind of message does that send” asks Lee Vann the co-founder and president of the Hispanic interactive agency Captura Group.

Senator Christopher Dodd has added a Spanish-language section to his website since I first drafted this piece. But, it doesn’t look like a copy editor has finished reviewing all the text.

No podemos lograr esto con líderes tímidos buscando su dirección en los POLLS.

“POLLS” was obviously not translated to encuestas. And the sentence as a whole currently reads “We cannot achieve this with timid leaders looking for their address in the POLLS.”

The grammatical errors contrast sharply with the video on the website where the Senator communicates in fluent Spanish the importance of his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.

Senator Clinton does not speak Spanish but the EN ESPAÑOL section is immediately visible on her home page. Once there, visitors learn about how Senator Clinton has “introducido proyectos legislativos“. Yikes, introducir means insert rather than introduce legislation.

Governor Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate currently providing online information in Spanish. Craig Romney, son of Mitt, appears in a brief video clip where in mildly-accented Spanish he describes his father as a man of faith and integrity. It is a straightforward pitch that might well resonate with socially conservative Hispanics.

Vann says he tells prospective clients who are considering a Spanish-language website “either do it right or don’t do it at all.”

Here is a video of Senator Dodd speaking in Spanish about his time as a Peace Corps volunteer

election

Latino Family Politics

The Richardson campaign has a Latino voter outreach program in Nevada and Georgia called “Mi Familia” (“My Family”).

The program is described in a Spanish-language press release as a “Latino community effort” (the translation is mine). Essentially, it is a way to aggregate Latino supporters. The first chapter was formed in Las Vegas in August “at the most grassroots level”, according to Martha Arevalo who is the Richardson campaign’s Latino communications specialist. A second chapter was formed in Atlanta earlier this month.

That Hispanics attach great importance to their families is a truism. That all members of a Latino family will want to vote for the same candidate is an untested proposition.

“A lot of the important decision that affect our country, our community – like who are you going to support for president often are family decision or at least family discussions” said Arevalo.

It is an interesting concept although very modest in scope at this point. I have no idea if it is likely to work on a large scale but the idea has been tested in plenty of other Hispanic marketing campaigns. For some time, the U.S. Army has targeted Hispanic “influencers” (gosh, I hate that word) in its Latino marketing efforts to attract recruits under the belief that madres, padres, tíos and primos are all likely to weigh in on a family member’s decision to join the Army.

In an interview with the Spectator (cited by National Review Online, which is how I learned of the British magazine article) Clinton strategist Mark Penn said

The radicalisation of illegal migrants to America, Penn thinks, could determine the next presidential election because their grievances will encourage their legally settled relatives to register and vote. ‘The most powerful political force in [America],’ he says, ‘and the most important voting bloc in the upcoming elections, may not even be able to vote — but their cousins can. And that may make all the difference.’

Maybe, maybe not. The point is Penn clearly believes Latinos, whether in the States legally or illegally, carry weight with their relatives who vote.

Mind you, in the world of Hispanic brand marketing the use of family and particularly abuelas is a cliché. However, there is still a relatively modest amount of Latino political marketing and there family imagery has not yet been too heavily overused. Although, I suspect it will be before the presidential election.

I believe the first Hispanic family ad in presidential politics dates to Bush 41’s campaign ad “Father-in-law“, which featured his Mexican-born daughter-in-law Columba Bush (Although, you could argue that description should go to the very first Spanish-language presidential campaign commercial).

In the ad, Columba (who later paid a $4,100 fine for failing to declare to Customs $19,000 worth of purchases made during a Paris shopping spree) says in Spanish “For the first time, we can elect a President who cares for us. Who understands our values, our traditions, our families. For the first time, this is possible. Believe me or ask my father-in-law.” (translation is mine) Bush 41 then responds, in English, “as President, i have a lot of reasons to help Hispanics everywhere because I’ll be answering to my grandkids not just to history.”

 

 

Richardson
Latino Politics
Political communication

Q&A With Luis Aira

This is the first blog post from Christina Hoag, La Política’s reporter in Los Angeles. We are lucky to have the longtime Miami Herald staffer as part of the team:

For the past 25 years, Luis Aira has been a Hispanic marketing stategist for corporate blue chips such as McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Honda and a political consultant for candidates such as Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Al Gore and most recently Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Born in Cuba and raised in Venezuela, he directed MTV’s Rock the Vote campaign and has served for many years as creative director for the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. His production company, Ofrenda, is based in Los Angeles.

Q: So who will you be working for the upcoming presidential election?

 

A: (laughs) They haven’t come around yet.

Q: When you’re designing a political campaign aimed at the Latino vote, is there any specific theme that you emphasize?

A: I have a slightly different approach. I have a focus on [Latino advertising] as a cultural thing, as opposed to a language thing. There are plenty of Hispanics who don’t speak Spanish, particularly in the case of voters.

Hispanic advertising in this country has traditionally been based in Spanish. But there’s a whole new culture that has little to do with south-of-the-border. I coined the term “American alien” – somebody’s who’s American but who Americans think is an alien, and who is completely off the radar. That’s who I aim for.

Q: Can you give an example of how this translates into political ads?

A: I worked from a much more American approach than people would have gone for.
When Antonio Villaraigosa was running for mayor [of Los Angeles], the Spanish community wasn’t exactly behind him. They didn’t view him as their candidate. A coalition was behind him – the black and Jewish communities and others.

To reach the Spanish community, I didn’t talk about being Latino. I talked about being an Angeleno. I shot the whole thing in Boyle Heights [predominantly Latino area], showed the streets, using documentary-type angles. It worked.

Q: Will immigration reform be the hot-button topic for Latinos in the upcoming presidential election?

 

A: That is always a big issue. But for those already established in this country, the most important issues are education and health.

Villaraigosa won on education – that was his main focus. “I’m going to educate your kids.” In a subliminal way, he was also saying, your kids can be like me. They can be mayor.

Q: Much is being made of the Hispanic youth vote for this upcoming presidential election. How do you see this voter segment?

 

A: That is the key factor to tap in the election, but they don’t go out to vote. If you can get them out, you’ll win.

Take a peek at some of Luis Aira´s work.

Latino Political Interactive Advertising

Irene Audet and Miguel Orozco are political novices. Yet, their respective online ventures represent the most innovative Latino political marketing efforts in the current election cycle.

Audet is a former schoolteacher who launched MyGrito.com as a website where her six sisters, seven brothers and all of their children could go online to chat, share pictures and upload videos. It was literally a family affair that Audet opened up to the public in March.

By June, she launched a section on her website dedicated to politics and called it Tu Grito 2008. Traffic soared.

That month there were more than 154,000 unique visitors and 2.8 million page views. In July, those numbers were up to 160,000 visitors and over three million page views with the average user staying 15 minutes.

The premise is simple – participants ask questions and the representatives of six presidential candidates (Democrats Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and the Libertarian George Phillies) provide answers.

Netroots efforts are obviously not new, but this is the first time Latino internet users have been targeted as political participants in a mix of English and Spanish.

Audet says she got started because she felt there was no website addressing Latino political viewpoints “and it is in our hands to elect this new president. It is literally in Latino hands.”

Despite the heavy traffic, Audet has been unable to persuade any of the Republican candidates to join the platform. She stresses TuGrito’s role as a nonpartisan platform.

Miguel Orozco, though, is unabashedly partisan. He is providing Senator Obama’s campaign with free marketing at the website AmigosDeObama.com and more importantly through a downloadable and infectious infectious reggaeton tune with the catchy chorus “Como Se Dice/Como Se llama? (OBAMA,OBAMA).” (How do you say it?/What’s his name? Obama, Obama).

Orozco penned the lyrics, hired the musicians and leased a studio to record the song. The educational film producer and president of Nueva Vista Media won’t say how much he spent promoting Obama’s candidacy.

Asked why he forked over money out of his own pocket, he said, “I really didn’t see media campaigns directed at Latinos. I really felt a void.”

The void being the absence of online political marketing designed to reach young and not-quite-so-young Latino voters online in both English and Spanish. Much of the Latino media buy will, of course, be concentrated in Spanish-language television. But MyGrito.com and AmigosDeObama.com demonstrate the internet is also fertile hunting ground for Hispanic votes.

Are Political Press Releases en español Worth The Trouble?

I received plenty of press releases following yesterday’s debate touting the brilliance of one candidate or another. But, only one of the Republican debaters (to the best of my knowledge) sent out a press release in Spanish. And that was Mitt Romney. The release quoted Al Cardenas touting Romney´s performance in the debate. I won’t bother translating because you can pretty much guess what he says.

“En este debate, el gobernador Romney brilló otra vez más al demostrar su incomparable conocimiento de los temas económicos que afectan a tantas familias y a las dos millones de empresas hispanas en Estados Unidos.”

It made me wonder if it was really worth issuing a Spanish-language press release after the debate? I suspect so, but I can´t point to any hard data or proof confirming my suspicions. I ask because the ins and outs of Latino political marketing lie at the heart of La Política, the weekly newsletter we are launching on November 5th.

Did the releases garner any additional coverage in Spanish-language media? None that I could find in Spanish-language blogs, dailies or television newscasts. (I have no way of tabulating Spanish-language radio mentions.) The Spanish-language dailies carried wire service write-ups of the debate so there was no real opportunity to insert an original quote in Spanish.

I would argue, though, that given its low cost (an outsourced translator and a Spanish-language media list) a Spanish-language press release is probably worth the time and money for any candidate that is already trying to communicate with Latino voters. Admittedly, though, this is little more than a hunch.

Aside from Romney, I receive a steady stream of Spanish-language press releases from the Clinton and Richardson campaigns. I asked Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, Clinton´s Director of Hispanic Communications, if all those releases were worth it. She said yes and pointed to the large number of Spanish-language weeklies with few editorial staffers who take advantage of the releases. Furthermore, Rodriguez-Ciampoli said, “there is just a connection you create with people when you see it in Spanish. They see the campaign is interested in reaching out to them in whatever language they prefer.”

Obviously, there are a number of presidential candidates (Tancredo, Huckabee) philosophically opposed to sending out press releases in Spanish and doing so might well anger their supporters. But, for most other Republican as well as Democratic candidates it seems like there is a modest benefit.

And that benefit, no doubt, increases the further along you get in the race.

Update:

Alex Burgos, Mitt Romney´s director of specialty media, has weighed in on the matter. He says

“I would have to agree with Fabiola on this one. Our efforts should make clear that the Romney-Clinton battle for the Hispanic vote is going to be a classic one.

I would also add that these statements are sometimes read on the radio and distributed at the grassroots level.”