Barack Obama and John Edwards have narrowed the gap in popularity with Hillary Clinton when it comes to the overall population in key primary states as well as nationwide. However, when it comes to Latino voters both men are way, way behind the junior Senator from New York.

Latinos Love Hillary & Spurn Barack. Affair With Rudy Wanes

Much of this past week’s media coverage understandably focused on how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are neck-and-neck in Iowa and New Hampshire. But, a few polls released during the week make clear that Clinton is poised to trounce Obama among Latino voters in California and Florida.

A Friday SurveyUSA poll of likely Florida Democratic Primary voters found 53 percent of Hispanics support Clinton. Obama has the support of 21 percent, while Edwards has 19 percent. This past Wednesday’s Field Poll of likely California Democratic Primary voters found she enjoys almost a 2 to 1 lead among Latino voters.

This on top of last week’s Avanze/ImpreMedia poll that found Clinton enjoyed a 9 to 1 lead over Obama in the key states of California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas.

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Senator Hillary Clinton enjoys a very strong lead of 59 percent among Hispanic registered voters aligned with the Democratic Party, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center survey. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is supported by 35% of Latino registered voters who lean Republican.

Clinton is followed by Senator Barack Obama with 15 percent then Governor Bill Richardson with 8 percent and John Edwards with 4 percent.

Giuliani is followed by Fred Thompson with 13 percent then Senator John McCain with 10 percent and Mitt Romney with 4 percent.

Yesterday´s Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll generated widespread coverage, in part, because of its questions about the Clinton marriage (see here and here for the LAT’s wrap-ups and here for reaction).

The LAT’s own coverage overlooks the two immigration questions asked in the survey. The results are particularly relevant given the recent talk of immigration as a hot-button issue.

Question #13

When it comes to dealing with illegal immigration, do you favor an approach that focuses only on tougher enforcement of immigration laws, or an approach that includes both tougher enforcement of immigration laws and also creates a guest worker program that allows undocumented workers to work legally in the U.S. on temporary visas?

Some 45% of Republicans and Republican Primary/Caucus voters responded they favored only tougher enforcement of immigration laws. Fully half of voters classified by the pollsters as Christian Conservatives favored this approach. And men took a harder line than women. The two-pronged approach of immigration enforcement and a guest worker program was favored by 50%.

In response to a separate question, a candidate’s stance on immigration was important to a whopping 83% of Republicans and Republican Primary/Caucus voters. It is the single-most important issue, though, for only 13%. That number jumps up to 19% for men.

Not asked or perhaps simply not included in the press release were questions about Republican voter response to immigration reform that included a path to citizenship. Ditto with Democratic voter response to the same questions.

To me, though, the most curious bit of missing information is any read on Latino voter preferences. This is, after all, the newspaper of record in the largest Latino market in the country. What Latino voters and for that matter African American and Asian American voters think should presumably be of some interest to the Los Angeles Times. I realize this requires oversampling and thus greater cost.

Or is this information available and simply not mentioned in the release or highlighted in the LAT’s own coverage?

Either way, it looks like a significant omission.

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