Spoke briefly this morning to Carlos Curbelo who is managing partner of Capitol Gains and an adviser to former Senator Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign. As noted yesterday, Curbelo sent out a press advisory announcing today’s visit by Thompson to a gas station that sells ethanol.
“He’s going to talk about energy independence, his support for the development of ethanol and other alternative fuels in order to reduce our dependence on oil from enemies like Hugo Chávez” said Curbelo. The political consultant added “Florida is the state where the Hispanic community is most relevant in terms of the Republican primary. We want to make sure they hear Senator Thompson’s message of prosperity, security and unity.”
Just received what I believe to be the first Spanish-language press release from Fred Thompson’s campaign.
It is a simple advisory about a visit tomorrow by the former Senator to the Urbieta Oil Company, which according to the release is the only retail distributor of ethanol at gas stations in South Florida. The business is run by a family of Cuban exiles. The Senator is scheduled to talk about his support for ethanol as an alternative to traditional gasoline and discuss the dangers associated with relying on countries like Venezuela for the national oil supply, again, according to the release.
Much of today’s pre-debate news coverage has focused on Fred Thompson´s likely performance. Since La Política is primarily concerned with Latino voters, I figured it made sense to quickly review Thompson’s Hispanic policy proposals and voter outreach.
First off, as far as I can tell, the only Hispanics he has tried to connect with are Cuban American Republicans. As evidenced by his web video blasting Michael Moore.
And that may have been the high point of his Cuban American voter outreach. The AP writes:
During a trip to South Carolina in June, Thompson was talking about illegal immigration from Cuba and elsewhere and said, “I don’t imagine they’re coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We’re living in the era of the suitcase bomb.”A day later, he posted an explanation on his Web site, saying he was referring to Cuban spies, not immigrants. Nevertheless, Democrats, including Clinton, assailed him for not understanding Cuban-Americans.
Since then, the former Senator has proposed revoking the constitutional right of citizenship by birth. Such a move would disenfranchise the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.The American Spectator writes
Moreover, the suggestion that birthright citizenship might be tampered with has not won praise in Florida, a critical state in the Republican primary race. State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami (a key Hispanic leader in Florida not yet supporting a presidential candidate), was quoted in the Orland Sentinel as arguing that repealing birthright is a “xenophobic” idea that would damage the GOP with Hispanic voters. He remarked: “At best, this would be seen as mean-spirited. At worst, it’s seen as bigotry.” Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida and Mitt Romney’s National Hispanic Steering Committee chairman, has also spoken out against the idea.
I´ll see what he says today and blog about it later.
Thompson