This is the first in an occasional series of profiles of individual Latino voters. The profiles are meant to provide a glimpse into the life and politics of a given individual. None of these individuals are meant to be stand-ins for a specific class of Latino voters.

The format is “as told to” whereby the entire article consists of quotations from the person interviewed. This ensures the subject’s voice comes through loud and clear.

Today’s Latino Voter Profile is Javier Barajas, owner of the Lindo Michoacán restaurant in Las Vegas where last week Hillary Clinton held a campaign event. Most of the interview was conducted in Spanish.

As told to CandidatoUSA editor Luis Clemens by Javier Barajas:

“I must have been about 16 when I arrived in Las Vegas in 1976. I was traveling with an uncle of mine and we were planning on going to Indio, California, to pick grapes. We were traveling as illegals. The migra grabbed my uncle. I managed to get away. I got on a bus that was supposed to go to Los Angeles where a cousin was waiting for me.

“I don’t know how, maybe because I was so tired. But the only thing I remember about the bus ride is that I woke up in Las Vegas. The next day I started working at Terrible Herb’s Car Wash. I worked there for three years. I worked mornings at Terrible Herb and nights at Viva Zapata restaurant. I worked some fifteen, sixteen hours a day.

“I progressed from dishwasher to busboy. I eventually became the chef at the restaurant.

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A rival campaign tipped me off to the following statement by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, ”I say we ought to put a hiatus on people who come in
here … if they come from countries that sponsor and harbor terrorists.”

Such a move would presumably end immigration from Cuba, which is on the official State Department list of terrorism sponsors. And that would not sit well with the Cuban-American voters who represent a hefty percentage of likely Florida Republican primary voters. The U.S. government’s existing immigration quota of 20,000 visas a year for Cubans was created in 1994 to stem the dramatic flow of balseros from the island.

In his autobiography, “Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life,” New Mexico governor Bill Richardson lists what he not so humbly calls “Richardson’s Rules.” One is “Aim big,” another is “Share the credit.” The former marked Richardson’s entrance into the 2008 presidential race and the latter marked his departure.

The man with the outsized appetite for foreign adventure and domestic campaigning (he holds the handshaking title in the “Guiness Book of World Records”) aimed as high as he could while already sitting atop an impressive resume.

He left the race a little under a year after joining it and without having inspired the passion of voters in either Iowa or New Hampshire. Polls did not augur different results in Nevada. Hence, the decision to get out and return to his day job.

During the speech announcing his withdrawal, Richardson thanked each of the Democratic presidential candidates by name and cited their respective achievements. In closing, he said “Gracias. Que Dios los bendiga (Thank you. May God bless you.)” It was a nod in the direction of the Latino voters who, outside his home state, never showed him the love the first major Hispanic presidential candidate hoped to receive. Aside, that is, from a number of high-profile Latino political endorsements such as that of former Clinton Administration Cabinet Secretary Henry Cisneros and Hispanic Republican marketing guru Lionel Sosa.

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Lionel Sosa, the dean of Latino political marketing, has worked on half a dozen Republican presidential campaigns. This time around, Sosa supported the candidacy of New Mexico Democrat Bill Richardson.

Sosa evaluates Richardson’s campaign efforts and discusses who might be the next Latino presidential candidate.

What went wrong? Why didn’t Bill Richardson’s candidacy ignite passions in Iowa and New Hampshire?

Unlike the Republicans that are really not together as to who they want as a nominee, I think the Democrats have a couple of extremely well-known people. We have, of course, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards who was a candidate before. And then Obama who has elicited so much popularity so quickly. So there were three big front-runners and Richardson’s campaign never really got traction. Even though he was the most qualified of them all. When you have three stars of that stature, it is very difficult to put up a fourth star.

Richardson could have raised more money to have reached out to more people because his name awareness was lower than anybody else’s. And when you start off with low name awareness and three stars ahead of you it is extremely difficult to ever catch up.

He never got the support he deserved because there weren’t enough Latinos that knew Richardson was a Latino.

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Here’s an interview with Southern New Hampshire University political scientist Ernesto Sagás who talks about the Granite State primary, Super Duper Tuesday and whether it makes sense to talk about Latino voters as a bloc. Below is an excerpt from the interview:

Looking at Iowa and New Hampshire is there any measurable impact of Latino voters?

Not really. The thing about both Iowa and New Hampshire is that these are new frontiers for Latinos. These are not the traditional core of Latino states like the border states, like New York, like Florida. Most of these are new Latinos, new arrivals direct from Latin America.

There’s not much to talk about Latinos in New Hampshire.

Is Nevada the first place where Latino voters will count?

Could be. But, I would place it more in Florida. Nevada, even though it is called Nevada, most of the Latinos are recent arrivals. The other thing is that it is a very low-key election unlike for example Iowa or New Hampshire. I don’t think it is really until Florida where finally we are going to see an impact by Latinos.

Speaking of Nevada and Latinos, Bill Richardson if he is still in the race he could make some kind of a small comeback there. Not only because of the Latinos but because of the fact that he is governor of a neighboring state. He has spent some time campaigning in Nevada, he has name recognition there. It is not entirely due to the Latino vote. I think that Florida will be when we see Latinos coming into the fray.

But on the Democratic side there are no delegates coming out of Florida. Why would there be any impact?

It is more about the headlines. For example, Rudy Giuliani is already pandering to Cuban Americans in South Florida. He has been campaigning heavily with the Latinos.

It is like Iowa, you get only a handful of delegates but it is all about grabbing the headlines.

Looking ahead to Super Duper Tuesday – will the Latino vote have an impact?

It could be a moot point. Maybe by the time we get to Super Duper Tuesday this could have been decided by then. Right now, we have Barack Obama gaining momentum. Hillary has the money to go all the way to Super Duper Tuesday but we’ll have to wait and see.

In some of the states, the Latinos could have an impact. But, again, you see all these headlines “Is This The Year For Latinos?” and you get that every four years. This myth that Latinos represent a homogenous group and they are a cohesive voting bloc. If there is a group that is certainly a cohesive voting bloc it is African Americans who steadily vote upwards of 80 percent for the Democratic Party.

We’re going to have to wait and see. Every four years we tout this label ‘is this the year for Latinos.’ Well, in some states and in some counties yes they make a significant difference.

Particularly in the case of Florida when you talk about Cuban Americans and the Republican vote they are quite a cohesive voting bloc. But, even among Cuban Americans, the old, first-generation is dying off. The second generation they tend to be more heterogeneous when it comes to voting, at least at the state and local level.

I don’t want to get into this kind of labeling that Latinos are going to make a difference.

In terms of this issue of labeling – does it make sense to talk about Latino voters? Nevermind as a bloc but just as a group?

If anything, you can talk about the Cuban American voting bloc in South Florida. Or you can talk about the Puerto Rican vote in New York or the Chicano vote in Los Angeles. When you get more to the micro level than you can start making certain assumptions based on poll data. But just to tout a Latino voting bloc at a nationwide or maybe even a statewide level it doesn’t make any sense.

Latino Democrats heavily prefer Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Why that gap?

I think it has to do with the Clinton mystique. Among Latino Democrats, the Clintons are seen as being friends of Latinos. There is name recognition. For most Latinos, Barack Obama is Barack Who?

From our Monday morning PDF newsletter:

Latinos Still Waiting For A Vote

For now, Hispanic voters remain sidelined in the earliest caucuses and primaries.

Last week’s results in Iowa were not significantly impacted by the tiny number of Latino voters. The same will be true of this week’s primary in New Hampshire and next week’s primaries in Michigan and South Carolina. Latino votes won’t matter much there, either.

That will begin to change for Latino Democrats on January 19th in Nevada and peaks on February 5th’s 23-state super duper contests, with the possibility of a last hurrah in Texas on March 4th. For Hispanic Republicans, primary season pretty much begins and ends on January 29th in Florida.

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Plenty of Swing, Not Enough Power

Cover Latino politics long enough and you hear the phrase “sleeping giant” or an equivalent over and over again.

On August 29, 1982 in an article headlined “Hispanic-Voting Study Finds ‘Sleeping Giant’” the New York Times reported, “A new study finds immense unused voting power in the growing Latino population.”

Hispanic political clout has been just around the corner ever since.

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On deadline today, so here are several bits and pieces of information scrambled together

USA Today looks at tonight’s Nevada debate with an eye to Latino voters:

“… Andres Ramirez, who leads Hispanic outreach for Nevada Democrats, said Hispanics make up only 10% of registered voters, yet were 13% of the electorate in 2006, when the state had a hotly contested gubernatorial race.

“There’s also the challenge of explaining what is a political caucus, a gathering of people who don’t cast ballots. As Ramirez put it, “There is no Spanish word for caucus.”

“Republicans, meanwhile, continue to stake a claim to the Latino vote even though leading contenders such as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have been outspoken in their opposition to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants. In 2004, Bush won about 40% of Hispanic voters nationally. State GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden said Hispanics are attracted by the party’s message of low taxes and economic opportunity.”

A Republican forwarded me this story:

“Senator Hillary Clinton has come out firmly against giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, one day before a debate against her fellow Democrats, who have put her on the defensive on the issue.

“… ‘I support Governor Spitzer’s decision today to withdraw his proposal,’ she said in the statement. ‘As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration, including border security and fixing our broken system.’”

“Her statement may have been an attempt to take the issue off the table. But the issue is bound to persist.

“…House Republicans introduced a measure today to prohibit states from issuing valid driver’s licenses to those in the United States illegally. This is the third major bill so far this session that seeks to discourage states from issuing such licenses and identification to undocumented immigrants. Another would withhold a portion of federal highway funds from states that award a valid I.D. to illegal immigrants; a third expresses a sense of the House that states should not be issuing driver’s licenses to people who are here illegally.

“…Mrs. Clinton’s statement, and her vow to focus on border security and ‘fixing our broken system,’ is closer to Republican language than traditional Democratic language and suggests she is looking past the Democratic primaries to the general election.”

You can check out the Senator’s full statement on the Spitzer plan here.

Separately, Giuliani’s campaign is clearly ramping up its Hispanic efforts as I said to Lorenzo Morales of El Diario/La Prensa. Today, the campaign announced Raul Romero will serve as national chairman for Viva Rudy. Romero chaired the Hispanic task force during President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.

Immigration is proving to be the “third rail” for both Democrats and Republicans. Romney and Huckabee are now going at it:

“Campaigning Tuesday in Iowa, Romney criticized Huckabee, along with rival Rudy Giuliani, on the issue, contending that Huckabee fought for tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants while governor of Arkansas. ‘Giving a better deal to the children of illegal aliens than we give to US citizens from surrounding states is simply not fair and not right,’ Romney told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

“Huckabee has explained that the bill in question provided merit scholarships to children of illegal immigrants, provided they were applying for citizenship, and has argued that barring those children would penalize them for their parents’ misdeeds.

“On Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” today, Huckabee was more pointed in his response to Romney: “I guess Mitt Romney would rather keep people out of college so they can keep working on his lawn, since he had illegals there.”

“That refers to a Globe report last December that the landscaping service working on Romney’s lawn in Belmont employed several illegal immigrants. Romney has said his family checked that the employer was legal, but didn’t know the immigration status of the workers. He has also said that the episode has not changed his tough views on illegal immigration.”

Lastly, take a peek here and here. The former is a look at Latino political communications in Fleishman-Hillard’s FH Hispania Plaza blog and the latter is a link to a podcast interview where former Wall Street Journal reporter Eleena de Lisser interviewed me about the various campaign’s Spanish-language communications.

This is probably it for today as I am writing up several articles for this upcoming Monday’s newsletter. Back to blogging tomorrow when I will post a Q&A with Luis Fortuño.

This is Senator Hillary Clinton’s reaction to Governor Spitzer’s decision to abandon his driver’s license proposal:

“I support Governor Spitzer’s decision today to withdraw his proposal. His difficult job is made that much harder by the failure of the Congress and the White House to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

“As President, I will not support drivers’ licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system.”

Hillary Clinton
Spitzer