Wisconsin’s Latinos Could Decide the Election
Lots of room for growth and influence
Sen. John Kerry barely squeaked out a victory in Wisconsin during the 2004 presidential election, with just 11,400 more votes than President George Bush. So it’s no wonder that community organizers are working to register the tens of thousands of Latino voters in Wisconsin who are eligible to vote but don’t show up at the polls.
“We are working to turn that around,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, founding executive director of the immigrants’ rights group Voces de la Frontera.
Milwaukee- and Racine-based Voces de la Frontera has already signed up more than 1,500 new voters this year, and increased Latino voter turnout in 2006 by 32%. Waukesha based La Casa de Esperanza has registered more than 130 people with a goal of 400 in its third voter registration drive. The Urban League of Racine and Kenosha and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are registering Latino voters in Kenosha.
Neumann-Ortiz said the biggest barriers for Latino voters are language and voter education. Voces, along with the ACLU of Wisconsin, advocated for Spanish-language bilingual ballot instructions and voter information at the polls in wards that have more than 40% Spanish-speaking voters. The new Spanish and English ballots, created by the city and state election commissions, launched in the February primary election.
Voces is also providing information about the candidates’ policies and other ballot initiatives for Spanish speakers, along with tips on how to fill out a ballot and where to vote. Voces has also developed a political arm this year, Voces de la Frontera Action, which allows the organization to endorse candidates and become involved in lobbying. But its voter registration drive and education are conducted by its nonpolitical entity.
Reaching Out to Latino Voters
Both
Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain are
reaching out to Latino voters, with personal appearances and paid ads.
Both candidates spoke at national conventions of LULAC and La Raza to
confirm their commitment to causes that are important to Latinos.
Both
candidates have Spanish-language ads with messages tailored to Latino
voters. Obama’s ads stress his biography as a self-made man who worked
his way through college, the son of a single mother and an immigrant
father, as well as his advocacy for job-training programs, immigration
reform and veterans.
Obama and the Democratic National Committee also announced a $20 million campaign to target Latino voters, especially those in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. Phil Walzak, communications director for Obama in Wisconsin, said that a portion of that would be spent in Wisconsin on a variety of outreach efforts.
Walzak
said that Obama’s tax policies—cutting taxes for middle-class and
working-class families, providing a tax rebate from the wind fall tax
on oil companies and eliminating taxes for seniors making less than
$50,000—would appeal to Latino voters.
“The issues that will
appeal to Latino voters are the same issues that will appeal to all
voters, and those are pocketbook issues,” Walzak said. The ads from
Obama’s challenger, Republican McCain, emphasize his respect for Latino
members of the military, his economic plan and Obama’s recent trip
overseas, which did not include any stops in Latin America.
Hessy
Fernandez, spokeswoman for McCain’s campaign, said that McCain’s advocacy for immigration reform and efforts to cut taxes for small business
owners would win over Latino voters.
“John McCain doesn’t need
an introduction to the Hispanic community, as Barack Obama needs,”
Fernandez said. “John McCain has been working for more than two decades
for the values, positions and issues the Latino community cares about.”
Questions About Immigration Reform
Despite
McCain’s long history on immigration reform, Obama has a 3-to-1 lead
over McCain among Latino voters, with 66% support to McCain’s 23%,
according to a July Pew Hispanic Center survey. By comparison, Bush won
about 40% of Latino voters in the 2004 election.
McCain’s low support among Latino voters nationwide is in stark contrast to his record in Arizona,
where he won two-thirds of the Latino vote in 2004. But that was before
the Republican Party made immigration reform a hot-button issue for its
base, requiring McCain to balance the competing interests of the anti
immigration Republican base with his Latino supporters.
Although
the media, when dealing with Latino issues, primarily focus on
immigration reform, the Pew survey shows that Latino vot ers are more
concerned about education, the cost of living, jobs, health care, crime
and the war in Iraq.
“For the Latino community, well, I think for everyone in general, the
main concern is the economy, which affects everything,” said Anselmo
Villareal, executive director of La Casa de Esperanza. “Plus the price
of gas, the war in Iraq—but mostly the economy.”
Yet
a Pew Research Center survey conduct ed last fall found that
immigration was the third-most important issue for Republican voters,
behind the Iraq war and terrorism.
And
the Republican base favors a more puni tive, law-enforcement approach
than the more moderate wing of the Republican Party and Democrats,
adding complexity to McCain’s overtures to Latino voters.
Neumann-Ortiz
said that she was pleased that McCain became his party’s candidate,
since the other Republican contenders had run highly anti-immigrant
campaigns. But she said that McCain had “basically changed his
position” and had become more conservative on immigration to win the
Republican nomi nation, while Obama’s position was more consistent.
“Now
[McCain] supports enforcement first and then he’ll get to legalization
[of undocu mented workers],” she said. “Obama recog nizes that we need
a comprehensive approach and that we should create legal avenues for
students and families of workers.”
Voces de la Frontera’s next
voter registra tion drive will be held on Saturday, Aug. 16. To get
involved, call 643-1620 in Milwaukee or 262-619-4183 in Racine, or go
to www.vdlf.org.
What’s your take? Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at www.expressmilwaukee.com.
Voter Drive | Photo by Dave Moore of Voces de la Frontera
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