|
 |
|
|
|
Este informe no está disponible en español. THE HARTFORD COURANTCampaigns Seek The Key To Latino Votersby MICHAEL REMEZSeptember 22, 2000 With a small business to run and six kids at home, Arturo G. Martinez is just the kind of Latino voter George W. Bush would love to snag. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Martinez, 37, works about 55 hours a week at his own business, a travel agency and service that allows people -- mostly Dominicans from this gritty inner-city neighborhood -- to wire money to relatives back home. He sends his older kids to parochial school, just about busting the family budget, because he doesn't feel comfortable with the public ones. Martinez, who usually votes Democratic, hasn't decided how he'll vote. He's skeptical of the rhetoric from both Bush and Vice President Al Gore. "I don't believe what any of these politicians says anymore," Martinez said, sitting in the back office of his business as workers finished a new paint job and salsa music played softly. "They do all this talk, but when they get in power, they don't do what they said." Both candidates have pushed hard to reach Latino voters, a fast growing, potentially powerful, but deceptively diverse group. This week alone, Texas Gov. Bush is campaigning in heavily Hispanic south Florida, as is Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman. Gore spoke Wednesday night to the annual gala of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Both campaigns are running ads in Spanish, and this week, the Sierra Club started to run an ad in Florida attacking Bush's environmental record -- in Spanish. Latinos have traditionally sided with Democrats -- except in Florida, with its sizable Cuban population. Recent surveys indicate asolid majority still do. Bush, though, has fared well with the mostly Mexican Americans in Texas and hopes to translate that into Latino support nationwide. But, because of the way the electoral map is unfolding, Latino voters are unlikely to have the broad influence over the presidential race that some had expected. About 70 percent of the Latino population resides in four states, and only one of those -- Florida - - is thought to be truly in play. Texas appears solidly in Bush's column, and Gore is well ahead in California and New York. But in a race that appears so close, Latino voters still could play an important role in states such as Arizona, New Mexico, New Jersey and Illinois. Since the 1996 elections, more foreign-born Latinos have become naturalized, more have come of age and more have gotten involved in the political process. This year, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials predicts Hispanics will make up 5.4 percent of voters, or 5.8 million people. To benefit from the Latino vote, Republicans must win over significantly more than the 20 percent of Latinos they usually get. But both parties will need to give Latinos a reason to vote at all. "The issue for me in every election is mobilization," said Louis DeSipio, a professor at the University of Illinois and an expert on Latino voting trends. "For the Latino community to have more of an impact, someone has to get them out to vote." Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington political analyst, said much of the emphasis on the Latino vote is a way to appeal to other swing voters. "I think Republicans in particular talk about Latinos as a way of making everybody comfortable by showing that the party is inclusive, that it is seeking people of color," Rothenberg said. But the big shows of inclusion by both parties this summer -- the nominating conventions -- got little notice in the heavily Hispanic communities in northern New Jersey. Potential voters there were more concerned about the quality of local schools and keeping children away from gangs and drugs. "A lot of people don't vote and they don't follow the politicians closely because they don't think it makes any difference," said Pedro Santiago, 38, who manages El 494 Supermarket on Ellison Street in Paterson. Born in Puerto Rico, he said he plans to vote, probably for Gore, but he said he won't make up his mind until the last minute. Paterson and Union City show the diversity of America's Hispanic population. Paterson, better than 40 percent Latino, boasts it is home to immigrants from some 20 different Latin countries and Puerto Rico. A quick glance at Bergenline Avenue in Union City shows businesses owned by Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, Mexicans, Peruvians and Ecuadoreans. But what buyers are likely to be fielding are appeals from both parties. "We will listen to what you have to say," Gilda Morales of the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University said she tells candidates. Morales, a Puerto Rican, said that as immigrants become more settled and move into the middle class, they get more involved in the political process. Democrats should not take Latino support for granted and Republicans should not write it off. In New Jersey, Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman won two narrow elections in the 1990s, each time with the help of Latino voters. Two years ago, Latinos made up about 7.4 percent of New Jersey voters. That is expected to increase this year. Politicians must understand where Latinos have similar concerns -- such as education and access to health care -- and where they have differences with one another. Cuban Americans, for example, focus on U.S. policies toward Fidel Castro, Mexican and Central Americans on immigration issues and Puerto Ricans on the political status of their homeland. Ricardo Fernandez Llosas, 74, is a Cuban exile who runs a small clothing shop in Union City. He is a rock-solid Republican -- except when it comes to his local congressman, Bob Menendez, a Cuban American Democrat. "Bob Menendez is my congresista," he said proudly in a mix of Spanish and English. "Bob Menendez is fighting for freedom for Cuba." Back in Paterson, Martinez said he needs help paying for his children's education. That could come as vouchers or tax breaks. "I will do whatever I can, legally, to keep my kids in private schools," he said. "I don't want my kids to get into trouble." That might sound more in line with Bush's positions, but Martinez said he remains a big fan of President Clinton, despite his troubles. He also echoed a point made by several experts when he said the groundwork done this year among Latinos could prove important in the future. "We tend to be very loyal," he said, adding that once he starts voting with one party, he'll need a good reason to switch down the road.
|
