Can GOP win without Hispanics? Look at Arizona

[DonViejo]

PHOENIX (AP) — On the political map of the Southwest, Arizona stands out.

Most of its neighbors — California, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada — are independent-minded states that once leaned Republican but are trending Democratic, partly because of increasing numbers of Hispanic voters alienated from the GOP by its tough stance on illegal immigration.

But not Arizona.

Nowhere is a harder line on immigration taken than in Arizona, where Republicans have a lock on statewide offices and dominate the state legislature. In November, Democrats picked up a congressional seat, but Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney easily won the state with a slightly better margin against President Barack Obama than Arizona’s own Sen. John McCain posted in the 2008 White House contest.

That record has led advocates of tighter immigration restrictions to point to Arizona as a model for how Republicans can maintain their tough stance on the issue and still win elections. “It’s an example of a different way for things to play out than the conventional story,” Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors tighter immigration policies, said of Arizona. “What’s happened there is the non-Hispanic vote has become increasingly Republican.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/03/can_gop_win_without_hispanics_look_at_arizona/

[Drale]

1. Traveling around Arizona I found that there are still a ton

of white people who's grandparents were also siblings and a ton of "Snow birds" who settled permanently in the state rather than go back and forth.

[Buzz Clik]

2. It's an interesting contrast to Texas which does not take a stand on immigration like Arizona's

and it is bright red.

[Sunlei]

3. did those 600,000? votes Az held aside ever get counted?..guess republicans can't win if they can't

cheat or game the system.

[illegaloperation]

4. We need big voter registration drive there.

There are simply not enough Hispanic voters to tip the scale for someone like Obama, but voter registration drive might be enough to help someone like Richard Carmona