Republicans look to gain traction with Hispanic voters

[alp227]

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 19, 2010; 1:16 PM

AUSTIN -- Henry Bonilla, a Texas Republican whose district ran along the Mexican border, won seven straight elections to the House by relying on retail politics in Hispanic communities where GOP candidates had rarely bothered to tread.

He thrived in Congress and co-chaired the two Republican National Conventions that nominated George W. Bush. In a period when the party sought to telegraph a vision of diversity, however spotty its record, the effort yielded Hispanic votes in Texas and beyond. That was then.

After back-to-back hammerings in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the GOP is trying to figure out how it slid so far behind with Hispanic voters. With Republicans' traditional white-male base shrinking, party strategists talk with increasing urgency about wooing Hispanics, who are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and who mostly vote Democratic. "If you don't go out and bring more Hispanics to our party, the math isn't there to win, no matter what the other side does," said Bonilla, who has argued the case in one-on-one meetings with Republican leaders in Congress. "If they're too blind to recognize that, it's their own selves doing them in."

Bonilla should know. He lost in 2006 to another Hispanic candidate, a Democrat.

The U.S. Hispanic population is expected to increase by nearly 200 percent by 2050, with non-Hispanic whites comprising about half the nation's population, down from 69.4 percent in 2000. From 1988 to 2008, the number of eligible Hispanic voters rose 21 percent -- from 16.1 million to 19.5 million.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902615_pf.html

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Trying to figure out why it's shrinking? Oh I don't know...could it be because they're all racists?

[Emit]

3. Damn, that was my first thought too.

What the heck kind of asinine reporting is that?

[bluestateguy]

2. Bush knew how to win Hispanic voters

That is hard to deny. The current crop of Republicans would rather placate the nativists and immigrant bashers.

[Lilyeye]

4. Well considering how badly they treated Sonia Sotomayor for all to see....good luck with that!

[stanwyck]

5. Show more clips of Tom Tancredo at the teabagging rallies

and the Republicans will continue to lose the Hispanic vote. I doubt the Hispanic community has warmed up to Sarah Pallin, either.
And ole Lou Dobbs, hoping for a political career, is not likely to draw many Hispanic votes.

[pampango]

6. HuffPo: Hayworth, Norquist and CPAC: the Republican Fork in the Road on Immigration

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-sharry/hayworth-norquist-and-cpa_b_469485.html

"Does the GOP choose the backward-looking, anti-immigrant route led by former Congressman, now Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth, or the path toward real immigration solutions, led by Grover Norquist, who is supporting Hayworth’s primary opponent John McCain?"

"A little history on Hayworth: In 2006, Hayworth lost his House seat to Democrat Harry Mitchell. In the run-up to the election, Hayworth published an anti-immigration screed entitled, Whatever it Takes. But his zealotry clearly hurt him, not only with Latinos voters, but with swing voters who found his obsessive focus on illegal immigration off-putting. He found out the hard way that making yourself a leader of the anti-immigrant crowd is a fool’s errand, for their bark is much greater than their bite.

With apologies to the definition of insanity, Hayworth is at it again. In his Senate race Hayworth welcomed early endorsements from notorious anti-immigration crusaders Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Minuteman Civil Defense Corps co-founder Chris Simcox. We’ve also learned recently that Hayworth seems to be legitimizing the whacko “birther” movment, elevated by many in the far right fringe, who can’t seem to grasp that a black man is President. There’s even more background on Hayworth in a briefing released yesterday by the organization I founded and head, America’s Voice. It’s called, jdhayworth“J.D. Hayworth - Leading the GOP Into a Political Wilderness on Immigration.”"

"Meanwhile, some in the conservative movement have a different approach. As Think Progress reports, in addition to the Hayworth events, there was a competing panel or two at CPAC. One panel, entitled The Rise of Latino Conservatism, was sponsored by the American Principles Project’s (APP) Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. According to the organization’s founder, the group supports a “generous and welcoming immigration policy,” and rejects “a conservatism that is anti-Latino” and “not one that we want any part of.” The panelists included Grover Norquist, actress Karyme Lozano, Alfonso Aguilar (who headed Citizenship and Immigration Services under President George W. Bush) and Mario H. Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund."

When Tom Tancredo was asked what he thought about losing the Latino conservative vote, all he had to say was "So be it." So, which side will win the intra-party fight? Stay tuned. Speaking for the “so be it” caucus, Michelle Malkin assailed the efforts of Grover Norquist to lead the conservative movement out of the nativist jungle – in her usual understated manner: "To borrow a signature phrase of the Tea Party movement, it’s time to be silent no more. Open-borders Norquist is backing shamnesty ringleader John McCain in Arizona and pushing a new “comprehensive immigration reform”/illegal alien amnesty II initiative."

"What’s happening at CPAC is a microcosm of the debate that’s taking place in the Republican Party. And while the immigrant bashers remain ascendant for now, the Hayworth-Tancredo-Malkin axis may just be the gift that keeps giving for progressives."

[HopeHoops]

7. Maybe they could go with the "we hire the most illegal alien house-workers" angle.

I don't know why they even bother. The GOP has two core groups - the rich white people who pretend to be Christians and the poor under-educated people who probably are Christians. Curiously, NEITHER group ACTS Christian.