Monday, November 3, 2008

The Latino Vote: How to capture it and its importance

For a story of mine to appear in BorderBeat.net later this week I have been looking at issues involving the Latino vote.

As Hispanics continue to make up an ever-growing percent of America's population, their political influence continues to grow as well.

Here on UA's campus, various groups have been making concerted efforts to capture this vote.

"We have a special group within our organization that primarily speaks Spanish, hands out information in Spanish and is often of Hispanic decent," says Nick Machiaroli, ASUA Senator and volunteer at UA Votes 2008.

To put some numbers on the importance of the Latino vote, a New York Times Editorial Blog explores the issue and identifies that 30 percent Californian's voting in the Democratic primary came from those of Hispanic decent.

Similarly, a PBS article points out that Florida is at least 25 percent Latino and provided Bush an edge that may have helped him win Florida in 2004.

With projections that one in every four Americans will be of Hisapnic decent by the year 2050, this demographic certainly cannot be ignored.

In the past, Republicans have been able to capture their vote by avoiding touchy issues such as immigration and focusing on bread-and-butter issues such as healthcare and religion. The same PBS article looks at the Republican method of wooing the Latino vote.



(http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/402/video.html)


While they haven't performed as well in the past, Democrats look poised to carry the Latino vote in this election. With immigration and economic policies that sympathize with the struggles of immigrant families and a general distaste for Republicans among them, Democrats are making a convincing case.

So much so, in fact, that traditional Republican strong hold states such as Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada have all become swing-states in this election.

Whichever way their vote goes, if it does end up going strongly in one direction, it is clear that they will play a significant role in the path to winning the presidency.

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