New Voters Could Decide This Year’s Election

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New Voters Could Decide This Year’s Election

Posted on 30 October 2008 by cesar

Written by Alex Garcia, San Fernando Valley Sun

New Voters could be the decisive force in this year’s presidential election. At least, that’s the assumption of several experts and studies that have come out recently, showing that in battle states, new voters, primarily made up by immigrants, could tip the scales one way or the other.

“We’ve been discussing this election as a historic election because of the candidates, an AfricanAmerican for president and a woman for vice president, but a third aspect of this is the emergence of this new electorate that provides a greater diversity in American democracy which we haven’t seen,” said Efrain Escobedo, of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO). “This new American electorate has been a pretty potent force and is beginning to reshape the political landscape”.

In particular, Escobedo notes the rise of the Latino voting block, which since last year has been increasingly becoming naturalized and registering to vote.

Their influence will be felt especially in states like Nevada, Florida, Colorado and New Mexico, “Battleground” states where senators Barack Obama and John McCain are fighting for every vote.

“Those states represent 46 electorate votes that could decide this election and those are states where the latino electorate have really been driving the new voter registration,” said Escobedo.

Laura Anduze, civic organizer with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) agrees with Escobedo.

She noted that in 2004, there were 7.6 million Latinos voters and this year they expect that number to rise beyond 9 million.

“There were a lot of people who became citizens last year with the only intent of voting this year,” said Anduze.

Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), this week announced it had registered 126,777 latino voters in 14 states along with four other organizations, puts the immigrant vote impact further in the election.

“This is an historic moment for the Latino electorate,” said González, SVREP President. “We anticipate that Latinos will reach 12 million registrations and cast nearly 10 million votes in November, making certain that our community’s voices will make a difference in the critical upcoming elections. Latinos are concerned about the economy, want to see an end to the war in Iraq, and believe that access to health care, improved public education and legalization of undocumented immigrants are top tier issues.”

The voter registration drive was done in conjunction with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States; the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA); the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC); and the Hispanic Federation, the premier Latino federation of community- based organizations in the Northeast U.S.

Among the states targeted were AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, IL, MO, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA and TX, including more than 25,000 in Florida; nearly 8,000 in New Mexico; 5,125 in Arizona and 4,437 in Colorado.

“Increasing the number of registered voters is key to Latinos determining their own destiny,” stated Rosa Rosales, LULAC President. “The voter registration effort is paramount to our ongoing effort to protect and defend the civil rights of the Latino community. The Latino electorate understands that its vote brings representation and resources to neighborhoods and communities that have historically been underrepresented and underserved.”

“These elections are far too important not to have our community participate as full and equal partners. We are proud to be part of this coalition that is helping increase - vote by vote - our voice across the nation,”stated Lillian Rodríguez López, Hispanic Federation President.

Dr. Fernando Guerra, Director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University also agrees new voters, and particularly latinos, could give the edge in the election for Obama, who is getting most of these votes.

“You have pockets of resistance, such as latino republicans and some older generations, but the majority are going for Obama,” he noted.

“McCain was a more appealing candidate than any other wanting the latino voters, he was moderate on immigration, comes from a southwestern state, but because his based pushed him to the right, he alienated latinos and they’re not as enthusiastic to vote for him as they were before,” said Guerra.

However, former U.S. Treasurer RosarioMarin, a noted republican who is now part of governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, said people need to look at Sen. McCain’s history to see that his values and positions on issues are more compatible with immigrants’ than Sen. Obama’s.

“He is the only one who has clearly shown a clear and clean trajectory of helping immigrants and has shown an enormous desire for our advancement,” she said. “He has the temperament, the capacity and the experience to be president.”

Marin criticized Sen. Obama’s proposal to “spread the wealth” calling it a “socialist” idea that will not work and that “goes against everything this country stands for.”

She also questioned Obama’s readiness in case of a terrorist attack and said Sen. McCain has risked and dedicated his entire life to provide immigrants with the opportunities they enjoy in this country.

But not so, said Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO and a national co-chair of the Obama campaign.

“There’s not doubt that McCain has turned a lot of latinos for Obama because he changed his position on immigration reform. They saw that he wouldn’t even support his own legislation (Kennedy-McCain). Obama has been very clear. He and senator (ted) Kennedy were the two senators who marched in the demostrations two years ago. He has been very public in his support for immigrant issues.”

She added Sen. Obama also was against the war in Iraq since day one, something that a lot of new voters oppose and has the plan to create jobs.

“There is a strong sentiment and support of Obama, but we have to get them to the polls,” she said, adding that for the past three weeks and until election day, her organization has been doing phone banking.

“We have 170 volunteers Monday through Thursday calling voters in Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other battleground states making thousands of phone calls, calling union members to encourage them to get out to the polls,” she said.

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Categorized | Latino Community, Latino News

New Voters Could Decide This Year’s Election

Posted on 30 October 2008 by cesar

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