Clinton endorsement spotlights importance of Hispanic vote in '08

Associated Press ^ | May 31, 2007 | MICHAEL R. BLOOD,

[Baladas]

Candidates in both major parties are reaching out to Hispanic voters with an intensity that speaks to the importance of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group in the 2008 campaign.

Hispanics tend to lean Democratic in national elections, but President Bush showed in 2004 that Republicans have much at stake. Bush captured about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote that year, the most ever for a GOP presidential candidate. His Democratic rival John Kerry won 53 percent, down from the 62 percent former Vice President Al Gore garnered in 2000.

Villaraigosa, a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2010, is one of the nation's most recognized Hispanic politicians. He's expected to serve as a strong advocate for Clinton among Hispanics, particularly in vote-rich Southern California. Villaraigosa, who speaks both Spanish and English, won election in 2005 after drawing wide support across racial lines.

California's Hispanic population is nearing 36 percent — more than double the U.S. average. However, Hispanics historically vote in numbers well below their share of the population, in part because many are either too young to vote, unregistered or foreign citizens.

But as the Hispanic population increases in the state, so has voting participation.

In 1992, Hispanics accounted for about 8 percent of Californians going to the polls; in 2006, the figure hit 14 percent, according to figures compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Their impact is strongest on the Democratic side of the ticket — one of every five party voters in the state is Hispanic.

In the national midterm election in 2006, Democrats recaptured a large part of the Hispanic vote — nearly seven in 10 Hispanic voters supported Democratic congressional candidates, exit polls found. But Republicans in several key states also did well, suggesting Latinos could be important swing voters in 2008.

[Baladas]

Heh, the Republicaqns are lucky to win forty percent of this vote. Look at those numbers there - thirty-six percent of the states population, fourteen percent of the state's voters, that'll show you what amnesty will do to the GOP.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

"Clinton endorsement spotlights importance of Hispanic vote in '08"

This is BS. The electoral college prevents the will of highly populated cities from imposing it's will on lesser populated areas.

Also, do they assume all Hispanics are eligible to vote and WILL vote?

No distinction between legal and illegal Hispanics which on the face of appears all Hispanics want Hitlery but only a fraction will actually vote and vote for her.

Some day the MSM will be irrelevant.

[R.W.Ratikal]

Clinton also endorses cemeteries which highlights the importance of the tombstone vote.

[traditional1]

[EagleUSA]

The GOP will fade under this amnesty. We will have basically a one-party, Euro-style socialist country with more problems that Clinton has bimbos...