Posted on 06/12/2011 3:14:46 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Early this year, Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez made history. He became Nevada's first Latino governor. In New Mexico, she became the country's first Latina governor.
Just as striking as their breakthrough is their party affiliation: Both are Republicans.
For many in the GOP, the twin victories last November, along with the election of Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, marked an important step in efforts to mend the party's frayed ties with Latino voters, which have suffered over the last several years of hard-line talk on immigration.
For Democrats, the election of the three was something else: a warning sign at a time when Latino support has grown increasingly vital to the party's success, especially in the battleground states of the Rocky Mountains and desert Southwest.
Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Michael Bennet of Colorado each withstood the 2010 Republican wave thanks in good part to Latino support. President Obama is counting on strong Latino turnout to hold on to Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico — states he won in the last White House race — and to expand the 2012 competition to Arizona and, maybe, Texas and Georgia.
"The Republicans, by electing three national Latino leaders, have really challenged the Democratic Party," said former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, until recently one of the highest-ranking Latino Democrats in the country.
"Democrats have to recruit more Latino candidates and they have to start siding with Latinos on redistricting and other issues," Richardson said, "because many Latinos perceive that the party doesn't care enough about electing more Hispanic officials."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ranching groups, who complained the predators damaged their cattle and threatened children, were cheered. “It shows support for the rural industries that are under siege right now," said Laura Schneberger, president of the Gila Livestock Growers Assn. “But I don’t know how it will affect us immediately.”
Environmental groups were outraged. "New Mexico's governor sided with an intransigent, wolf-hating livestock industry," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.
Republicans in Congress have separately proposed legislation to end the wolf re-introduction program, following their successful attempts to end federal supervision of the gray wolf in the northern Rockies.
Martinez has made a point of distancing herself from Richardson's environmental record, which she contended hurt business.
Shortly after taking office this winter, Martinez removed all members of an environmental board which formulated rules limiting emissions. She also overturned regulations that required a 3% cut in industrial greenhouse gas emissions and regulated waste on dairy farms, though the state Supreme Court later overturned those moves, ruling Martinez exceeded her power. [end excerpt]
Now this really is a wise Latina.
LOL. Well, put.
More racism based on identity politics on the part of the media. What difference does it make if they are hispanic? They are Americans. They believe in America which very few of the hsipanic illegals can claim. American citizen hispanic citizens should be ashamed by the pandering of the dems - it does not breed unity but only serves to divide us further.
I agree.
But to the Left, your race, gender, age, nationality, sexuality — anything they can use to make you a victim, gives them a soapbox.
Good article on the Governor’s efforts!
I don’t know why the Dems continue to feel the Latino voting bloc belongs to them...maybe the illegals but most, if not all Latinos that I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with are devout Christians and conservative in their views.
True!
Note the title says “some”.....that would be the smart, conservative, productive, legal Hispanic Americans of Hispanic descent.
I have quite a few hispanic friends...all good, moral people who are strong in their Catholic faith.
They despise Obama mostly for his abortion stance.
Prosperity is anathema to Obama.
What about all his other stances? Are they OK with those?
I live in Florida, and I would say that most of our Hispanic population is pretty conservative.
One of the problems in the media depiction of Hispanics is that they always use LA as their model, where you have large numbers of people who come into the US and immediately become the property of local social services departments, and hence the dysfunctional, life-long constituency of the Democrat party. LA has a very well-developed left that has got its tentacles heavily sunk into the Hispanic community, in part because of the activities of Cesar Chavez in California years ago and the fact that they were coopted by the radical student left of the time.
This has led to things like “La Raza,” a student radical group that is now treated by the press as the spokesman for Hispanics. But it’s not, and doesn’t even speak for those of Mexican descent.
In some 20 years, I met loads of non-Cuban Conservative Latinos. Great folks, including my wife who is a a committed conservative.
OTOH, I met quite a few Latinos who's own countries were so corrupt that Bill Clinton looked like a boyscout at the height of his scandals. They simply couldn't understand what the problem was.
End game being we can't group Latinos in one camp or the other. Better for our side, I think, as political opinions can evolve especially during an economic crisis such as we have now.
Cheers!
Thanks for all that truth.
Exactly!
Immigrants who work hard and believe in family are learning what DemonRats are all about.
Let’s hope we can pull our economy out of this Obama nosedive while there still is time.
Recently, I spoke with a New York taxi driver who came from Nigeria. He’s rasing his family and going to college at night. He told me he identifies with Republican Party values, “If anyone can’t make it in this country with all its opportunity, you’re lazy.” That’s a direct quote and he didn’t know what my party affiliation was. That’s progress.
No, but being strong Catholics, that’s the most horrendous to most of my friends. None voted for him in the first place.
The black folk I know, however, people at my church and work, all claim to be Christians, but had to vote for the “bro.”
I would say my hispanic friends are being true to their faith, while my black friends may have an unpleasent accounting in their future.
First of all, the Reagan-era federal term “Hispanic” is stupid and means nothing. The majority of the people the term refers to are American citizens of Mexican descent.
They are not monolithic politically. In America, after a generation or two, their politics tend to reflect the local political dominance, as well as their personal situation.
American citizens of Mexican descent also integrate based on whether they live in large Mexican descent communities, which significantly slows down their integration; or live in unsegregated communities, which speeds it up.
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