That's correct, and his lifetime rating is 96.
Hardly what I would call a 'moderate.'
A 2-year career with the Senate, correct ???
Lifetime ACU rating of 96? Also not too shabby. But this appointment is going to make the anti-immigration crowd go nuts. It's happening already on this thread. d ignore them.
I think they chose Martinez primarily for two reasons. First, he is a Hispanic immigrant. The GOP Hispanic vote was down a full 10% points from 2004. If this happens again, or if they don't reverse the trend, the GOP will be doomed to minority party status. This is an excellent step in the right direction of trying to regain these voters.
Second, and even more important, Texas and (to a slightly lesser extent) Florida mostly bucked the national Democratic trends. These happen to be the second and third biggest states after California. These are also states where the state GOP has adopted an inclusive approach to Hispanics. If you start pissing off Texas and Florida hispanics and they flip to the Democrats, the Democrats will soon have an electoral lock on the four biggest states in the nation. This means a lock on the Presidency and the House as well.
The GOP can win these voters if it goes after them. They tend to be culturally conservative. I know that many of them in Texas are. I bet that this is even more true in Florida, where many of the Hispanics are Cuban-Americans. President Bush and brother Jeb have been very successful at winning Hispanic votes.