Free Republic

California Republicans are seeing political gold in California's water problems, hoping to steal the issue from Democrats and win support from one of that party's key constituencies - Latinos. GOP leaders have put water atop their agenda for next year's statewide campaigns. They are expanding voter-registration efforts in the drought-stricken Central Valley, where unemployment is high and food banks are busy, and encouraging candidates to reach out to Latino voters hit hard by the recession. The strategy was distilled on a 5-foot-high banner at the Republican voter registration table in front of a Walmart store in Dinuba (Tulare County) in...

In the Long Run, the GOP Must Be Inclusive. BY MICHAEL GERSON Mel Martinez's recent resignation from the U.S. Senate was for personal and family reasons. But the departure of the Republican Party's most visible Hispanic leader crackles with political symbolism. Martinez does not consider himself disillusioned, but he is "frustrated." "There are lots of Hispanics to the right of you and me on immigration," he told me, "but they think, 'Republicans just don't like us.' " Martinez makes clear that a number of his Senate colleagues were "conservative, but not inflammatory." Other elected Republicans, however, made "pretty divisive use...

"Suzanne", a female caller to Mark Levin's show on June 25th, revealed the ominous secret of the Democrat health care reform effort. "I want to tell you that last week I attended a conference on health care reform sponsored by La Raza. And I will tell you that what they had to say, Mark, is scarier than anything that's been said so far on the health care plan. The kind of comments that were made and the notes that I took... they started the conference out by saying "America does not need health care reform, but Latino immigrants need health...

Longtime Latino rights activist and former Santa Ana school board chairman Nativo Lopez has been charged with four felony counts of voter fraud and a warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to this announcement by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Bowen’s office worked in collaboration with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which has charged Lopez with fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. The charges stem from Lopez allegedly registering to vote using an office address in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles although he lived with his family in Orange County,...

The conference on the future of U.S. politics, convened at the American Enterprise Institute on Friday, has come and gone, leaving in its wake more bad news for the Republican Party. I know. You're asking: "So what else is new?" The GOP has been taking a beating in the public opinion polls of late. What makes this particular set of portends scary for Republicans is that the conferees were not studying mere polling snapshots. They were dealing with demography—long-term trends regarding various voting groups identified by age, race and geographic location. And in politics, demography is destiny. I'm going to...

WHITMAN: I think there is, you know, plenty of places that the state has gone wrong. I have a lot of respect for Governor Schwarzenegger. He's done a number of good things -- workman's compensation help, the redirecting initiative that was passed in November. But the fiscal crisis has occurred on his watch and I think, you know, political leaders have to be accountable. So I think he will share some responsibility for this, along with the legislature. . . . . . MCCAIN: You're right, the Hispanic -- Latino vote is very important. We've been losing it. We have...

The Republican Party has scarcely begun to repair a wound that threatens to confine it to minority status: its 2006 collapse among Hispanic voters. Driven by some Republicans’ sharp attacks on illegal immigration and — as many Hispanics perceived it, immigrants in general — Latino voters fled the GOP en masse in the midterm elections, then turned on John McCain, as well. . . . . . There are stirrings of a Republican response. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has spoken with Hispanic leaders about creating a new organization to back Latino candidates. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has made...

Naturalized citizens are poised to reshape California's political landscape The increase in naturalized Asian and Latino citizens -- 300,000 people took the oath of allegiance in 2008 -- could alter the state's policy priorities for years to come, analysts say. By Teresa Watanabe May 10, 2009 More than 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens last year, hastening the ethnic transformation of California's political landscape with more Latinos and Asians now eligible to vote. Leading the wave, California's 300,000 new citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation's total and represented a near-doubling over 2006, according to a recent report by...

I just got a press release from a liberal pressure group called America's Voice headlined "Anti-Immigration Ads Don't Add Up in 2008." The group tried to make the same point that I've heard over and over again from amnesty advocates: The voters won't go for candidates who support immigration restrictions. "A new analysis of immigration advertisements finds that the strategy of using immigration as a political wedge issue in the 2008 election cycle was an utter failure," the release stated. Nonsense. What the voters won't go for is candidates who try to work both sides of the issue, such John...

The Lone Star State is the last big GOP bastion where Hispanics are a sizable voting bloc. Houston When President Bush says so long to Washington on Jan. 20, he’ll return to a much different Lone Star State from the one he left eight years ago. Pickup trucks, Big Oil, and barbecue brisket still reign supreme, but this red state that helped deliver the presidency to Mr. Bush twice and his father once, and that catapulted GOP strategist Karl Rove to the national stage, is suddenly spotted with big pockets of blue. Dallas is controlled by Democrats; Houston is in...

The demographics are frankly killing us. Kerry won the latino vote 53%-44% four years ago. Obama won the latino vote 67%-31%. Obama won the latino vote in Florida for the first time ever. Obama vastly increased his share of the latino vote in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. If McCain wasn't on the ticket, Arizona would have been very competitive as well. And we probably got another decade before Texas becomes a purple state unless we reverse the trends here. Bush won Texas by 23% with Kerry getting 50% of the latino vote. McCain won it by 11% with Obama...

As they review the results of Tuesday's election victories and begin looking toward future campaigns, some Democrats have settled on a rallying cry: Texas is next. It sounds improbable for the Republican bastion that produced President Bush and served as an early laboratory for Karl Rove's hard-nosed tactics. But Texas is one of several reliably red states that are now in Democrats' sights as party strategists begin to analyze a victorious 2008 campaign that they believe showed the contours of a new movement that could grow and prove long-lasting. A multiethnic bloc of Latinos, blacks, young people and suburban whites...

Arizona Sen. John McCain was hammered by the Latino vote, hurting him in battleground states of Florida, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico as he lost his presidential bid to Barack Obama. Obama took two-thirds of the overall Hispanic vote and McCain got 32 percent, according to exit polls conducted by NBC News. George Bush got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. McCain also didn’t fare well among younger and working-class voters and did not do as well as Bush with whites, middle-class and older voters.

Californians went to the polls today on the divisive and deeply emotional issue of same-sex marriage, with early exit poll data showing the state's voters closely divided along lines of religion and political affiliation. With the polls still open, it is too early to project the outcome, which would amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage. But preliminary data showed that Democrats and independents were tending to vote against Proposition 8, while Republicans were in favor of the measure.

According to exit poll results released thus far, Latino voters voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a more than a 2-1 margin nationally: 66 percent to 31 percent. The proportion voting for the Democratic candidate is up sharply from 2004, when 55 percent of Latino voters supported John Kerry and 44 percent voted for President Bush. Latinos are responsible for Obama's victory in New Mexico and contributed strongly to his margins in Nevada and Colorado. In New Mexico, Latinos constituted 41 percent of the electorate and voted for Obama by a 69 percent to 30 percent margin; white...

FReep this Digg!!! (We need FReepers to FReep the Vote over at Buzz too! Any volunteers???) Post your own links exposing ObamaNation on Digg, Buzz, Reddit, etc. Saturate these boards. They're massive and they are crawling with independents and undecideds. And don't post them all in one category, like politics or elections. Finally, repost your links on FR to we can put a protective FReep around them :o) For examples of how to do this, see my history. Let's use our combined FReeperPower to FREEP THE VOTE!!!

Latinos for Reform (LFR) called on Senator Barack Obama to come clean with the American people, and particularly with the Latino community regarding the issue of his aunt, who has been in the U.S. illegally for four years now. "We have no doubts that Senator Obama is once again hiding the truth from the American people when it comes to the story of his aunt," said LFR Chairman Robert Deposada. "For crying out loud, everyone would agree that when people in other countries have relatives in government, it is a common practice to contact them for assistance when they have...

Cindy and John McCain with Eduardo Verastegui in Miami, Fla., Oct. 17, 2008 – A Latino superstar has endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, citing Sen. Barack Obama’s pro-abortion record, while some Latinos say they are supporting Obama because they believe he is “pro-life.” Eduardo Verastegui, the Latino actor whose pro-life film “Bella” won the 2006 Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award, has produced a new video detailing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s record on abortion, which includes his opposition to a ban on partial birth abortion and his opposition in the Illinois state senate to legislation aimed at protecting...

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Hispanic actor Eduardo Verastegui has a last-minute reminder for Hispanic voters nationwide: Barack Obama doesn't share your pro-life values on abortion. The actor has released videos on abortion and the elections that have been popular in the Latino community.In his latest, Verastegui explains the crisis of abortion in America, while explaining Barack Obama's pro-abortion track record and agenda.Before producing this video, Verastegui, 34, became famous singing in the popular Latino band Kairo and acting in telenovelas. People Magazine en Español recently voted him one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. Now,...

Prop. 4, 8 campaigns battle fiercely for crucial Latino vote José Eduardo Verástegui, a Mexican soap opera star and fashion model whom People en Español magazine named one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, is taking to the airwaves to persuade California voters on two emotionally charged social issues. Verástegui is the face - and voice - of Spanish-language commercials calling for "yes" votes in favor of a parental notification law for abortion and a ban on same-sex marriage. His presence in the campaigns for Propositions 4 and 8 underscores the fight for a critical constituency that...

SAN DIEGO -- Recently, I was on a Latino-themed radio show defending John McCain. The defendant was accused of abandoning comprehensive immigration reform, turning his back on Latino supporters, and associating with a bad crowd (read: Republicans). I didn't give an inch. I was the only person in the discussion who actually knew McCain -- from my stint 10 years ago as a reporter at a newspaper in Arizona -- and I could attest to the fact that the senator had always gone to bat for Latinos. At one point, another guest scolded me in frustration: "Look, it's not about...

A new report suggests that “2008 will be the year of the immigrant and Latino voter,” as “unprecedented numbers of immigrants are becoming citizens and registering to vote.” The stakes, according to the report by America’s Voice, an immigrants’ rights group, “could not be higher.” Pro-immigrant groups are registering hundreds of thousands of new citizens to vote. They, along with earlier generations of immigrants, are being mobilized in large part by the passions surrounding the often heated debate over immigration. The report calls members of these communities a “sleeping giant,” awoken by the rhetoric of the anti-immigration hardliners who have...

A small group of Hispanic leaders in Arizona who are supporting Democrat Barack Obama say Republican John McCain won't enjoy the same strong support among Latinos in his home state as he has in past elections. Group member Mary Rose Wilcox said McCain's strength among Latinos has dwindled. That's primarily because he de-emphasized his support for a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants and now says border security is the first immigration priority. Wilcox, a Democrat and Maricopa County supervisor, said Hispanics view McCain's change in position as a betrayal.

Chicago Latinos ask the question of the day. Where is Obama?

New McCain ad blames Obama and Democrats for death of immigration overhaul effort.(CNN) – John McCain’s campaign is running a Spanish language ad in battleground states that blames Barack Obama and Senate Democrats for the failure of attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws — even though the Republican nominee and his Democratic counterpart cast identical votes in the key Senate showdowns on that issue last year “Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?” asks the announcer in the 30-second spot, “Which Side Are They On?” “The press reports that their...

The news of Palin has rocked Miami. The pro-republican Cuban-American community here is going crazy! They love her and are energized. Florida will go to the Republicans once again this election cycle.

Two eye-catching things were buried in the new Census Bureau projection that, by 2042, America will no longer be a white man's country. One is that the proportion of African Americans also will fade, or at least not get much bigger. The other is that the number of Hispanics will soar, to about 30 percent of the nation's population. Not only will America not be a white majority country, but it will almost certainly be a bilingual nation. In many cities, Spanish will be as likely to be heard on the streets, in schools and workplaces as English. This seismic...

In what has been a strongly Republican county for years, a dramatic increase in Democratic registrations should be credited for the rise of Latino voters in the county, according to political experts. Increasing numbers of Latino Democratic voters combined with the launch of an aggressive "Viva Obama" campaign in the county have contributed to the changing tide, they said. There were 301,765 registered Republicans and 300,435 registered Democrats in the county, a difference of only 1,330 voters, as of July 28. The numbers reflect a rapid increase in Democratic voters just over the past few months, according to the San...

Darned curious. The last time McCain was confronted about this, he professed not to know of any controversial statements made by Hernandez while cheerily pledging to “look into it.” Does this mean he’s looked into it and decided to keep him on, albeit gagged? Or is he still getting around to “looking into it”? Sure sounds like someone knows they have a Hernandez problem.

On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches. At the Versailles Restaurant, the community newspapers preaching no compromise with Castro are all that are on offer. For almost four decades, the Versailles has been an obligatory stop for Washington politicians courting the Cuban-American community, visits that, as photographs in the restaurant attest, have often involved putting on a white guayabera, the four-pocket dress shirt that...

President Daniel Ortega, who led the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua, says Barack Obama’s presidential bid is a “revolutionary” phenomenon in the United States. “It’s not to say that there is already a revolution under way in the U.S. … but yes, they are laying the foundations for a revolutionary change,” the Sandinista leader said Wednesday night as he accepted an honorary doctorate from an engineering university. Ortega led a Soviet-backed government that battled U.S.-supported Contra rebels before he lost power in a 1990 election. He returned to office last year via the ballot box. In statements broadcast on Sandinista Radio...

Summoning a time of political upheaval in Miami, a great-uncle of Elián González plans Friday to publicly denounce two Barack Obama campaign advisors who helped send the boy back to his father in Cuba eight years ago. One day before the expected Democratic nominee addresses a conference of mayors in Miami, Delfín González will hold a 1 p.m. news conference outside the Little Havana home where Elián lived with relatives for several months in 2000. Earlier this week, CNN reported that Elián, now 14 years old, has joined Cuba's Young Communist Union. Obama was an Illinois lawmaker during the 2000...

Ken Vogel reports that the Clinton campaign is using the results to openly argue that Barack Obama has a problem with Hispanic voters — an idea Clinton backers have previously mentioned only behind the scenes. “It was a 100 percent Hispanic primary and it shows that he has a problem with the Latino community,” Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton, told a handful of reporters after polls closed Sunday. “He cannot close in this key core constituency,” McAuliffe added. Voters in Puerto Rico are in some ways different from Hispanics living stateside, both because there’s a long tradition of...

Sunday: Hillary Clinton waves to a supporter at the Kasalta Bakery in San Juan, as she campaigns on primary day in Puerto Rico. (AP Photo) SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hillary Clinton won the Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico on Sunday, and is expected to return to the mainland with a purseful of delegates. But lower-than-expected turnout could hamper her camp’s efforts to argue she can attract enthusiastic general election voters and is the better candidate than Barack Obama in the fall race against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. Puerto Rico’s role was enhanced in the Democratic primary election...

This is just on from CNN. CNN is projecting Hillary will win Puerto Rico by a wide margin of 40%. Geez, I guess Michelle will soon add those brown people and yellow people to her 'whitey' tape. More popcorn.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has drawn criticism from some Cuban Americans who disagree with his policy on negotiating with U.S. enemies. The Washington Times reported Sunday that the Illinois senator will likely have to defend his policy this week when he meets with the Cuban American National Foundation, in his first campaign stop in Florida in nine months. Obama has said that if elected president he would hold direct talks with hostile governments, including Cuba's communist leaders. In addition to holding talks with Cuban leaders including President Raul Castro, Obama has said if elected he would relax restrictions on...

This November McCain will win the election. I am certain McCain will be our next president. McCain will win because he will get about 54% of the Hispanic vote ( Bush got 44%). The Democrats can not overcome that large of a margin going to McCain. This will be fatal to their party. McCain will get such a large percentage of the Hispanic vote because of his support for immigration and because of the natural unreported tension that exist between the Black and Hispanic populations. At the same time, Hispanic will split their vote and vote Democratic for Congressional election....

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain - wildly popular in his home state of Arizona, on the Mexican border - has vowed to win a sizable chunk of the crucial Latino vote this fall. But history is against him. Typically, about two-thirds of Latinos vote Democratic in a presidential election. And a nationwide Gallup Poll, conducted between March 1 and March 16, confirms that trend.

Sen. Edward Kennedy delivered a passionate speech at East Los Angeles College with a Spanish accent that the heavily Latino crowd surely had never heard before. Proclaiming that a vote for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is a vote for the people, he cried out, "Un voto para Obama es un voto para la gente." He went on for several more sentences in Spanish and then stopped himself. "There may be people here who don't understand my Spanish," he said.

Clinton beats Obama as candidates bicker over the final delegate count. Will the ethnic tensions inflamed by a rough caucus fight haunt the Democrats? Hillary Clinton won the Nevada popular vote, and Barack Obama's campaign is claiming he won more delegates, but it was hard not to worry that the Democratic Party could wind up the loser as I sat watching a nasty caucus battle at the Paris Hotel and Casino Saturday afternoon. At the end of the day, having called around to Democrats and reporters who were at other caucus sites, I'm pretty sure I witnessed one of the...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of several Latino community leaders and legislators on Sunday, including state senator Gil Cedillo. The Los Angeles democrat has been one of the state's leading supporters of driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. Hillary Clinton has said she opposes such licenses. Clinton has so far won most of the endorsements from California's major Hispanic leaders, including L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. This comes on the same day that Obama, while campaigning in Las Vegas, unveiled an economic stimulus package costing up to $120 billion that his campaign said...

Editor’s Note: By participating in the historic Spanish-language debate on Univision, Republican candidates finally realized that they need Latino votes. But is it “too little, too late?" NAM editor Elena Shore monitors Spanish language media. The first Spanish-language Republican presidential candidate debate couldn’t have come at a better time for the GOP. Latino support for the Republican Party has dropped substantially when the Latino vote is more important than ever. The candidates’ jostling over who is tougher on immigration has alienated Latinos even further. Seven of the eight Republican presidential candidates showed up at the University of Miami Sunday with...

This week, Pew Research introduced an interesting poll that shows Latino voters shifting away from gains the GOP made in 2006. Could it be because of the rhetoric about immigration reform? President George Bush benefited from gains in 2000 and 2004 and recognized it as a crucial voting bloc.

Fred Thompson's campaign named a handful of volunteer grassroots leaders in Miami-Dade to help boost its outreach to Latino voters -- a territory rival Rudy Giuliani is putting great effort in reaching. County leadership positions announced today include co-chairs: Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell and Miami-Dade Commissioners Joe Martinez and Natacha Seijas. The latter two previously endorsed Thompson when he appeared at Miami's Urbeita Oil in October. Other's involved Lois Jones, Chris Miles and Luis Rodriguez.

WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani is the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate who has not accepted an invitation to a "values voters" conference of social conservatives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19-21 sponsored by the Family Research Council. Giuliani's absence suggests that he will fare badly in the conference's straw vote though he leads the national Republican public opinion polls. Some 2,000 social conservatives from around the country are expected to attend the event. A footnote: Supporters from outside his staff are urging Giuliani to discontinue the stunt of interrupting a campaign speech by taking a cell phone call from his wife....

CAMPAIGN '08 | Dem candidates woo growing demographic In 1994, Maya Solis became a White House intern and got to see the inner workings of the West Wing. "The Clintons have been great to our family," said Solis, 32. "I see the human side of them." Maya Solis' father, Chicago Ald. Danny Solis (25th), is one of the few Illinois politicians who has, so far, come out in support of Clinton's bid for president. Maya Solis is volunteering for Clinton, mobilizing grass-roots support in the gritty Pilsen neighborhood. » Click to enlarge image Maya Solis (left) signs up Adriana Vera...

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday he'd participate in the Sept. 9 Univisión ''forum'' to be held at the University of Miami. Hillary Clinton, who was to be a no-show, changed her mind last week and decided to appear. But Univisión has started calling what it formerly dubbed a debate a ''forum'' so Clinton could stick by her statement that she'd only participate in six debates. The Univisión forum will be different from others in that it will be conducted in Spanish with instant English translations. Democratic candidates Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, who both speak Spanish, were the...

In a recent article, The Economist called blacks and Hispanics “natural allies.� Citing Barack Obama’s “brothers in the fight for equality� reference to the two groups, the writer conceded that with blacks and Hispanics, there’s no such thing. I frequently blog about what I perceive as a growing battle between blacks and Hispanics for “preferred minority� status. A preferred minority group is one that ostensibly is under-represented in certain professions and universities. This status goes beyond mere numbers and focuses on “oppression.� For example, while Asians are a minority group in America, they’re not considered oppressed in the same sense,...

The goal was to work within the halls of Congress. Now, immigrant-rights groups want to replace the lawmakers who walk them. Labor unions, immigrant advocates and Democratic activists have spent the two weeks since the Senate squashed a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill constructing the early framework of a political payback plan. Capitalizing on the Latino voting bloc and its disaffection with the Republican Party, the groups intend to use the recent debate as a rallying shriek in the 2008 election. "We are the fastest-growing sector of the electorate, and we have shown a capacity to show up when we are...

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials invited all Republican presidential hopefuls to its annual convention at Disney World in Buena Vista, Fla. Only one showed up — Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California. A grateful audience gave Hunter a standing ovation Friday and some convention goers posed for snapshots with the congressman after his question and answer session. Standing at the lone candidate podium which was decorated in red, white and blue, Hunter was asked about his plan to fix the nation’s immigration system. “We need to build the fence and build it quickly,” he said. An 854-foot...