Posted on 04/10/2004 10:38:12 PM PDT by lewislynn
April 10, 2004, 12:28AM
Angling for a piece of the nation's fastest-growing minority vote, both presidential campaigns charged the other was neglecting Hispanics.
Former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, who is leading the Hispanic outreach effort for Democratic presidential contender John Kerry, said Friday that President Bush has done little to help this minority group.
The criticism from the former mayor of San Antonio comes as the Bush campaign is set Monday to announce its national Hispanic steering committee at a rally in Orlando led by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother.
Bush campaign spokesman Danny Diaz said that during his almost two decade Senate career, Kerry has sponsored few pieces of legislation that directly benefit Hispanics.
Cisneros and other Kerry allies claimed that Bush shortchanged Hispanics by failing to provide affordable health care, cutting college grants and loans and presiding over an economy that has lost manufacturing jobs.
Both the Bush and Kerry campaigns are expected to heavily target Hispanic voters, who could be pivotal in such battleground states as New Mexico, Arizona and Florida.
Both as Texas governor and as president, Bush has made an effort to woo Hispanic voters. Earlier this year the president proposed a guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants to work in this country for a minimum of three years.
A poll released this week by Zogby International found that Bush's position with Hispanics has remained largely unchanged since the 2000 election, when he received about 35 percent of the Hispanic vote.
The survey of 1,000 likely Hispanic voters found that in a match-up with Kerry, Bush would garner 33 percent support and the Massachusetts senator 58 percent.
Forty-three percent of Hispanics rated Bush's job performance as excellent or good while 58 percent rated it fair or poor.
Poll director John Zogby said that while Bush has not made dramatic inroads with Hispanics, he still has the potential to increase support, particularly in the South and among born-again Protestant Hispanics.
Kerry, he said, also has his work cut out for him, as he is still not getting as much support among Hispanics as Democrat Al Gore did in 2000.
Diaz said Bush's Hispanic steering committee will have a number of lawmakers including Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio. Diaz also said the Bush campaign was courting Hispanic voters with Spanish language television ads and a Web site as well as interviews with Spanish language publications.
Kerry has not yet launched his Hispanic voter initiative but has criticized Bush's immigration plan as not providing a path to citizenship for illegal workers.
Judging from the Hispanics I've spoken with, Bush would be better served (electorally) by shutting down the borders and giving the illegals already here the bit boot than what he's presently proposing. But then again, I mostly speak with conservative Hispanics.
I've never seen any evidence of that...unless you're referring to the Bush's attempts at backdoor amnesty.
Many on FR seem determined to drive Hispanic votes to the Left.
What a pile of cow pies this is.
Are you suggesting the FR will sway the Hipanic vote, regardless of who may say what here? And are you suggesting the Hispanics are too stupid to think and vote for themselves?
Bull. Shall we start with today?
I've said this before on other posts, but I'll say it again: the Latino population, Catholic and Protestant, is socially conservative, anti-abortion, pro-marriage, pro-family, and outspokenly anti-gay. I do not understand why so many of them persist in voting for the Dims. But I am of the belief that W could use the gay marriage issue to win many of them over, and perhaps even to peel off enough to win California.
Both Kerry and his buddy Chappaquiddick Fats signed a letter a couple of years ago opposing the gay marriage ban in Massachusetts, and expressing support for "gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals." Make no mistake about it: Kerry could lose a majority of the Latino population just for signing that letter. But the GOP needs to let them know that this letter exists. This is not the time for timidity.
Very poor English. Please re-phrase.
Can FR sway an election? Yes.
And are you suggesting the Hispanics are too stupid to think and vote for themselves?
No. I don't refer to them as parasites, either. You, Joe?
I can't imagine why. It must be racism.
Since you made this statement, could you give us an example of how Freepers are driving away the legal Hispanic vote?
No. Some people posted a bunch of racist comments that were removed.
Par for the course around here, sadly.
I never had the chance to read them. I don't think any of mine were deleted. What was said?
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