by Alex Meneses Miyashita
The Republican Party is losing the Hispanic support base it had built over the past few yeans, according to an analysis.
Released by the Pew Hispanic Center Dec. 6, it showed Democrats smothering Republicans by 34 percentage points in terms of Latino support, 57 percent to 23 percent. The gap is similar to that in 1999.
Latino Republican support was evinced during the 2004 election when President Bush received a record-high proportion of the Hispanic vote for a Republican with nearly 40 percent. Pew reported that as of July 2006, Democrats edged Republicans in Latino support by only 21 percentage points, 49 percent to 21 percent.
While the report states that Hispanics will represent only about 9 percent of the national electorate in 2008, it emphasizes they could play a significant swing vote role.
Latinos could play a decisive role, particularly in such swing states as New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado, according to the report.
For several observers, the GOP loss of Latino support can be largely attributed to their claim that Republicans have espoused anti-immigrant views during campaigns in 200B and now in the presidential race.
They charge GOP candidates with using immigration as “wedge” issue, targeting immigrants for political gain.
According to Reverend Cortés, 80 percent of the Latino evangelical electorate supported President Bush in 2004, but:, he warned the current GOP dialogue on immigration could end up hurting the party in 2008.
“The Republican Party will lose that vote,” he said. The Pew survey of 2,003 Hispanics (843 registered voters), found that 41 percent of Latino registered voters credited Democrats with doing a better job of addressing Undocumented immigration to 14 percent who said Republicans.
In addition, 44 percent Of Latino registered voters said Democrats have shown more concern for the community.
This compared to 8 percent who said Republicans have.
“(Immigration) is the most important family issue…We see it as the issue that will make or break our nation,” said Cortés.
“Whoever (presidential candidate) has the best immigration policy as we move forward is the individual who will get most support from the Hispanic community” in 2008, he added.
The survey found that 79 percent of Latino registered voters considered immigration either an “extremely” or “very important” issue.
Hessy Fernandez, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said, “Latino voters judge candidates based on their positions, and the policies of the Republican Party are much closer to the priorities of Hispanics than those of the Democrats.”
Hillary Clinton is the most popular candidate among Latino Democrats with 59 percent support, and Rudy Giuliani among Latino Republicans with 35 percent.
Latino candidate Bill Richardson has 8 percent support among Hispanic Democrats, behind Barack Obama with 15 percent.
The Pew study is available at http://pewhispanic.org.
Hispanic Link.
