Mexican American Hispanic Democrats become Political Force in 2010 Elections

 

SANTA FE, NM (By Marc Lacey and Julia Preston, NYT) November 6, 2010 — There was plenty of grim news for Hispanics in Tuesday’s election results: three Hispanic congressmen were voted out, the odds of an immigration overhaul appeared to diminish and — in Arizona the state that gave rise to the strictest immigration measure of all — hardliners were re-elected amid vows to continue cracking down on undocumented immigrants.

But 2010 also signifies a milestone of sorts for Hispanics, the country’s largest minority: their overwhelming support for Democrats in the midterm elections is credited with helping to keep the Senate Democratic. And whites elected Hispanics won an unprecedented voice in the Republican Party with the election of more Hispanic Republicans than ever before — without the support of Hispanic voters, who tend to put issues before ethnicity.

“The vote showed Hispanics are a force to be reckoned with in both parties,” said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, director of immigration and national campaigns at the National Council of La Raza.

Hispanic advocates are hoping this growing electoral clout will spur action by President Obama and Congress to address Hispanic concerns.

Still, Hispanics over all showed a clear preference for Democrats and were credited in Nevada with saving Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, in his race against the Republican Sharron Angle. Likewise, Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado owe their victories in no small part to the aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns by Hispanics in their states, according to analysts and exit polls.

Across the West, Hispanic volunteers knocked on doors, dialed up neighbors, stopped people on the streets.

“Sometimes one thinks that one vote doesn’t matter, and this is truer among Hispanics,” said Elena Duarte, 39, a Mexican immigrant and casino employee who rounded up supporters for Mr. Reid. “But I would tell them, ‘If you vote, and your neighbors vote, and the whole street votes, that’s hundreds of votes.’ ”

In Nevada, Hispanics make up 13 percent of the electorate, and 68 percent of the ones who voted sided with Mr. Reid, according to exit polls. The support helps explain the unexpectedly comfortable five-point margin of Mr. Reid’s victory.

“Hispanics may well have saved the Senate for the Democrats, and they certainly saved Harry Reid,” said Gary Segura, a political scientist at Stanford University.

A poll by the Pew Hispanic Center showed Hispanics demoralized in the weeks before the election, and turnout numbers are still being compiled to gauge how many cast ballots nationwide. But it is clear Hispanics in some Western states provided decisive votes.

Hispanics in California strongly backed Jerry Brown for governor over the Republican Meg Whitman. Senator Boxer, who won re-election over her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina, also earned the vast majority of the Hispanic vote. “The Republican wave did not reach the Pacific Ocean in California,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Elected and Appointed Officials, a bipartisan group.

Ms. Whitman’s campaign stumbled when it emerged she had fired a longtime housekeeper after learning she was an undocumented immigrant. Hispanics were dismayed Ms. Whitman would seek the deportation of her housekeeper after saying she had been like a family member.

Hispanics saw “a huge character flaw” in Ms. Whitman as a result of the incident, said Mike García, president of the Service Employees International Union West, based in California. They also were critical of her for taking a harder line on immigration in advertisements using English than in those using Spanish.

Ms. Fiorina took an even tougher stand on undocumented immigration and failed to tack to the center on the issue, as Ms. Whitman tried to do. Ms. Fiorina ended up losing by an even larger margin than Ms. Whitman, a point that Republican political strategists are likely to use as a case study in elections to come.

In Colorado, the races were full of polarized talk about immigration, as Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman known for his especially tough stance on the issue, joined the governor’s race against the Democrat John Hickenlooper, who was Denver’s mayor. Both Mr. Hickenlooper and Mr. Bennet won the Hispanic vote by very wide margins, Mr. Segura said.

Hispanics “rejected the anti-Hispanic message that poisoned the airwaves throughout much of the campaign,” said Jessie Ulibarri, Colorado director for Mi Familia Vota Civic Participation Campaign. “When candidates use those messages it backfires on them pretty fiercely,” he said.

 

In Arizona, the election results were grim for Hispanics as Republican candidates up and down the ballot won on platforms that emphasized their support for the state’s crackdown on undocumented immigration, which a Univision-Associated Press poll conducted in May showed 67 percent of Hispanics opposed. State Senator Russell Pearce, who wrote the immigration law, was named president of the State Senate this week, and he vowed to promote state legislation to cancel automatic United States citizenship for the children born here of undocumented immigrants.

On the national level, Hispanic advocates acknowledged the climate for legislation to give legal status to undocumented immigrants had grown more difficult with a new Republican-led House. “The fight for immigration reform has always been an uphill battle,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “The slope has increased somewhat.”

In the governor’s race in Nevada, only 33 percent of Hispanics supported Mr. Sandoval, while 64 percent chose Rory Reid, the majority leader’s son, according to exit polls. Mr. Sandoval still won handily.

In California, one Hispanic Republican, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, son of a migrant farmworker, was defeated in his re-election bid after labor unions organized a major effort against him because of his support for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

“Hispanics don’t vote by surname only,” Mr. Vargas said.