NewsTaco

On Wednesday, Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño approved a two–part referendum that will get the ball rolling on whether the island wants to change its status.

Both parts of the referendum are set to be held November 6, with one part asking puertorriqueños whether they want to change status in the 1st place, or remain a commonwealth. And the second part asking them to choose whether to become: a state, independent or choose “sovereign free association.”

But, whatever Puerto Ricans decide next year, ultimate say still lies with U.S. Congress, and President Barack Obama. This isn’t the first time Puerto Rico has taken up this issue, as the AP reported:  the island took up the issues in 1967, 1993, and 1998.

The timing of this referendum is important for other reasons, as Julio Varela  points out:

…the 2012 plebiscite will occur during the 60th year anniversary of the Puerto Rican Constitution, the document that declared the island a Commonwealth of the United States, the country that invaded it in 1898.

In any case, it would appear that 2012 is going to be an all-around important year for Latino politics.

[Image By VibraCobra23]

Ross Romero has lived a set of several different lives in his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. Recently, he told NewsTaco that his varied experience in his hometown —  from growing up as the son of a single mother on a teacher’s salary, to being a student at the  University of Utah, to living on the more affluent side of town and working in a bank —makes him the perfect candidate for Salt Lake County Mayor in 2012. The job is similar to what county administrators do in other places, he told us.

Of course, another reason Romero, an attorney, decided to run for this seat had to do with redistricting. He told us that as Senate Minority Leader in Utah, he was told that the Democrats were going to be redistricted out by one seat. Despite fighting to keep the seat, he ultimately asked whether anyone wanted to retire or seek another office; when no one volunteered, and in order to avoid Democratic infighting, Romero took it upon himself as Minority Leader to give up his seat.

However, Romero is generally an upbeat individual who told us that he considers Salt Lake County Mayor to be a higher office, enabling him to become a bigger leader for the Democratic Party in the state of Utah. The election will be competitive he told us, noting that there is no majority party in the county, but he’s sure that he’s the best candidate to bring together what is Utah’s most diverse county in order for everyone there to prosper.

“I think I am the candidate that best relates to all of our counties’ differences. Salt Lake County is the most diverse county in Utah, it has tremendous wealth and tremendous struggle. I have worked in the private sector have a good understanding of the business community I have a good understanding about not overextending our indebtedness and I’m focused on education,” he said. Additionally, after school programs, parks and recreation, support services, nutrition, transportation, pollution, health and obesity, and fiscal responsibility are at the top of Romero’s list of issues for Salt Lake County.

One really interesting thing about Romero is that he really loves Utah. To that end he told us, he frequently advocates for a variety of causes in Salt Lake County and the state of Utah, but often finds himself advocating or Utah as a community when he travels outside the state. In his view, anything you do to “add value” for the majority, also adds value for minorities, he said.

“I always consider myself a champion for Utah’s diverse voices in Utah, but I take that same challenge to be a champion for the LDS community outside of Utah which is a minority,” he told us.

That said, Romero always recognizes that he’s a Catholic Hispanic Democrat in Utah, which brings him back to his original point about Salt Lake County Mayor:  “I’m running as someone who cares about my community, and I believe I have a good set of skills for the job.”

Ultimately, Romero sees his bid for Salt Lake County Mayor as one way to give back to the hometown that he loves. After watching his mother work in public schools for almost 40 years, he told us her example taught him to give back to your community. As Salt Lake County Mayor Romero tells us that he hopes to make a difference by being able to give back to everyone in Salt Lake County, not just a majority or a minority community.

Wenona Benally Baldenegro  would be the first Navajo woman to serve in Congress  if elected to congressional district 1,  in 2012. The district encompasses Flagstaff, as well as 11 Indian tribes. We spoke to Benally Baldenegro recently, and she told us there were several factors influencing her to seek this office.

Benally Baldenegro is an attorney who told us she’s been working with non-profit organizations on creating financial education programs for the past few years. This work has helped her to see the needs of this community and also realize the great need for leadership in the area that encompasses the district. She told us that voters in the district, as it’s currently being drawn, are made up of about 21% Native Americans and 18% Latinos, something she says is important because “we’ve never had a voice from Arizona represent our communities.”

But, she said there were two principal reasons she decided to run for Congress. One, the seat is currently held by a Republican, Paul Gosar, who defeated Democratic incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick in 2010 because, as Benally Baldenegro tells it, she tried to move towards the middle, something many Democratic voters did not appreciate, Demonstrating their discontent by not showing up to the polls in 2008. If a Democrat is to win the seat, she told us, they must stick to their “Democratic values,” such as not supporting policies like SB 1070 or the states war against ethnic studies.

Aside from that however, Benally Baldenegro says her decision to run for Congress is much more personal. “This is where I’m from, this is where I was raised my entire life. I’ve always wanted to come back here. I’m Navajo so I grew up on a Navajo reservation, which is in the district,” she said. While some may say that politicians in Arizona need soften positions on immigration or ethnic studies, Benally Baldenegro says the focus should be on jobs and the economy, especially during a time when, “a lot of folks are out of work.” Jobs were definitely a top issue for Benally Baldenegro, which is why she said that having a voice on the federal level would be in port for the people in her district.

When it comes to the Native Americans district, Benally Baldenegro told NewsTaco that this community’s direct relationship with the government is distinct and unlike the type of relationship most people in the U.S. experience. For this reason, she feels that her presence in Congress would allow her to more effectively advocate for this community, especially when it comes to the values she feels are integral to them, such as equal opportunity, and liberty.

Benally Baldenegro is running a self-described “grassroots campaign” in which she’s adopting an Obama type strategy when it comes to fundraising, blockwalking, meeting and greeting, and dedicated to not taking corporate money. She says it’s working, noting that it’s only December and she has about 50 volunteers ready to help her campaign; she also recently received the endorsement of the United Steelworkers, the largest union in the district.

By Anthony Gutierrez, Deputy Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party

The Chair of the Hispanic Republican Conference (HRC) in Texas, Republican State Representative Aaron Peña, recently announced his retirement from the Texas legislature. It was less than a year ago that he was announcing the formation of the HRC. The HRC was intended to “moderate” the extreme views of the Republican Party and thus serve to make the Grand Old Party more attractive to Hispanics.

The mission statement that seemed dubious then is downright laughable now.

As it turned out, the HRC’s idea of “moderating” included Peña going on national television to defend the “Laundry Loophole,” one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation in recent memory. Debbie Riddle’s “Laundry Loophole” bill would have made it illegal to employ undocumented immigrants except for those who are employed doing domestic work. As paraphrase an MSNBC commentator’s summary of the bill, it says to Hispanics that, “You can’t be my doctor, you can’t be my lawyer but please, you can clean my house and mow my lawn.”

The HRC’s “moderating” went on to include advocacy for a version of the budget that would have cut nearly $10 billion from public education and would have cut Medicaid reimbursement rates which would have effectively shut down nursing homes all over the state. After advocating for policies that would disproportionately devastate Hispanic communities, what came next probably shouldn’t have been a surprise.

As a part of the Republican supermajority, the HRC members used the redistricting process to run and hide from Hispanic voters. Cumulatively, the six members of the HRC redistricted away more than 150,000 Latinos from their own districts. They then defended those Republican maps which were so blatantly discriminatory and violative of the Voting Rights Act that they had to be struck down by the courts and redrawn to be consistent with legal standards and respective of Texas’ demographic growth.

For most HRC members, legal maps that reflected actual demographics meant that they would have to face the Hispanic voters they were trying so hard to avoid.

And that’s when you finally started hearing the protests.

The HRC members were silent when Rick Perry designated the discriminatory “Sanctuary City” legislation an emergency item, even though it was opposed by law enforcement all over the state. They were silent when Herman Cain mused that he would put up an electric fence on the border with a sign that read “it can kill you”. And not only have they been silent after Monday’s news that Rick Perry will be campaigning with Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, they seem content to stand by their endorsement of Perry for President.

But when faced with a court-ordered map that would give them the opportunity to stand by their records and put their “Hispanics share our values” rhetoric to the test — they protested, they cried foul, and they quit. When weighing actions against words, be mindful of the fact that both the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the HRC have chosen not to seek re-election after being drawn into districts that are overwhelmingly Hispanic.

To put it another way — the guy Republicans put in charge of Hispanic outreach, when faced with a heavily Hispanic district, opted to quit saying the district was “unwinnable by me or any Republican candidate”. In evaluating the success of the HRC in making the Republican Party palatable to Hispanics — “unwinnable by any Republican candidate” tells you all you need to know.

Anthony Gutierrez is the deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.

By María Cardona

Last week’s Republican debate brought some interesting surprises. As a Latina Democrat, the biggest one I saw wasNewt Gingrich’s defense of a legalization program for undocumented immigrants who have roots in the community and pose no threat to society.

Herman Cain has “joked” about an electrified fence on the border. Michele Bachmann can’t stop talking about her outrage at “anchor babies.” Mitt Romney, in an effort to make himself look like an immigration hardliner, has disavowed any past stances that would make him look soft on the issue. Most of the GOP candidates have gone to “kiss the ring” of Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio – arguably the most anti-immigrant law enforcement officer in the nation. So Gingrich’s new found “compassion” stands in stark contrast to the rest of the GOP field, who have tripped over each other to show who is most right-wing on immigration.

But how will all this play out for Latinos in 2012? Is the community divided?  Will they stay home in 2012? Will they still support this president or will Gingrich create a new opening for the GOP with Latinos?

This is a deep and complicated question that no doubt perplexes those who try to define us by shallow, rigid strictures: Does Latino identity play a part in how we make decisions at the ballot box and how we view our public policy makers?

Sometimes, we ourselves don’t understand how this affects the decisions we make.

As Latinos, it is easy for the overwhelming majority of us to be against the anti-immigrant talk by most of the current field of GOP candidates. No wonder a recent Univision/Latino Decisions poll shows Obama beating all the candidates by margins of at least two-to-one.

Still, some Latinos believe we should re-think our loyalty to Obama and to the Democrats. While I believe that President Obama has done an enormous amount to help Latinos in this country – the Recovery Act, health care reform, financial credit card reform, Pell Grants – there is still a narrative that he did not deliver on his promise of comprehensive immigration reform. There’s disappointment in the rise of deportations that, at times, have led to separation in families.

Personally, I think this is a misguided, especially since the administration has announced new deportation guidelines that will show leniency in cases of those who pose no threat to the community. The problem will not be fixed until we pass comprehensive immigration reform, and we have the Republicans to thank for the lack of it.

But overall, the question of how Latino identities play into our national political debates is a good one. I believe these perceived differences are a good thing. They demonstrate political evolution and maturation. We are finally understanding that all our voices matter and we all need to speak up, even if there are dissenting voices among us.

This demonstrates the constant struggle – the daily reality – of understanding the identity of Latinos in the country.

I am honored when I hear from other Latinos about how proud they are to see a Latina on national television, holding her own on arguments not just about immigration and Latino issues, but about the economy, jobs, terrorism and foreign policy.

Young, bright, up-and-coming Latinas have come to me with this dilemma: Which identity to put first? When you are in a position to direct public policy, who are you first and foremost? When do you represent Latinos and when do you represent all Americans? There are many Latinos in position to affect the administration’s public policy on health, education, housing, foreign policy and yes, immigration. When I served as a Clinton administration appointee, I was in the same position and at times felt torn between identities.

I have come to see myself as the totality of my experiences – as a woman, Latina, Colombian-born American, mother and professional who had opportunities to work in national politics and cut my teeth in an area not populated by many Latinos.

I believe that we can be all these things.

We can be representatives of the Latino community, even in jobs where our responsibilities are much broader – just as Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s are as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, as Governor Bill Richardson’s were when he led New Mexico and as Senator Robert Menendez are as a representative of New Jersey. These jobs are bigger than the person that holds them and they must represent the interests of the country as a whole. By doing this, they not only represent America well, they represent Latinos well.

This doesn’t mean they are turning their backs on their community – quite the opposite. The 50 million-plus Latinos living in this country have become such an integral part of our society that good, fair public policy towards middle-class and working-class Americans will be nothing but good for Latino families in this country.

As Latinos, we don’t have to choose.

But I do believe that Latinos in position of power have the obligation to empower other Latinos, to make their voices heard – and to continue to enrich the fabric of ideas that make our community so vibrant, whether it’s through agreement or dissent. While it will surely complicate things for those who want to put us in a box – and even for ourselves  –  it’s what is so fulfilling about being Latinos in America.

Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist and a principal at the Dewey Square Group, where she founded Latinovations. She is also a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, and former communications director to the Democratic National Committee.

A lawsuit over new state and congressional districts that disenfranchised Latino voters in Texas just wrapped up. A panel of three federal judges redrew the map for the upcoming 2012 election, but the final maps will be decided at a future date. In the meantime, elections will move forward.

But what happened during this lawsuit, which surprised just about everybody for creating what many considered to be much fairer districts? Remember that the State of Texas has been sued over disenfranchising minority voters since the Civil Rights era (and continuously, since then). Luckily, NewsTaco contributor Dr. Henry Flores was one of the expert witnesses in MALDEF’s case against the state. So, we sat down with him recently and asked him about the lawsuit. Check it out.

NT: How have you been involved in redistricting lawsuits before? How was this one different?

HF: This is the third round of redistricting in which I’ve been a voting rights expert witness on behalf of MALDEF. There were a lot of things different this time.

One, the lead attorney, Nina Perales, a woman, was finally recognized by all her male peers as being the number one attorney. Before, she was always a younger Latina having to fight her way through all these male attorneys and nobody gave her any space — until she won a Supreme Court decision, it seems like. She’s super intelligent, well organized, the best trial attorney I’ve ever seen. She was managing the whole thing.

I was one of three experts, I did the disparate impact part os the suit, which is a way of showing the racism without using race. We were better organized [than the Attorney General], we had better graphics, technology, we had enough resources on our side to put on a super, first-class case, and in the past the resources have always been slim. This time MALDEF had the money and the support to put on a first-class case.

The other thing that helped was the Attorney General used lawyers who were corporate- or litigation-types, but they didn’t know election law and voting rights law. But on the other side, with Nina Perales and the rest of the lawyers you were looking at hundreds of years of experience in civil rights cases.

NT: What changed from the original maps, interim ones that was of note? How do you think the final maps will be drawn? What about the Attorney General’s statement that he’ll appeal the maps to the Supreme Court.

HF: Maverick County was divided in half, but that was restored. When I first looked at the map that was the first thing that jumped out at me. The Texas legislature also divided the Latino community into three parts, with the 20th, 23rd and 35th districts. Our point was, when they did that, they literally violated the Voting Rights Act because they diluted the Latino vote.

To me the most extreme case was that they literally hunted for Latino precincts where Latinos underperformed to put them into districts that looked like Latino districts, but were low-performing Latino districts in order to stymy the vote.

The Supreme Court calendar is so long they will probably not get to it until after the election; it’s a badly timed appeal. The final map will probably be closer to the court map— never to the Republican map.

NT: How do these maps affect Texas’ future? The future of Latinos in Texas?

HF: There’s going to be more Latinos in Congress representing Texas and they are going to be Democrats. The ratio between Republicans and Democrats in The Texas caucus will change, it’ll still be majority Republican, but there’ll be a larger Democratic presence — which means that the Republican congressmen probably won’t be able to take as staunch a line on policy as they have in the past. They just can’t run over you as much as they used to.

Finally, you’re probably going to see new Latino faces in Congress, and younger, like Joaquín Castro for instance. That’s going to open the door for other young Latinos to say, “Hey, I want to go there, too.” And I think there are going to be some Latinas running because there are a lot of electable Latinas out here and they are all holding judgeships right now.

The future for Latinos I think it looks bright in that respect.

NT: How will these maps affect national politics?

HF: It’s going to be part of the foundation, as far as lat political participation is concerned. You’re going to see young Latino congressmen, not just from Texas, but Latinos in other states are going to start looking for opportunities in their states. You’re going to have a cascade effect with new electoral victories, and there are going to be attempts to emulate those in other states. And in places you may not even be thinking about — Georgia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, where there are growing Latino populations.

NT: What effects do they have on the 2020 maps?

HF: With the clamp down on immigration and the reduction of Hispanic birth rates, I think that equation is going to change a little bit, but still we’re looking at a minority majority state in 2020. The other thing is, that the way the economy is going I think the ranching and agricultural industry have crashed, and I don’t know if we’re going to see some out-migration. We could lose a seat, or gain a seat, we don’t know for another four or five years.

[Photo By St. Mary's University]

By Dustin Mendus

Dodge County, Nebraska, is not going to produce any bilingual ballots for next election year and beyond, despite the population being 10% Hispanic. The county clerk, Fred Mytty, told supervisors on last week that bilingual ballots are only necessary if a minority population exceeds 5%of the total population, and has a low literacy rate. Hispanics exceed this population threshold, but Mytty says that area schools have done a “good job” of raising literacy rate, so that it is above the national average.

Mytty states that the county will “save a lot of money over the next ten years” with the change.

That’s charming, but strange. The population of Hispanics has doubled over ten years. Whereas, the types of schools that are “raising the literacy rate” is not known. Are these public K-12 schools, community colleges, or vocational schools? No idea. Without knowing what kind of schools these are, there is no way to tell if this growing community’s literacy rates are rising.

The group behind the historic recall of SB 1070 sponsor Russell Pearce is currently gathering feedback from voters on whether a recall of AZ Governor Jan Brewer should be attempted in 2012.

Citizens for a Better Arizona announced they would support a recall effort if at least 5,000 voters sign up to volunteer as petition circulators on their website.  A successful recall of the governor, who supported the harsh anti-immigrant law and which has inspired copycat laws in Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia, would require more than 432,000 valid signatures.

“It’s not what we’re going to do. What are they going to do?” said Randy Parraz, President of Citizens for a Better Arizona. “You can’t just recall a governor because you don’t like her.”

The group began asking for volunteers the day Brewer signed Pearce’s recall documents, and it is moving forward during a time of heightened tension in AZ politics and throughout the U.S.

Immigration is not the only issue plaguing Brewer.  The governor is currently facing criticism over her attempted removal of the chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, Colleen Mathis, over the state’s new congressional maps.   The Arizona State Supreme Court invalidated Brewer’s actions when it reinstated Mathis last week, saying the governor did not have sufficient cause to remove her.

Petitions are also currently circulating in Wisconsin to stage a recall against Gov. Scott Walker.

“Our job is to listen to the citizens of Arizona,” said Parraz.

References:

• Huffington Post
• AZ Central

The Obama campaign hired Texas native Adrian Saenz to be the National Latino Vote Director last week, part of the campaign’s efforts to drive the Latino vote in 2012. While many have said that the GOP options for president aren’t likely to draw a huge number of Latino voters, if Latinos stay away from the polls, it’s likely President Obama and other pivotal races could suffer from the lack of participation.

Saenz had previously worked for Texas congressmen Charlie Gonzalez and Ciro Rodriguez and New Mexico congressman Harry Teague. In 2008 he served as the state director for the Obama campaign in Texas and New Mexico. He’s also spent time as a national field director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

As National Latino Vote Director, Saenz told Univision that he plans to travel the country and work in states with heavy Latino voting populations, such as New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, as well as Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

[Screenshot By DemocracyForNewMexico]

By Michael Li

The three-judge panel in Washington released its interim map proposals for the state house and senate today.

The maps can be found here The senate map is Plan S163.  The house map is Plan H298 (Judge Smith also has a dissenting state house proposal, which is H299).

The parties have been asked to submit any comments or objections by noon, tomorrow, November 18.  A final order on the interim state house and senate maps could come as early as tomorrow afternoon.

There’s a whole lot more analyzing to be done, but a few (very preliminary) highlights:

• State Sen. Wendy Davis got a competitive seat back.
• State Reps. Hubert  Vo and Scott Hochberg are unpaired and each will have a seat to run in.
• The Mexican-American Legislative Caucus is estimating that the map creates 58 minority opportunity districts, up from 49 in the state’s map.  Some sources are saying the map could create as many 15 new Democratic leaning seats.

Overall, it looks like a big day for the state’s growing minority population – and for Democrats.

Oh, no interim congressional map as of yet.  It could come tonight or later tomorrow. Then MALDEF’s statement on the changes included:

• Locates an additional House district (HD 35) in the Rio Grande Valley that will afford Latinos the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.  At trial, MALDEF argued that the significant population growth in Cameron and Hidalgo Counties warranted the addition of a House district.
• Increases the Latino population of HD 78 in El Paso so that it will afford Latinos the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.  At trial, MALDEF argued that the Legislature’s House plan intentionally gerrymandered the El Paso seats to ensure that Latinos would constitute an ineffective minority of voters in HD78.
• Increases the Latino population in HD 144 in Houston so that it will afford Latinos the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.
• Maintains HD 33 in Corpus Christi as a Latino opportunity district.  HD 33 was eliminated in the Texas Legislature’s redistricting plan when it reassigned the district to Rockwall County.  At trial, MALDEF argued that the elimination of HD33 as a Latino opportunity district violated the Voting Rights Act.
• Maintains HD 117 in San Antonio.  HD 117 is a Latino-majority district that was re-drawn in the Texas Legislature’s redistricting plan to minimize the ability of Latinos to elect their preferred candidate.  At the remedial hearing, MALDEF argued that the Legislature intentionally gerrymandered HD117 to protect the incumbent at the expense of Latino voters.

In Los Angeles County earlier this year race came front and center when the Board of Supervisors voted down the creation of another Latino seat and now it seems a Voting Rights Act lawsuit is brewing. LA County is 50% Latino and has but one Latino on the board — the first ever, Gloria Molina. She took office partly as the result of another lawsuit that found that supervisors intentionally tried to to prevent the creation of a Latino seat.

We spoke to Molina recently, and she told us the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, MALDEF,  is currently working behind the scenes to fundraise for a lawsuit against the county to create this second district. A request for comment from MALDEF was not returned.

“MALDEF is raising money to challenge [the board], and the board has already put together a defense team with highest paid lawyers in California. We think we have a very high chance of prevailing, because of the Voting Rights Act and the Census numbers,” she told NewsTaco, noting that all eyes are on Texas and the outcome of the redistricting lawsuit MALDEF is pursuing there.

It’s important to note that each LA Supervisor’s district contains populations larger than 15 entire states — which is to say, they are more powerful than some senators and even governors, according to KCET.

“We will sue, but they are loaded for bear on the county side. They are going to put in an awful lot of money to preserve the status quo, but by virtue of the numbers, we should have had two Latino seats,” Molin told NewsTaco.

What supervisors in LA ultimately voted for, with the exception of Molina, was to keep their own seats intact. Initially Molina was backed by Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is African-American, but in the end he switched sides for a 4-1 vote not to create the second district in favor of one that would preserve incumbent supervisors’ districts. As for the rest of California, as we reported, there were some gains and losses, depending on the level of office.

[Photo By LA County]

The conservative group that sprang out of Arizona, Somos Republicans, seems to be splintering as its founder, Dee Dee Garcia-Blase, notes big changes in the group, and former Executive Vice President Bob Quasius resigned last week. Quasius and others are forming the Cafe Con Leche Republicans, which he told NewsTaco would also be a PAC (political action committee). Garcia-Blase noted that just before Quasius’ resignation, she appointed Adam Bustos as Somos’ First Vice President, he’s a Republican.

Although as recently as last week Quasius, who lives in Minnesota, wrote a post under the Somos Republicans banner about why he was a strong Republican, in a subsequent announcement on Facebook he announced he left the group. Here’s what he said:

Along with other present and former Somos Republicans leaders, we are starting a new organization, which will take a fresh approach to many of the same issues, and which we strongly believe will achieve results. We wish our former colleagues at Somos Republicans the best of luck, and believe our two organizations in many ways will complement each other.

The new organization, Cafe Con Leche Republicans, consists of Republicans from all backgrounds who believe America and the GOP in particular needs to become more welcoming of immigrants. The recent rhetoric and “enforcement on steroids” is fostering a climate that is not only hostile for both legal and undocumented immigrants, but unhealthy for America as a whole.

Quasius told NewsTaco that four former Somos Republicans members left the group and are “on board” with Cafe Con Leche Republicans — and he expects more will follow. Only two of Somos Republicans’ 17 national leaders left the GOP, he told us. Blase-Garcia, who left the GOP and is now independent, countered that two of those members she personally removed for different reasons, including their support for SB 1070.

He later told NewsTaco that his decision to leave the group was based on his belief that Somos Republicans had strayed from its original goals. “Unfortunately, Somos Republicans has strayed far from it’s original mission to bring Hispanics to the GOP, and help the GOP better engage with Hispanics, and now encourages Hispanics to leave the GOP and does little to nothing to influence the GOP in a constructive positive way,” he told us in an email.

“Now the mission seems to be encouraging Hispanics to leave the GOP, and tear down the GOP until it changes, which we don’t think is a good strategy, and thus the split,” Quasius explained. Garcia-Blase points out that Quasius has participated in this discussion by writing a press release criticizing GOP presidential frontrunner Herman Cain for his comments on building moats along the border. The Cafe Con Leche Republicans, a reference he told us to the blending of culture and people in Latin America, is a direct response to Somos’ attack on the GOP, he said. Quasius’ new group aims to not only call out GOP extremists, but engage with the GOP as well.

As part of Cafe Con Leche Republicans’ efforts the group is searching for pro-Latino Republicans to back at the state and federal levels, presumably with the PAC, such as Minnesota Senate District 64 candidate Anthony Hernandez. Quasius told us that Cafe Con Leche will be led by “100%” registered Republicans, but will welcome everyone as members, and that was to enable the group to “have the credibility needed to influence primary contests, constructively engage with the GOP, etc. then the leadership needs to be Republican as well.”

Something, he said, not possible with Somos Republicans for Garcia-Blase’s public feuding with Republican party leaders. But, Quasius did add that both groups would “largely end up complementing each other’s efforts, with [Somos Republicabs] acting mostly in it’s present watch dog role, while [Cafe Con Leche] will emphasize grass roots party activism and constructive engagement.”

The split appeared to be amicable.

For more information Cafe Con Leche Republicans on the web, Facebook and Twitter.

[Screenshot By Somos Republicans]

It seems like every time you turn around in Texas these days, there’s another young, educated Latino professional with political aspirations who’s either running for office — or just won office. And while it would be easy to say anecdotally that more Latinos are being elected to office in Texas, the facts speak for themselves.

A look at the 2011 directory of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) shows that Texas has more Latino elected officials than any other state, more than 2,500, with California’s 1,306 making a not-so-close second. Interestingly, while young Latino politicians seem to be populating the state’s political scene ever quickly, women, or Latinas, don’t seem to be keeping pace — but that’s a story we’ll be telling you in the near future.

But why is this happening?

Demographics have obviously played a role in this new trend — Texas received four new congressional seats as the result of population growth, at least 70% of this growth from Latinos in the state — but demographics alone don’t begin to explain this particular change. We spoke to two young men that may be counted among this trend recently, former San Antonio City Councilman Philip Cortez (left), who has announced his candidacy for State Representative of District 117 and Austin State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (right) and a few additional reasons that help account for these changes to Texas’ political landscape emerged.

For one, both Cortez, 33, and Rodriguez, 40, were adamant about the debt owed to everyone who came before them. Texas’ sketchy history with civil rights and discrimination is by no means a secret — people not yet eligible for Social Security can tell you stories about “No Mexicans” signs in restaurants — but both politicos have personal and professional experiences to back up their claims.

Citing their parents and politicians who came before them such as former congressman Henry B. Gonzalez, as well as countless other civil rights activists, both men said others had cleared political road for them. Personally for these two, the political mentorship and opportunities afforded to them both in the realms of education and politics would have been practically unheard of for Latinos in Texas even 30 years ago. But, at a cultural level, both noted that the expectation of being able to ascend levels of political power for Latinos across the state came about as a result of the work and struggle of many before them.

“There are people that did all of the legwork in the 60s, 70s and even early 80s that really paved the way for people my age that made it,” Rodriguez told NewsTaco. “There’s almost an expectation that, if you’re Latino and going to college, you can compete with any Anglo person — there’s no reason why you can’t. We have our parents to thank for that.”

Cortez, currently a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, acknowledged the same for himself, but on a larger scale also pointed to the Castro brothers of San Antonio, who attended Harvard Law School, and now Julián is the mayor of his hometown while his brother Joaquín is a congressional candidate in Central Texas. “Educational opportunities have opened up for us,” Cortez said, referencing Texas’ historical struggles with such access, “It’s not a guarantee you’re going to get into these schools without the proper effort — but at least the doors are open.”

Of course neither these two, nor the Castro brothers, and not even the current crop of Latino political candidates — be they city council members, county supervisors, district attorneys, state reps or senators — are the first to come to political power. It’d be disingenuous at best, just as these two Latino politicos noted, to exclude those who paved the way for them. It was members of La Raza Unida, the first Latino mayors and congressman and state reps, voter registration campaigns, and even the solid tradition of Latino elected officials along the border who created the idea that, despite Texas’ spotty record on inclusion, Latinos had just as much a right as anybody else to be in public office.

Fast forward to today and, as Rodriguez points out, there were Latinos in their 20s who were elected to the state house. Opportunities to be elected to statewide office are enhanced by the large numbers of Latinos being elected to school boards, where they may then launch a political career. While this class of young Latino politicos grows, as a group, Rodriguez told us that finding a cohesive political voice becomes a build-the-airplane-while-you’re-flying-it kind of challenge. “Everything is happening in real time,” he told us.

But like everything else, there’s always more that can be done. Both Rodriguez and Cortez said that, as current political leaders following the paths laid down by others, what weighs heavily on their minds now is how to continue to create those opportunities. Teen pregnancy, high school dropout rates, college completion rates, building a diverse and sustainable economy with real jobs, political apathy, building up a Latino middle class in Texas — these are the issues that define their political agends.

“I want to provide a good example, to hope that one day some young girl or some young boy can see the things we’ve done and think, ‘I can do that, too,’” Cortez told us, with a small caveat, “But we still got a long way to go.”

[Photos By Texas House; Courtesy]

By Kirsten Gray, Texas Democratic Party Communications Director

Recently, we described the shameful Republican scheme to disenfranchise Latinos and other voters. Governor Rick Perry’s “emergency” photo voter ID legislation, passed this year with Republican support, requires voters to present photo identification at the ballot box. While billed by the GOP as necessary for our elections, the bill is a solution in search of a (nonexistent) problem – and convenient red meat to excite Perry’s far-right supporters.

In recent days, the U.S. Department of Justice requested critical information from the Texas Secretary of State (headed up by a Rick Perry appointee) before it will agree to pre-clear the Republican bill under the Voting Rights Act. The SOS was unwilling to even try to provide the info requested: a breakdown, by race, of the voters who lack the required ID and who could be disenfranchised by the voter ID bill.

We’ve investigated further and uncovered a disturbing and seemingly deliberate attempt by the State to try to hide the fact that this legislation is discriminatory. We looked at the data they sent to the DOJ and the most important piece of information was left out: the percentage of those registered voters who lack photo ID who are Hispanic.

In terms of data, all that the SOS sent was the percentage of registered voters without ID who are Hispanic as a percentage of the total number of registered voters in the county.  As just one example, in Jim Hogg County that percentage is 11%, which doesn’t seem like a lot.  However, when those same Hispanic voters are calculated as a percentage of the total registered voters without ID (the total number of voters likely to be disenfranchised), we find that 92.4% of the voters likely to be disenfranchised in Jim Hogg County are Hispanic. That’s a huge difference and paints a terrifying picture of the impact of this voter ID law on Hispanic voters.

County by county we can see the difference, and it all adds up to shell games and obfuscation from the SOS to try to hide the fact that this law is discriminatory.  The numbers plainly show that in at least 46 Texas counties, over half the voters who do not have ID are Hispanic.  Further, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, only 25% of eligible voters in Texas are Hispanic.  Meanwhile, Hispanics make up 29% of the voters likely to be disenfranchised because they lack ID. Clearly the legislation has a disproportionate impact on Hispanic voters.

Not only has the State of Texas not met the burden of proof required under the Voting Rights Act for this legislation to be pre-cleared, there is concrete evidence that the legislation disproportionately abridges the right to vote of minority voters. Democrats will continue to fight against pre-clearance of this discriminatory Republican attempt to keep Hispanic voters at home on Election Day.