NewsTaco

By Jose Cruz, Our Tiempo

#4 Univision Presidential Town Hall

In mid-September President Obama and Governor Romney appeared two nights back-to-back in a Town Hall Forum on Univision. Romney drew 1.6 million, Obama drew a larger audience, 2.7 million. The candidate forums, in which Univision lead anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas peppered each of the men with questions about immigration, national security, the Middle East protests and the Mexican drug war before taking a small set of questions from the audience and Facebook participants, marked the first time that presidential candidates have ever participated in an all Spanish-language, live-to-tape political forum with a studio audience.

This article was first published in Our Tiempo.

Jose Cruz is a Puerto Rican/Irish multi-city/multi-hat guru at OurTiempo.com. An online entrepreneur, Jose is the in house editor and writer. With a background in politics and a career that includes a law degree, the Clinton White House and managing and developing websites geared at the Latino community, his tastes are as diverse as his work. Just at home diving into a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza to munching on a Fish Taco in East LA. Twitter: @JoseCruz2000

[Photo by  DonkeyHotey]

By Especial Correspondents, Pocho Ñews Service

Gov. Willard “Mitt” Romney lost big last night and the finger pointing has begun. Here are the GOP’s Pocho Ocho top excuses for the defeat:

8. Donald Trump bad hair day
7. Matlock marathon suppressed old white people vote
6. Cheap imported Chinese binders couldn’t hold the women required for victory
5. It would have been easier for Mitt if he were a Latino
4. GOP “ground game” reliance on white boys in short-sleeved dress shirts on bicycles outclassed by Dems with iPads
3. Billions of dollars doesn’t buy elections the way it used to
2. Pinche Big Bird

And the numero uno reason Republicans think Mitt lost is…

Write-in votes for Mexican Mitt Romney

This article was first published in Pocho.com.

POCHO ÑEWS SERVICE PNS IS A WHOLLY-FICTITIOUS SUBSIDIARY OF POCHISMO INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, WHO IS A PERSON ACCORDING TO THE SUPREME COURT.  DON’T ASK US, WE JUST WORK

By Jesse Treviño, HispanicLatino

Whether President Obama wins re-election tomorrow, some electoral post-scripts will be engaged immediately.  We will know if the HispanicLatino vote was important as expected, especially in the swing states.  One of the two campaigns clearly will not have done enough to win – while hundreds of thousands of HispanicLatinos who did not vote could have made the difference.  In either case, the HispanicLatino vote becomes ever more important.  On the very day after the election, they will add more potential voters for 2016 proportionately than any other group.

If Obama wins with the HispanicLatino vote having proven decisive, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio will shoot to the head of the pack in his party, and his political action committees will begin to attract immediate money.  Just as important, he will draw additional, competent political advisors with national experience to make sure the young legislator does not misstep and try to turn his party away from its harsh anti-HispanicLatino rhetoric.  For those reasons, Rubio and sophisticated political analysts – not necessarily the ones on television every morning – will look closely at the results from three distinct congressional races across the country to read tea leaves about the future and to consider other possibilities.

In California’s 24^th District, long-time Democratic incumbent Congresswoman Lois Capps is trying to stave off the challenge of Republican Abel Maldonado in a new district to test how far HispanicLatinos identify with a Spanish surname against an Anglo candidate who is more in tune with their needs.  Also of note will be the effort of Democrat Pete Gallego in District 23 in Texas to unseat Republican incumbent Francisco Canseco in all-HispanicLatino affair that is a strict test of party identity.  And in Florida, the all-Cuban contest contest between Democrat Joe Garcia and Republican incumbent David Rivera in the 26^th District will provide clues about whether the once-stalwart Republican Cuban American vote continues to trend Democratic – abetting the ongoing conversion of Florida into a Democratic state.

So, too, analysts will wade into the numbers in Arizona, where a Democratic victory or a tight contest in the race for the U.S. Senate would augur well for Democrats there and bring to the fore the potential of Texas, the last state with a major HispanicLatino population not part of the national electoral equation.

Despite the lopsided results in Texas in favor of Romney tomorrow, its potential for the Democratic ticket in 2016 will have ratcheted up another notch.  By 2016, another 550,000 HispanicLatinos will be eligible to vote in Texas.  There were enough HispanicLatinos this year to have carried the last big-state Republican redoubt into the Democratic column, but it would have taken extraordinary lifting that Democrats were not yet ready to exert.

Some Texas Democrats have been making the case theoretically for years but no more powerful, tangible argument exists than the rapidity with which Democrats have made Colorado, Florida and Nevada competitive.  If Obama carries both of those states again, Texas by all reason should not be far behind.  Harry Reid rebuilt the politics of Nevada, a state with less effective demographics than Texas, from the ground up alongside the work of Colorado Democrats to transform their state.  But Colorado and Nevada are smaller, and it is easier to ride a pony than mount a horse.

Moving to make Texas politically relevant is not going to be on Obama’s agenda in his second term if he wins.  But the idea of taking Texas could find resonance in the Clinton camp that already might be thinking about 2016.  No one will look at the numbers from tomorrow night more closely than Bill Clinton.  More than anyone else, he will be able to discern the potential of the HispanicLatino vote in Texas that, already in Hillary’s corner in the primaries in 2008, could be the foundation of a statewide operation to carry the state in a general election.

Whatever we learn tomorrow, we know already that Marco Rubio received an enormous gift when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stepped out of his attack-dog skin and embraced Obama as the last winds of Hurricane Sandy still swirled.  His name ironically is eerily similar to Charlie Crist, the former governor of Florida who went under in Florida after the Tea party tagged him as a friend of Obama’s.  If Romney wins, he will not forget that Christie might have been undermining him to secure an open shot at 2016.  Christie might be passing into a footnote in history.

Not so HispanicLatino voters.

This article was first published in HispanicLatino.

Jesse Treviño is the former editorial page editor of The Austin American-Staesman.

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Jesse Treviño, HispanicLatino

Before President Obama’s self-admitted off-night in Denver, when he allowed Mitt Romney during the first presidential debate to conjure himself into someone he is not, some writers were hinting at and others were outright using the ‘L’ word.  So sloppy had been Romney’s campaign and so error-free was Obama’s leading up to that night in Colorado that a burgeoning Democratic lead in the polls was building the narrative of an inevitable Obama win, perhaps by a landslide.  But that seems to have changed. Now what?

Romney supporters and some knowledgeable supporters use the 1980 Carter-Reagan election – when the bottom fell out from under incumbent Jimmy Carter in the closing two weeks of the campaign – as the model to project a Republican win next week.  Other observers think the 2000 Bush-Gore model will predominate.  In that scenario, George Bush lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote, a result that could retain Obama in office.  Other observers influenced by a Romney surge are proposing a Romney landslide.  Hmmm.  For my part, I am thinking 1948, when incumbent President Harry Truman came from behind and walked away with a hard-earned victory over Tom Dewey.  I think this for several reasons.

First, if the Obama campaign over the last two years has built up the kind of organization that reporters crisscrossing the swing states are writing about, then Obama’s campaign team might have built up the kind of campaign structure in those states that was predominant at the local and county level when Truman surprised and rocketed past Dewey, who had been ahead in all the national surveys.  So if the polls have tightened, they might be trailing an organization that instead of using precinct captains uses highly sophisticated niche targeting to organize its support – with perhaps decisive results.

Second, I remember being at a dinner party in New York two years ago.  When the conversation turned to politics, as all conversations in New York inevitably do, I was struck by the disappointment of individuals there who had voted for Obama but were thoroughly disenchanted.  One especially animated friend told me point-blank that she would not vote for Obama again.  She happens to be a very strong-minded woman, whom some would deride as a feminist.  After what they have seen of Romney, all of those individuals are going to vote for Obama.  They are coming home as Democrats in 1948 did.

Third, the new demography that I write about is driving the changes in the electoral map that has made new states viable for Democratic candidates – Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida.  But the margin for victory depends on Democrats getting a good part of the non-HispanicLatino white vote. In the end, I think Romney’s remark that nearly half of the country barely matters strikes the same chord that resonated with voters so many years ago when Truman won.  HispanicLatinos understand what Romney meant, which is why they will vote in proportions approaching 70 percent for Obama.  And millions of women voters who do not fall automatically into the 47 percent quake at the thought of a President Romney making appointments to the Supreme Court.

To me, if the Obama campaign has created an effective organizational push and voters like the woman in New York do come home and if the new demography asserts itself, it is not unreasonable to think that Obama will win – and win a solid victory.  I therefore put all the states that Obama won four years ago in his column again, except forNorth Carolina and Indiana, although I am sorely tempted to do so.  I cannot but think that women in Indiana voting against a Republican Senate candidate who thinks rape is God’s will also vote for Obama in significant enough numbers to put him across the finish line.  I also would like to consider Arizona as a possible surprise but will demur to conventional wisdom.

So a week out and not knowing the unanticipated electoral disruptions Sandy might provoke, including opportunities for intentional theft, I think Obama will win 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206, making allowances for the split possibility in Maine and Nebraska that apportion their electoral votes by congressional districts.  I think Obama’s margin in the popular vote will be almost three million.

When I was a cub reporter decades ago, the much older editor who ran the newsroom pools on election eve stopped organizing them after I won two in a row.  Years later, I was on a panel on television that was asked to predict what percentage of the vote Ross Perot would get.  I was the closest by far.  I was right in the Gore-Bush election in 2000 except for the Supreme Court.  Not a bad record, but I have been wrong before.  So, what happens a week from tomorrow?  Only the people know.

I can only guess.

This article was first published in HispanicLatino.

Jesse Treviño is the former editorial page editor of The Austin American-Statesman.

[Photo by scriptingnews]

By Valeria Fernandez, New America Media

PHOENIX, Az. — José Hernández hasn’t made up his mind about who he’s going to vote for in the upcoming election.

“I like things about both, Romney and Obama,” said Hernández, 29, who works as an electrician in Mesa, Arizona. He says he likes that Republican Mitt Romney speaks about creating employment, and that President Barack Obama signed an executive order to halt deportations of youth who have grown up in the country.

Hernandez, who was born in the United States, is part of a growing Hispanic population of voters, many of whom tend to vote Democrat. He is also a member of the Mormon Church, a fact that may lead some to expect a vote for Romney.

“Being Hispanic, there’s always that fear of being pulled over – not to get caught, but having to have your passport with you at all times,” he explained. That fear is driven in part by a larger Republican-led effort in Arizona to crack down on undocumented immigrants, with laws like SB 1070 that require police to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect is in the country illegally.

Such measures have helped to alienate many in the Hispanic community from the Republican Party.

Community groups, meanwhile, are mobilizing voters like Hernández to go to the polls in an effort to oust Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who proclaimed himself “America’s toughest sheriff” for his office’s vigorous enforcement of the state’s anti-immigrant policies. Arpaio currently faces a set of lawsuits alleging racial profiling of Latinos.

There are close to 400,000 registered Latino voters in the state, up 23 percent from four years ago, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). There are a similar number of Mormons living in Arizona, though the community has a longer and more established history of voter turnout.

And this year, observers say, Republicans are counting on their vote. That is certainly the case in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race, with Democrat Richard Carmona challenging Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who is a member of the Mormon Church.

Carmona, a former U.S. Senator, could become Arizona’s first Latino representative. He has taken an open stance in support of the Dream Act, which offers a path to citizenship for certain undocumented students, and comprehensive immigration reform. Flake, known nationally for sponsoring a bill in support of immigration reform, has since moved closer to the right – like fellow Republican
Senator John McCain – in advocating for tighter border security.

Political journalist Terry Greene Sterling says there’s an interesting dynamic at play this year for Mormon voters. Their church stance on comprehensive and humanitarian immigration reform contrasts with Romney’s support for self-deportation of undocumented immigrants.

“So it’s going to be tricky,” she says, “to see whether Mormons go with their thoughts about immigration and vote for Carmona, who is for immigration reform, or whether Mormons will indeed vote for Flake and Romney because they are Mormons.”

For Pablo Felix, the answer is easy.

“My biggest thing right now as a voter is the economy and the economic stability of this country, the ability to move forward,” said the 42-year-old Mormon. “I’m a sales person and I see that a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities have been cut down during these past few years.”

Still, he says he also recognizes the significance of having a Mormon elected to the White House.

“There’s an examination of political consciousness going on in the Mormon community right now,” said Greene Sterling. “The Mormon Church has a long history – like Latinos in Arizona — of persecution, and so it means something to be a Mormon and see a candidate of your faith ascending into a presidential election. It means acceptance, it means an end of discrimination to them.”

But not all political decisions fall on party lines for Felix, who says he supports some form of immigration reform and will vote for Democratic candidate Paul Penzone in the sheriff’s race.

Arizona State University Political science professor Rodolfo Espino says that while Latinos have increasingly shunned Romney’s party, the Mormon Church has long been working to embrace a growing Hispanic membership.

“The Mormon Church is almost a political party unto itself,” says Espino. “They’re recognizing a new growing demographic that they do not want to push away. Latinos are contributing to the growth of the church.”

Officially, the Mormon Church has shied away from taking a particular political stance. It has not endorsed a candidate and, through its spokespeople, has gone to great lengths in emphasizing its political neutrality.

Within the community, however, opinion varies widely.

The recent defeat of SB 1070 architect and former Republican Senator Russell Pearce, a Mormon in a highly conservative Mormon District, suggests an internal shift taking place among Mormon voters, specifically on the issue of immigration. Pearce faced a recall last year and was defeated by Republican Jerry Lewis, a former bishop in the Mormon Church.

Tyler Montague, a businessman in Mesa who recruited Lewis to run against Pearce, says Mormons are far from being a homogenous voting bloc. “Because we have undocumented people in our churches and in our schools, and once you get to know them they’re like anyone else, you don’t want to see them treated harshly.”

Montague said things started to change among Mesa residents and local members of the Mormon Church once they became aware of the economic and social damage caused by the passage of SB 1070, which prompted thousands to flee the state.

“I think people have moved on this issue,” he says. “Churches and businesses have come out and said, ‘Listen we don’t support Russell Pearce’s approach,’ … businesses have said ‘hey we need workers.’”

Montague says he will vote for Romney, though he doesn’t like the way the former governor has spoken about immigration in his campaign. If elected, Montague believes Romney is likely to pass some form of immigration reform, perhaps in pieces.

“I think a lot of people support Mitt Romney but disagree with his public statements about immigration,” he says, “but they don’t worry too much because they don’t think that ultimately he’ll do something bad on that issue.”

This article was first published in New America Media.

[Photo by p kleyman/New America Media]

By Hispanically Speaking News

By Jesse Treviño, HispanicLatino

Sen. George McGovern’s death on Sunday morning could be seen as a final revenge had the 1972 presidential candidate been a vengeful man. It came, after all, on the eve of the foreign policy debate between President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. Even in death, the ever-faithful McGovern rendered another public service to his country. To consider how right McGovern’s anti-war policy was regarding the disasters in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and to reflect on his heroic role as a bomber pilot in World War II and to then accept that someone like George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office as President is to understand how colossally important elections are.

So upon McGovern’s death with a national election days away, there is no quarrel about President Obama’s success in foreign policy and why he should remain in the White House. Successfully prosecuting Al Qaeda, Bin Laden and the war on terror just as McGovern pursued Axis bombing targets in Germany and Italy, Obama has extracted us from Iraq and is doing so from Afghanistan. McGovern would have done the same in Vietnam, which should have been the last of this country’s interventionist imbroglios had Bush not taken us down a similar path. If Mitt Romney is elected and another set of bumblers take office with him, no lesson will have been learned.

The debate tonight should be about the economy, not about Romney rattling the sword on Iran, Syria and China in the guise of talking about Benghazi. Without a strong economy, we cannot have the only foreign policy that matters: How to be able to pay for the defense of the country in the future. The debate should be about how to keep our increasingly expensive powder dry, not about rushing into Damascus.

The debate tonight, more pointedly, should be about the fiscal cliff the country is facing in three months. Nothing will affect the foreign policy of the country more than a world plunging again into recession, a new global recession that would take longer to correct and, in the process, cost the country more than jobs. A new recession would serve to erode further America’s military might. Making sure the economy grows so that we can invest in education, infrastructure and defense research is tantamount to our flying bombing missions over Europe. The country needed men like George McGovern to bomb Hitler; it needs us to build shelter.

The heroism needed today is for a war on the fiscal debt the country owes, a war that President Obama has continued to try to prosecute with Republican opposition. McGovern would have understood the danger of the debt and might have helped HispanicLatinos understand that each percentage change in the composition of the national population makes the national debt ultimately the HispanicLatino debt.

For HispanicLatinos, the mission should be clear: How to support reducing the debt and yet build a community destined to be the central pillar of America’s future. That is a tall order, especially when many Americans fancifully think the country is making its way toward a presumed post-racial future. Instead, a post-fiscal fate should be everyone’s concern – the time when we might get the nation past the financial threats that put in jeopardy its continued viability as a country and that put in doubt the U.S. remaining a beacon for the rest of the world.

The legacy of a clean-cut McGovern flying bombing missions over Europe to defeat fascism and later heroically trying to end the war that a partying Bush escaped by cheating the draft is the history of a country paying a heavy price for being misled – first, in the 1972 presidential campaign by Richard Nixon and then in 2000 and 2004 by Bush.

Equally important to me is that I do not know of one – one! – prominent HispanicLatino who has as his or her mission focusing and speaking out in a leaderly way about the fiscal crisis the country faces.

HispanicLatinos – along with many more Americans – are in danger of being absent in a way that the good and decent George McGovern never was for his country.

This article was first published in HispanicLatino.

Jesse Treviño is the former editorial page editor of The Austin American-Statesman.

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Maria Cardona, Latinovations

Mitt Romney showed up Tuesday night talking about “binders full of women” being brought to him when he was governor. Sounds kind of kinky and certainly not something you want to be touting.

The phrase was part of Romney’s answer to a question from an audience member at the second presidential debate about how he would “rectify the inequalities in the workplace.” Referring to when he took over as Massachusetts governor, he said, “I had the chance to pull together a Cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men,” he said. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

The “binders” moment went viral immediately on Twitter, spawning @RomneysBinders and@womaninabinder Twitter handles. As of Wednesday morning, almost 300,000 people had supported a Facebook page about what a politically dumb statement it was. Romney may soon say it was “inelegant” phrasing or he didn’t finish his statement or some other excuse, but the comment shows why voters, especially women, don’t trust him and don’t believe he has their back.

In fairness, “binders” was most likely a slip of the tongue. But Romney said it in an effort to obfuscate and pivot from the issue at hand: equality for women. He avoided the real question, and that, and his remark, spoke volumes.

Even as a slip of the tongue, this odd phrase betrays Romney’s true lack of understanding, knowledge and comfort level on women’s equality. And besides the binders comment, there are several problems with the story Romney told Tuesday night.

First of all, it is not true. The “binder” of women’s résumés was prepared before the election by the Massachusetts Government Appointments Project, a coalition of nonpartisan women’s groups. When Romney won, the women — not in binders — gave him the résumés.

Romney told that story in an effort to demonstrate how well his administration had done in hiring women. Except it didn’t. A study by the University of Massachusetts and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy shows that the percentage of women in senior positions during his tenure actually declined. It went from 30% when Romney took office to 27% when he left and up to more than 33% after the new governor took over.

Also, it boggles the mind that throughout his decades-long career in business, Romney had not come across any qualified women he could appoint to his Cabinet. The Romney campaign points to longtime aide Beth Myers, but she was not in the Cabinet.

The more reasonable explanation is that diversity of gender, or any kind of diversity, was never an important tenet of corporate leadership for Romney. Which is why he did not proactively seek out the “binders full of women”: Women’s groups, in fact, came looking for him.

All of this goes to the heart of why Romney has had such a hard time winning over the women’s vote. He answered the audience member’s question from the standpoint of a detached CEO who knew that he had to find qualified women to serve in his administration come hell or high water, given the vast disparity between men and women holding management positions. He must have known he would be blasted if he didn’t do it. In this day and age, this should be a no-brainer. You should not ask the American people to give you a medal for hiring qualified women.

The dissonance when it comes to the governor and women went even further at the debate. Romney not only couldn’t answer the question about women’ equality, he could not even answer a question about outlawing AK-47s without bringing up single mothers. Saying he did not believe in changing gun laws, he seemed to equate children raised by single parents with the “culture of violence.” I may be wrong, but I don’t think that is a good strategy to get struggling single moms to vote for you.

President Obama, in contrast, answered the equality question not just from a personal standpoint as a father but also as a commander in chief who signed a bill into law that guaranteed women could receive equal pay for equal work, the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Romney conspicuously never said whether he supported that act. The president’s approach was much more in synch with what women want to hear and with what all Americans know to be fair.

The binders comment was even more unfortunate for Romney in that he said it in the midst of Obama’s very strong showing. The president clearly showed that he had the fight, the passion and the commitment to continue to work for middle-class voters — on jobs, on health care, on taxes, on education, on immigration and, yes, on women’s issues.

This all underscores Romney’s inability to really connect with voters. Although he seemed to win a little more favor among women after the first debate, I predict binders of polling data as to why that movement stopped after Tuesday night.

This article was first published in Latinovations.

Maria Cardona is a seasoned Democratic strategist, public affairs and communications professional with more than 18 years experience in the political, government, public relations, campaign, community and coalition building arenas.  She currently is a Principal at the Dewey Square Group (DSG)

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Janell Ross, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney offered a disclaimer in the second presidential debate Tuesday before he addressed his stance on immigration, offering a policy mix from “self-deportation” to support for green cards for members of the military and undocumented immigrants with critically needed skills.

“First of all, this is a nation of immigrants,” Romney said. “My dad was born in Mexico of American parents.”

Romney’s approach in the debate supports the assessment that historians, political analysts and swing-state voters shared with The Huffington Post: In the final weeks before the election, when and how Romney talks about immigration matters greatly in determining the outcome.

Romney needs to claim about 30 percent of the Latino vote to take the White House. A growing share of those voters rank immigration among their top political priorities, according to a series of Latino Decisions tracking polls. Now, as Romney moves toward the center on issues as divergent as tax policy and abortion, his consistently conservative, “anti-amnesty” position on immigration is drawing the attention of people on both sides of the border, who say that political expediency and the way that Romney portrays his own family’s immigrant history are obstructing a public move toward more a moderate stance.

The Romney campaign declined to comment.

Romney’s Tuesday night wind-up was supposed to soften the blow that comes with the rest of his immigration ideas, said Chad Snow, an Arizona lawyer who, like Romney, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Saying my dad was born in Mexico? That’s the new version of, ‘Oh I have a lot of black friends,’” said Snow, who helped spearhead the effort to unseat Russell Pearce, an Arizona Mormon, former State Senate leader and a driving force behind Arizona’s strict immigration law, SB 1070.

The state law in effect creates the kind of conditions which Romney has suggested — and reiterated Tuesday — might prompt undocumented immigrants to, “make their own choice,” and self-deport. Pearce’s position on immigration was untenable, Snow said, but Romney’s is puzzling. The Mormon church’s position on the matter encourages its members to treat undocumented immigrants with kindness and concern.

Still, Snow plans to vote for Romney. The reason, he said: pure financial self-interest. And, he’s certain a more moderate Romney will emerge after the election.

“If you looked at Mitt Romney he is a guy that you would think would be very moderate,” Snow said. “He’s Mormon and I know he’s a good Mormon. He’s a businessman. The business interests here in Arizona hated Russell Pearce and his extremism. … Yet, Romney has taken this very strident position. I don’t know what other way to describe it. I think he’s faking it.”

Others believe Romney may well be committed to policies that encourage a large number of the nation’s undocumented population – about 60 percent of whom hail from Mexico – to self-deport.

A close look at Romney’s debate-night disclaimer and the way that he described his family’s move to Mexico in his 2004 book, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games, show a man who thinks of 21st century immigrants seeking safety or economic refuge in the United States as altogether different than the members of the Romney family that moved to Mexico in 1885, said Jeff Biggers, a historian who has researched the Romney family. (Biggers has blogged about his findings for The Huffington Post.)

After reviewing public records and information in an Arizona Mormon archive,…

READ MORE HERE

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

[Photo By Gage Skidmore]

PRESS RELEASE

Catholics Strongly Favor Obama,  Evangelicals Divided

Rapidly Growing Latino Support for Same-Sex Marriage

Latinos are divided by religion in their preferences in the upcoming presidential election, according toa new Pew Research Center survey. Three-quarters (73%) of Latino Catholics and eight-in-ten (82%) religiously unaffiliated Latinos support President Barack Obama’s re-election. However, among Latino evangelical Protestants, who account for 16% of all Latino registered voters, just 50% prefer Obama, while 39% support his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.

These same patterns are reflected in Latinos’ partisan affiliations. Eight-in-ten (81%) religiously unaffiliated Latino voters (who make up 15% of the Latino electorate) and seven-in-ten (71%) Latino Catholics (57% of the Latino electorate) are Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. Among Latino evangelical voters, identification with the Democratic Party is lower—- about half (52%) are Democrats or lean Democratic, while about a third (36%) are Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party.

As the presidential election approaches, many Hispanic churchgoers say they are hearing from their clergy about various political issues and, to a lesser extent, about candidates and elections. Roughly half (54%) of Hispanics who attend religious services at least once a month say they have heard their clergy speak out about abortion, while 43% have heard from the pulpit about immigration, and 38% say their clergy have spoken out about homosexuality. A smaller proportion, roughly three-in-ten (29%), report hearing from their clergy about candidates and elections.

The new survey also finds rapidly growing support for same-sex marriage among Latinos, mirroring growing support among the general public. Half (52%) of Latinos now favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, while one-third (34%) are opposed. As recently as 2006, these figures were reversed (56% of Latinos opposed same-sex marriage, while 31% supported it). Latino evangelicals, however, remain strongly opposed to same-sex marriage (66% opposed vs. 25% in favor).

This report is jointly produced by two projects of the Pew Research Center, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center.  It follows a Pew Hispanic Center report, released last week, about Latino voters in this year’s election. Both reports are based on a nationally representative bilingual telephone survey conducted Sept. 7-Oct. 4, 2012 (largely before the first presidential debate), among 1,765 Latino adults, including 903 registered voters. The Latino electorate today includes 23.7 million eligible voters—- an increase of more than 4 million since 2008. Overall, Latinos now account for 11% of the nation’s eligible electorate, up from 9.5% in 2008. In addition, Latinos make up at least 14% of all eligible voters in three battleground states this year—- Colorado, Florida and Nevada.

The report, “Latinos, Religion and Campaign 2012: Catholics Favor Obama, Evangelicals Divided,” is available here.

The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

# # #

[Photo By Dougtone]

By New America Media

As Barack Obama and Mitt Romney squared off in the second presidential debate last night, New America Media editors posed 10 questions that have largely gone unasked — and unanswered – in their campaigns.

1. U.S.-Mexico Border
Mitt Romney has pledged to finish the wall on the border with Mexico. What will that mean for U.S. relations with the country that gave his grandfather sanctuary as a polygamist?

2. Drugs
Our prisons are overcrowded with people who were arrested on non-violent drug offenses. Street violence in American inner cities is largely a result of an illegal drug economy. Meanwhile, abuse of prescription drugs is a growing crisis. What would you change about current drug policy to alleviate these problems?

3. Federal Poverty Line
The Federal Poverty Line (FPL) masks U.S. poverty at a time when more Americans are struggling to make ends meet. What will you do to see that government figures are more honest–such as the new measure by the National Academy of Science? And what would you say to the growing numbers of people who aren’t considered poor enough to qualify for assistance, but who are struggling just to get by?

4. South China Sea
The Asia-Pacific region is now in turmoil with many countries fighting over territorial rights over the South China Sea as well as the Eastern Sea, chief among them China. With so much at stake — vast oil and natural pockets and potential rare earth and important shipping lanes — how will the U.S. deal with this highly contentious situation and can it afford stay out of the skirmish?

5. Guantanamo
There are still 166 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo Bay, and many of them have been there for over a decade. Though it’s off the radar for many Americans it is a sore point for many others who view it as a symbol of American imperialism and injustice. As president, what would you do about it? Will it be a permanent prison for those who are deemed ineligible for due process?

6. Teacher Shortage
The U.S. is lagging behind other countries in education. Meanwhile, we are facing a shortage of teachers and the profession is becoming less diverse. What are you going to do to stem this decline in recruitment of qualified teachers and keep the teaching profession diverse?

7. Energy Independence
Both of your campaigns have pushed for energy independence. Yet experts say the costs of this would be high and the solution would only be temporary. Energy independence sounds good but is it really achievable or is it a myth?

8. The Longevity Gap
A new study by the MacArthur Foundation shows a widening gap in life expectancy in the past 20 years, with those at low education levels living up to 10 years less than people with higher education levels. How would you reverse this trend?

9. Military Intervention
When is military intervention justified to prevent massive human rights violations, for example in North Korea or Syria?

10. Vision for America
We’ve put a man on the moon. We launched the Peace Corps. Periodically the president has inspired America to think about new frontiers. What’s the new frontier for America?

This article was first published in New America Media.

[Photo courtesy Commission on Presidential Debates]

By Maria Cardona, Latinovations

Up until the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney was the Frankenstein candidate. I don’t mean that derisively. I use it as a metaphor of what a caricature Mitt Romney had become in the eyes of many voters.

Conservatives didn’t trust him to be true to their principles. Liberals depicted him as a heartless corporate raider. His own advisers didn’t seem to know which Mitt to put before the public for the general election — Severely Conservative Mitt or Moderate Mitt? A little of both perhaps? As a result — he became FrankenMitt.

Luckily for Mitt Romney, his family had enough and, at least according to news reports, they intervened and urged Romney to just be himself. It seemed they advised him to shed all the disparate pieces the campaign had hobbled together to make him the candidate they thought would win the election — a candidate who, as it turned out, lacked a human dimension.

Mitt Romney finally proved he had the capability to be perceived as human and likable. While he certainly obfuscated about his own economic policies that he championed for the last two years (President Obama will bring this up at the next debate to be sure), the perception that he might be a viable alternative to the sitting president did wonders to his image. Substance and truth aside, he was a different man than what America had seen on the campaign trail. He demonstrated he can be comfortable in his own skin. He needs to do that again.

In addition, Romney can continue to add to his momentum if he does four things: 1) Speaks credibly to women and to Latinos, 2) Gives details about the future under a Romney/Ryan administration, 3) Takes care with the format, and 4) Apologizes for the 47% remark.

To women, he needs to say they do not need to fear a Severely Conservative Mitt who would proactively take away their right to choose, and who would put them at a disadvantage on health care issues — an unlikely and difficult task given his conservative base would explode and he has already promised to repeal Obamacare.

To Latinos, he needs to talk about immigration and what he would do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, now that he has said he would not round them up and have them deported (though self-deportation still seems to be an option). And what about the DREAM Act? These issues are likely to come up and are big challenges for the governor, because he faces a daunting lack of support among Latinos that could very well keep him from winning in November.

Romney also needs to fill in many blanks about specific plans for his presidency. My guess is moderator Candy Crowley will press both candidates to be more detailed about what the next four years will look like under their leadership. Romney’s tax plan has been particularly challenged by many independent analysts as have the studies his campaign has cited as supporting his plan.

Romney needs to be careful with the format. The town hall format of the upcoming debate can lead to many unscripted moments. These are not the governor’s forte; in fact they have brought him many moments of heartburn during the campaign. He needs to stay loose, and continue to be himself. Voters do not like and do not trust a candidate who doesn’t know who he is or worse, who is perceived as saying anything in order to get elected. That is why FrankenMitt was not sealing the deal.

My last piece of advice for the governor is this: Voters want to believe in you as a candidate. But more than that, they want to believe that you believe in them. The one comment that has really hurt Romney more than any other in this campaign was when he expressed disdain for 47% of the population.

Unfortunately for the Obama campaign, the president did not take full advantage of that in the first debate. The president will not make that mistake again. Romney has already said the comment was wrong — but he never humbly apologized to the American people for it. He should do so. And mean it. And that will be his biggest challenge of the night.

Ana Navarro’s advice for President Obama:

Giving President Obama advice on what to do in the second debate can be encapsulated in one word, “better.” To do better than in the first debate, almost all he has to do is walk on stage.

President Obama has nowhere to go but up. He has to show up, speak up, cheer up and look up, or he’s going to have to pack up.
President Obama can’t just vote “present.” He needs to actually debate. A debate is a discussion on a topic, in which opposing arguments are put forward.

In the first go-around, Obama never put anything forward. Worse yet, he didn’t refute, challenge or engage. This is the second of three debates, but Obama’s last best chance to turn this around.

We are at a fork in the road in this campaign. Another bad performance and Obama goes downhill and probably on to defeat. Through a good performance, he gets a chance to continue climbing up the mountain.

Obama needs to show he really wants to continue being president and will put heart and soul into fighting for the job. He can’t appear aloof and bored. He should remember there is a split screen that shows him at all times.

He needs to appear patient, interested, assertive and gracious. This next debate is a town hall format. Average Americans ask the questions.

Call the questioners by their name when answering. Make it personal. Be charming.

If all that fails, put on a space suit, drink a gallon of Red Bull and free fall 3 feet off the stage.

This article was first published in Latinovations.

Maria Cardona is a seasoned Democratic strategist, public affairs and communications professional with more than 18 years experience in the political, government, public relations, campaign, community and coalition building arenas.  She currently is a Principal at the Dewey Square Group (DSG)

[Photo by DonkeyHotey]

By Latino Decicions

According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls in Virginia, Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney 48.4 to 47.6, a gap of less than 1%.  In the race for U.S. Senate the most recent poll gives Tim Kaine a 48 to 47 lead over George Allen.  With two critical elections both separated by just 1 percent Latino voters may prove decisive in both the Presidential and Senate contests in the Old Dominion State. From 2000 – 2010 the number of Latino eligible voters grew by 76% in Virginia, outpacing all other groups in the electorate.

October 15, at a live streamed panel held at George Mason University national political analysts, advocates, and community leaders from Virginia discussed how Latino voters and the immigration issue will shape the presidential and Senate races in this state and beyond. Michael McDonald, a national expert on voter participation, and Professor of Government and Politics at GMU, teamed with Latino Decisions and America’s Voice to release fresh polling of Latino voters in Virginia. [Full Virginia Poll Results Here]

The poll found 66% of Virginia Latinos plan to vote for Obama compared to 22% for Romney.  In the Senate race, 64% plan to vote for Kaine and 24% for Allen. In Virginia and at the national level, Latino and new citizen voters are changing politics. With immigration at the top of the list of issues these voters want addressed, it’s no surprise that Republican candidates who have embraced hardline positions – including Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Senate nominee George Allen — are faring poorly with Virginia Latinos. By contrast, the embrace of immigrants and immigration reform by both President Barack Obama and Senate candidate Tim Kaine have played a key role in Latino support for Democrats in presidential, Senate and House races.

Professor Michael McDonald, Associate Professor at George Mason University, said: “Immigration is a personal issue that affects Latinos’ attitudes toward candidates even if they don’t explicitly name immigration as one of the most important issues facing the country. The new poll shows the importance of the new deferred action policy to Latino voters in Virginia–and especially undecided voters. With undecided voters expressing more enthusiasm for Obama after hearing about his deferred action policy and less enthusiasm for Romney after hearing about his plans to halt the program upon taking office, it’s clear that opposing this policy is a net negative for candidates who want to appeal to the Latino vote.”

Matt Barreto, principal at Latino Decisions and an assistant professor at the University of Washington, said: “President Obama’s decision in June to grant deferred action to DREAMers marked a ‘turning point’ among Latino voters around the country, making them significantly more enthusiastic about voting in November—and national polling results understate the level of enthusiasm among Latino voters in battleground states like Virginia, who are more engaged than Latinos in less-contested states like California and Texas. The growing population of Latino voters in Virginia is both more enthusiastic about the election than most Latinos, and more likely to decide the outcome of the very close presidential and Senate races here.”

Among the poll’s findings:

Virginia Latinos Favor Democrats by Wide Margins

• In the presidential race, 66% of Virginia Latinos said they will vote for President Obama, while 22% said they will vote for Romney and 7% are undecided.
• In the U.S. Senate race, 64% of Virginia Latinos said they will vote for Tim Kaine, while 24% said they will vote for George Allen and 12% are undecided.
• In addition, 62% of Virginia Latinos said they will vote for the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race, while 19% will vote Republican and 18% are undecided.

Candidates’ Immigration Positions Matter to Virginia Latinos

• 64% of respondents said that immigration was “the most important issue” or “one of the most important issues” in their voting decisions this year.
• After hearing about President Obama’s deferred action policy, 57% of respondents said that they were “more enthusiastic” about voting for Obama and 8% said that they were “less enthusiastic.” Meanwhile, after hearing about Mitt Romney’s recent announcement that he would not revoke deferred action for DREAMers whose applications are approved under Obama but would stop approving applications for relief once he is elected, 13% of respondents said that they were “more enthusiastic” about Romney and 43% of respondents said that they were “less enthusiastic.”
• After hearing about Senate candidate Tim Kaine’s support for the DREAM Act, 65% of Latinos said they were “more enthusiastic” about Kaine and 6% said they were “less enthusiastic.” After hearing about George Allen’s opposition to the DREAM Act and proposal to build a fence along the border, 8% of respondents said they were “more enthusiastic” about Allen and 49% said they were “less enthusiastic.”

Immigration is Not Just a Policy Issue: It’s Personal

• 48% of Virginia Latinos said that immigration was the most important issue facing the Latino community that Congress and the President should address, while 47% said the same about the economy, jobs, and unemployment.
• 66% of Virginia Latinos know someone who is undocumented, and 54% know someone who may be eligible for the DREAM Act.
• When asked how enthusiastic they are about voting in the election this year,” 73% of respondents said that they were “very enthusiastic” about voting in the upcoming election.
• In a separate question that asked “would you say you are more enthusiastic about voting in 2012, or that you were more enthusiastic about voting back in 2008?” 68% said that they were “more enthusiastic” about voting in 2012 than they were about voting in 2008.

According to Vanessa Cardenas, Executive Director of Progress 2050 Action at the Center for American Progress Action Fund: “The youth and diversity of Virginia’s Latino community distinguishes it from many other Latino communities around the country, and the immigrant experience is especially close to Latinos’ hearts here. In the last few years, Latinos witnessed a very ugly debate around anti-immigrant ordinances in Prince William County that caused many Latinos to leave the county, devastating local business. This has taught Latino voters here that immigration and the economy are not only fundamental issues for their community, but that part of fixing the economy is welcoming immigrants.”

Alfonso Lopez, a delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates, added that “Since 2000, Latino voter participation in the Commonwealth of Virginia has gone up between 1 and 3 percent every election cycle. But the legislation that the House of Delegates has put forward has been decidedly anti-immigrant. Legislators who think they can succeed politically by demonizing the immigrant community have proposed bills that would turn public schools into immigration enforcers, keep valedictorians out of public colleges, and deter victims from reporting crimes. In the upcoming session, the legislature will consider an Arizona-style bill to require immigrants to carry ID with them at all times—and the small minority of pro-immigrant and Democratic legislators will have more difficulty stopping it than we had in the past. These numbers are incredibly heartening, because demographic shifts are coming to Virginia, and will wipe out the effects of the short-sighted anti-immigrant politicking we see now.”

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, said, “While Virginia isn’t traditionally a state where Latino voters have held a lot of sway, with this year’s extremely tight race in both the Presidential and Senate contests, and a rapidly growing number of Latino voters in the northern Virginia region, these voters are poised to play a decisive role in both races. Despite Govenor Romney’s surge in national polls in recent weeks, his numbers with Latino voters are at a dismal 22 percent. For Virginia’s Latino voters, two-thirds of whom report knowing an undocumented immigrant, this issue is personal, and Romney’s far right position endorsing ‘self-deportation’ could end up losing him this battleground state.”

Download Full Virginia Poll Results Here

This article was first published in Latino Decisions.

By Latino Decisions

ImpreMedia & Latino Decisions released the latest in a series of tracking polls today revealing support for President Obama slipped from 72% last week to 67% this week, suggesting that his debate performance also led some Latino voters to re-evaluate the President. Those who said they are certain to vote for Romney increased slightly from 20% last week to 23% this week.  When asked how important the presidential debates are, 76% of all Latinos said a candidate’s performance in the presidential debate was important in how they evaluated a candidate. [Full Oct 15 results posted here]

With little-to-no attention on Latino voters on the national level since the conventions, enthusiasm among Latinos voters has slightly dropped indicating the race may have turned more into a matter of turnout rather than candidate support.

Two weeks ago, 93% of voters described themselves as “very enthusiastic” or “somewhat enthusiastic” about this election, but that number dropped to 81% in this week’s poll.  With little change in the partisan numbers for Obama and Romney, the enthusiasm numbers may the most crucial indicator on Election Day, with the Latino vote being cast as decisive in many states such as Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia.  The tracking poll is nationally representative across all 50 states, and enthusiasm in competitive states may be higher than the national average.

“The convention and events right after had a very positive effect for President Obama,” said Monica Lozano, CEO of impreMedia “but his performance in the first debate has led to a new round of questioning by Latino voters especially among the independents.”

According to data from the poll, 32% of registered Latino voters identify as Independent, and within this group 51%, say they are planning to vote for President Obama, 29% say they will vote for Romney and 20% are undecided.

“The debate, and perhaps more importantly the press coverage after the debate, affected Latino voters like all others,” stated Gary Segura of Latino Decisions. “Support for the president, and enthusiasm for turning out to vote, have both dropped measurably. This effect extends to his party. While the president still enjoys a considerable advantage over Governor Romney and the Republicans, it is clear that he and his campaign have serious work to do to recover the heights they reached in the post-convention bounce.”

When asked if they thought Democrats were doing a good job of reaching out to Hispanics, 53% said yes compared to 65% a week ago, again suggesting the President’s debate performance impacted support for the Party as well.  However, there have been no signs of improvement in perceptions of the Republican Party with 17% saying the GOP was doing a good job of outreach to Hispanics.

Evaluation of National Latino Leaders

This week’s polling data also found that very few Latino elected officials have national name recognition, with a few exceptions. In the battery of favorability ratings, the impreMedia-Latino Decisions tracking poll included questions about six Republican, and five Democratic Latinos that have received national attention as of late.  While many may be well-known in their home state, very few have much national recognition.

Leading the list was Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with 39% favorable, 11% unfavorable for a net favorability of +28.  Still 15% had no opinion and 36% had never heard of Villaraigosa. Next on the list was New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez with +23 net favorability and 41% saying never heard of.  Third on the list was San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro with +19 net favorability, but a majority (53%) saying they had never heard of him.  On the Republican side, the most recognized was Florida Senator Marco Rubio with 31% favorable compared to 21% unfavorable, and 38% “never heard of”.  Other Republican Latinos who have been campaigning for Mitt Romney had very low name recognition, which may suggest limited appeal.

METHODOLOGY

This is the eighth release of an 11-week tracking poll of Latino registered voters. Each week impreMedia and Latino Decisions will release a new rolling cross- section of 300 completed interviews with Latino registered voters across all 50 states. Interviews are conducted in English or Spanish, at the preference of the respondent, all conducted by bilingual interviewers at Latino Decisions calling center, Pacific Market Research. The survey averaged 10 minutes in length, and has an overall margin of error of 5.6% on results that approach a 50/50 distribution. All respondents confirm that they are Hispanic or Latino and currently registered to vote. This third wave of the survey was fielded Oct 5-Oct 11, 2012.

This article was first published in Latino Decisions.