Latino Support for GOP Drops Amidst Increasing Hysteria Over Immigration [View All]

Democracy Now! today:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/02/1336244

Latino Support for GOP Drops Amidst Increasing Hysteria Over Immigration


Although immigration is not yet a major campaign issue, it is one that Presidential hopefuls cannot afford to ignore. At fifteen percent of the population, Latinos form the largest non-white community in the United States and Latino voters are an increasingly important constituency. We speak with Jorge Mursuli of Democracia USA and Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change. The 2008 Presidential election is a year from this Sunday. Although immigration is not yet a major campaign issue, it is one that Presidential hopefuls cannot afford to ignore. At fifteen percent of the population, Latinos form the largest non-white community in the United States and Latino voters are an increasingly important constituency.

And Latino support for the Republic Party is steadily dropping. Lionel Sosa, a longtime Republican supporter and Hispanic marketing consultant, announced Tuesday that he will no longer back the Republicans and is instead supporting New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Sosa said Republican Presidential hopefuls are “fighting to see who is more anti-immigration.”

Sosa’s defection comes on the heels of the abrupt resignation of Senator Mel Martinez of Florida as the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Martinez also cited frustration with his party’s anti-immigrant tenor. Countrywide, Latino support for the Republicans has been slipping since 2004, when over 40 percent of Latinos voted for George W. Bush. By 2006, this had dropped to less than 30 percent. Pollster John Zogby said last year that the Republican campaign against illegal immigration is “a key factor in Hispanic disillusionment.”

Right-wing radio hosts have played an important role in this anti-immigrant campaign.

* Excerpt from “Savage Nation” host Michael Savage’s radio broadcast, July 5 2007.

To discuss the growing importance of immigration in the coming election I am joined in Washington, DC by two guests.

* Jorge Mursuli. National Executive Director of Democracia USA, a national non-partisan Hispanic civic engagement project founded in 2004 by the People For the American Way Foundation.

* Deepak Bhargava. Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a four-decade old community building organization based in Washington, DC.