Support for Bush Slips Among Hispanics -Poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hispanic support for President Bush (news - web sites) has slipped slightly but Democrats have been unable to take advantage of the change to rally Latino voters behind their candidates, a new poll showed on Wednesday.



The survey by two pro-business groups, The Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Business Roundtable, also showed Latinos divided over the candidacy of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor in California.


The presidential survey of 1,000 Hispanics adults, roughly half of whom said they were registered voters, conducted last week showed 49 percent of Latinos held a favorable view of Bush, down from 58 percent a year ago, when the president was enjoying strong post-Sept. 11 backing...

Bush would lose to a generic Democratic candidate by 43 percent to 31 percent, according to the poll.


He fared better against some specific candidates, losing 38 percent to 33 percent to Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts but beating former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean by 35 percent to 34 percent.


Overall, the number of Latinos identifying themselves as Democrats continues to slide -- 40 percent down from 48 percent a year ago, according to the survey.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030820/pl_nm/politics_poll_hispanics_dc_1

I note that according to the story name recognition on the part of democratic candidates is a problem. Over 60% of Latinos are undecided so the campaigns have their work cut out. I note Dean is neck and neck with Bush and Kerry is leading Bush by 5-points and both are in the 34-38 percent range. Considering that Gore won about 64% of the Latino vote nationwide we have our work cut out, but one thing which would help no matter who our nominee is would be to consider Gov. Richardson of NM for VP. Not only would he be the first Latino on a national ticket but he has definite experience working for him: US Rep, Energy Sec, UN Ambassador, Diplomatic trouble-shooter, and Gov. of NM.

The percentage of hispanics who called themselves Dems decline from 48% a year ago to 40% now! Of course, with the margin of errors of the two survey's, the decline can be much less than that. However, in many, many polls I've seen Bush getting a solid 1/3 of Hispanics voting for him, already. If that increases at all, we're in big trouble. That's all Bush got in 2000, and Gore barely won the popular vote. So, as the article says, we have to get 100% of the undecided hispanics to vote for us in order to remain competative. Or we have to get new voters among hispanics.

They would have to be on the bottom of course because one is not running now.

Mike

I think he'd make a great VP, except that I really like him in New Mexico and was hoping he'd run for senate some time.

If he stops pacing himself, he'll stroll to the nomoination.

but it worries me that he still leads among hispanic voters. Democrats have always won the backing of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricians, from the New Deal to the 2000 election. Republicans have always won the backing of Cuban Americans, and that base of support has remained especially solid since the Bay of Pigs.

Another factor that hurts Democrats, one-third of all Hispanics are only here with a green card...thus making it illegal for them to register as voters. Also as many as 2/3 of eligable hispanics have been reluctant to register because they are either unfamilar with the registration process, or worried about becoming active in American politics.