LOS ANGELES — Early this year, Brian Sandoval and
Susana Martinez made history. He became Nevada’s first Latino governor.
In New Mexico, she became the country’s first Latina governor.
Just as striking as their breakthrough is their party affiliation: both are Republicans.
For many in the GOP, the twin victories last
November, along with the election of Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, marked
an important step in efforts to mend the party’s frayed ties with
Latino voters, which have suffered over the last several years of
hard-line talk on immigration.
For Democrats, the election of the three was
something else: a warning sign at a time when Latino support has grown
increasingly vital to the party’s success, especially in the
battleground states of the Rocky Mountains and desert Southwest.
Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Michael Bennet of
Colorado each withstood the 2010 Republican wave thanks in good part to
Latino support. President Barack Obama is counting on strong Latino
turnout to hold onto Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico — states he won in
the last White House race — and to expand the 2012 competition to
Arizona and, maybe, Texas and Georgia.
“The Republicans, by electing three national Latino
leaders, have really challenged the Democratic Party,” said former New
Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, until recently one of the highest-ranking
Latino Democrats in the country.
“Democrats have to recruit more Latino candidates and
they have to start siding with Latinos on redistricting and other
issues,” Richardson said, “because many Latinos perceive that the party
doesn’t care enough about electing more Hispanic officials.”
Richardson’s concerns were echoed by Latino
lawmakers, political activists and campaign strategists across the
country. To them, the Democratic Party — while benefiting from a surge
in Latino votes — has, in particular, not done enough to help Latino
candidates move from City Council, legislative and congressional seats
to the party’s highest elected offices.
Money is one reason. Many Latinos represent less
affluent, more geographically concentrated areas that fail to provide
the fundraising base that white politicians have. Boosting Latino
candidates requires patience and a grooming process that Democrats have
not often undertaken, critics say, pointing to Senate races next year in
three key states as an example.
In Nevada and Arizona, they note, there is no
credible Latino Democrat running. In New Mexico, state Auditor Hector
Balderas is scrambling for traction in a primary against Rep. Martin
Heinrich, who started the race as the perceived favorite of the party
establishment.
“The Democrats really haven’t shown a willingness or
any creativity in identifying Latino talent and moving it forward,” said
Margaret Montoya, a University of New Mexico administrator and a
Balderas supporter. “Martin Heinrich is a reliable progressive vote.
Hector is a vote, a voice and a face of the future.”
Matt Canter, a spokesman for the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, said the party recognizes
the importance of recruiting and supporting Latino candidates and was
staying neutral in New Mexico’s primary after sending early signals in
favor of Heinrich.
He pointed out that the party helped recruit Ricardo
Sanchez, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, to run for Senate in
Texas in 2012, though he is very much an underdog, given the state’s
Republican leanings.
The discontent among Latinos is a matter of degree.
The overwhelming majority of elected Latinos belong
to the Democratic Party, and most Latino voters tend to favor Democrats
over Republicans up and down the ballot. Even as they won their governor
races, Sandoval and Martinez failed to capture a majority of the Latino
vote in their states. Any GOP gains among Latinos are likely to narrow
the gap, not reverse it.
And even as the recent election results buoy
Republicans, factions within the party continue to fight over
immigration, pitting supporters of an enforcement-only approach against
those who want to combine strict laws with a pathway to citizenship — as
President George W. Bush favored — for millions living illegally in the
country but paying taxes and keeping out of trouble.
Florida’s Rubio, one of the Republican’s brightest
prospects, has felt the tensions. Critics say he talked tough on
immigration while running for Senate last year, but has yet to follow
through after being elected. “He wants to have it both ways,” George
Fuller, a “tea party” activist in Sarasota, Fla., told The Miami Herald.
“We’re going to be zeroing in on him like a laser.”
Still, at the very least, the election of
high-profile Latino Republicans in three key states gives the GOP an
opportunity to move away from the more heated rhetoric of the national
party, a first step toward boosting support among Latinos and possibly
tipping those states in 2012. Martinez will be the featured speaker
Monday night at an Orange County Republican Party dinner in Irvine.
“Nothing sells the message that Hispanics are welcome
and wanted more readily than having Hispanics on the ticket,” said
former New Mexico GOP Chairman Harvey Yates, who played a major role in
Martinez’s success.
Martinez, the former county prosecutor, ran to the
right of her GOP opponent in the primary, accusing him of supporting
“amnesty” by backing Bush’s immigration plan. But in the general
election, Martinez essentially dropped that issue, calling instead for
repeal of the state law giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
That position was favored by 80 percent of voters including,
significantly, a majority of the state’s Latinos.
“She didn’t soften her stand,” said Brian Sanderoff, an Albuquerque pollster. “She just chose to refocus her emphasis.”
Martinez won nearly 40 percent of the Latino vote,
according to Sanderoff’s research, but even more important, she
outperformed the rest of the Republican ticket in the state’s heavily
Latino areas, drawing considerable cross-over support from Democrats and
independents. “That shows with the right Republican candidates there is
the potential to expand the party base and win over Hispanics,”
Sanderoff said.
Some frustrated Democrats note that New Mexico, with a
Latino population approaching 50 percent, has not had a Latino senator
in more than 40 years.
But that could change next year, even if Balderas
fails to win his primary race against Heinrich. New Mexico’s lieutenant
governor, John Sanchez, is also seeking the Senate seat. He’s a
Republican.
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(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.
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