Romney Pitching His Son As Interpreter for UVN Forum

During a conference call with reporters, former Florida GOP Chair and current Romney supporter Al Cardenas made an unexpected announcement. The campaign intends to pitch Univision the idea of allowing Romney’s son, Craig, to simultaneously interpret for his father during the December 9th Univision forum. Craig Romney worked as a missionary in Chile and speaks lightly-accented Spanish. You can see and hear him speaking in Spanish in this video on his father’s website.

RNC Response to DNC’s Statement on Hispanics

Last week, Howard Dean issued a statement regarding Hispanic, which included the following:

“Today Democrats are building momentum across the country, and building stronger ties than ever with the Hispanic community. The Democratic Party shares the Hispanic community’s values centered on family, faith, and hard work, and our candidates offer the new direction the American people want.

Today, Hessy Fernandez who is the Republican National Committee’s Director of Hispanic Communications sent me the following statement in response:

“Actions speak louder than words, and the Democrat Party have failed to put forward accomplishments that resonate with Hispanic working families. The reality is that Democrats would say and do anything to win political points and will conveniently forget their promises. Hispanics will continue to reject their policies, which propose dramatic spending increases, massive government growth and higher taxes for hard working families and small businesses. On issue after issue the GOP and the Hispanic community share the same values and priorities”.

Univision’s Political Action Committee

Univision, the Spanish-language media giant, quietly set up a political action committee in June. Network PACs are nothing new, but few networks are engaged in a citizenship and voter registration drive as large as that of Univision.

More here.

Villaraigosa Bobblehead

From Christina Hoag, our correspondent in LA:
Looking for a unique Christmas gift? How about a bobblehead doll of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

As a tribute to Hizzoner and to raise some cash, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project is peddling the wobblies on its website. At 25 bucks a pop, they’re a little pricey, but the sale of each doll puts $19 in the nonprofit’s kitty.

The mayor was all for the idea when the Project asked him for permission earlier this year, says spokesman Juan Bustamante, “It’s cool. It really looks like him.”

For the rest of the story click here.

If you are visiting us from LA Observed then consider taking a peek at the first Spanish-language presidential campaign commercial or at mini-telenovelas created to promote Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy. Or read about how presidential candidates are mangling the Spanish language.

villaraigosa

Howard Dean on Hispanics

DNC Chair Howard Dean issued a statement about the importance of Hispanic voters:“Selecting Nevada as an early caucus state and placing the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado show that we respect voters enough to ask for their votes in every part of the country. Both states also have strong Hispanic populations, which will now play an important role not only in electing America’s next Democratic President, but also in that candidate’s nomination.

“Today Democrats are building momentum across the country, and building stronger ties than ever with the Hispanic community. The Democratic Party shares the Hispanic community’s values centered on family, faith, and hard work, and our candidates offer the new direction the American people want.

“Here in Nevada, enthusiasm over the upcoming caucus and the involvement of the Hispanic community have helped state Democrats double the Democratic voter registration edge. Hispanics are critical to the success of the Democratic Party and our candidates, and we won’t take a single vote for granted.”

 

Bits & Pieces

On deadline today, so here are several bits and pieces of information scrambled together

USA Today looks at tonight’s Nevada debate with an eye to Latino voters:

“… Andres Ramirez, who leads Hispanic outreach for Nevada Democrats, said Hispanics make up only 10% of registered voters, yet were 13% of the electorate in 2006, when the state had a hotly contested gubernatorial race.

“There’s also the challenge of explaining what is a political caucus, a gathering of people who don’t cast ballots. As Ramirez put it, “There is no Spanish word for caucus.”

“Republicans, meanwhile, continue to stake a claim to the Latino vote even though leading contenders such as Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have been outspoken in their opposition to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants. In 2004, Bush won about 40% of Hispanic voters nationally. State GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden said Hispanics are attracted by the party’s message of low taxes and economic opportunity.”

A Republican forwarded me this story:

“Senator Hillary Clinton has come out firmly against giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, one day before a debate against her fellow Democrats, who have put her on the defensive on the issue.

“… ‘I support Governor Spitzer’s decision today to withdraw his proposal,’ she said in the statement. ‘As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration, including border security and fixing our broken system.’”

“Her statement may have been an attempt to take the issue off the table. But the issue is bound to persist.

“…House Republicans introduced a measure today to prohibit states from issuing valid driver’s licenses to those in the United States illegally. This is the third major bill so far this session that seeks to discourage states from issuing such licenses and identification to undocumented immigrants. Another would withhold a portion of federal highway funds from states that award a valid I.D. to illegal immigrants; a third expresses a sense of the House that states should not be issuing driver’s licenses to people who are here illegally.

“…Mrs. Clinton’s statement, and her vow to focus on border security and ‘fixing our broken system,’ is closer to Republican language than traditional Democratic language and suggests she is looking past the Democratic primaries to the general election.”

You can check out the Senator’s full statement on the Spitzer plan here.

Separately, Giuliani’s campaign is clearly ramping up its Hispanic efforts as I said to Lorenzo Morales of El Diario/La Prensa. Today, the campaign announced Raul Romero will serve as national chairman for Viva Rudy. Romero chaired the Hispanic task force during President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.

Immigration is proving to be the “third rail” for both Democrats and Republicans. Romney and Huckabee are now going at it:

“Campaigning Tuesday in Iowa, Romney criticized Huckabee, along with rival Rudy Giuliani, on the issue, contending that Huckabee fought for tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants while governor of Arkansas. ‘Giving a better deal to the children of illegal aliens than we give to US citizens from surrounding states is simply not fair and not right,’ Romney told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

“Huckabee has explained that the bill in question provided merit scholarships to children of illegal immigrants, provided they were applying for citizenship, and has argued that barring those children would penalize them for their parents’ misdeeds.

“On Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” today, Huckabee was more pointed in his response to Romney: “I guess Mitt Romney would rather keep people out of college so they can keep working on his lawn, since he had illegals there.”

“That refers to a Globe report last December that the landscaping service working on Romney’s lawn in Belmont employed several illegal immigrants. Romney has said his family checked that the employer was legal, but didn’t know the immigration status of the workers. He has also said that the episode has not changed his tough views on illegal immigration.”

Lastly, take a peek here and here. The former is a look at Latino political communications in Fleishman-Hillard’s FH Hispania Plaza blog and the latter is a link to a podcast interview where former Wall Street Journal reporter Eleena de Lisser interviewed me about the various campaign’s Spanish-language communications.

This is probably it for today as I am writing up several articles for this upcoming Monday’s newsletter. Back to blogging tomorrow when I will post a Q&A with Luis Fortuño.