Spanish-language Media Watch

Electoral coverage in the Spanish-language press has picked up since the presidential race left Iowa and New Hampshire and headed for Nevada and Florida.

Today, Los Angeles-based La Opinión reports on the increasing number of California Latino voters who are registering as independents. New York’s El Diario/La Prensa reports on Guiliani’s declining poll numbers in New Jersey.

Opinions on the op ed pages of the major Spanish-language dailies are often forcefully expressed. For instance, former Miami Mayor Xavier L. Suárez wrote a piece (”Why McCain?”) for Tuesday’s edition of the local Diario Las Américas that is practically a paean to the Arizona senator. Suárez wrote “If given the opportunity to spend a few hours with McArthur, either of the Roosevelts, Washington, Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin - I’d stick with McCain without blinking.”

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Spanish-Language Media Watch

Spanish-language and English-language mainstream media coverage of the electoral race and politics is alike but different.

Take for example, this pretty standard article about the New Hampshire primary by Los Angeles-based daily La Opinión - it covers the same ground as dozens of other reports published today. The article is a straightforward account of the political horserace in New Hampshire. But, this other La Opinión item reports there are three Latino elected officials in New Hampshire. Latino voters, understandably, have not figured prominently in coverage by local or national media. This report describes, at some length, Senator John McCain’s stance on immigration and how his event in Concord was picketed by a small number of activists from NumbersUSA holding signs “Stop McCain’s Amnesty.” A search of Google News indicates the picketers didn’t warrant a mention from any English-language newspapers.

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ImpreMedia Poll Puts Clinton, Giuliani Ahead Among Latino Voters

Senator Hillary Clinton enjoys a commanding lead among Latino registered voters in five key states - California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas - according to a poll conducted by ImpreMedia the owner of major Spanish-language dailies such as La Opinion and El Diario/La Prensa. The poll found 42 percent of those surveyed supported Clinton for President. Senator Barack Obama was a distant second with 5.1 percent and Governor Bill Richardson was third with 2.7 percent.

Rudy Giuliani was the leading Republican candidate with 6.2 percent of Latino support followed by Mike Huckabee with 1.1 percent. All the other Republican candidates had less than one percent support.

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La Opinión reports on Congressional approval of a new version of the SCHIP proposal, which is likely to generate a second veto.

Tomorrow, in Los Angeles NALEO plans to offer $400 loans at no interest to legal residents with low incomes in order to defray the $675 cost of applying for citizenship, according to La Opinión.

Today’s editorial complains about the delays in processing naturalization applications by Citizenship and Immigration Services. It says citizenship applications submitted after August 5th have yet to be entered into government computers, which means there is at least a three month backlog at the front-end of the naturalization process that is supposed to take six months. Over one million naturalization applications are expected this year.

El Nuevo Herald profiles the colorful set of candidates running in the District 2, Miami City Commission race. The incumbent is a lawyer and environmental activist while the challengers are a meatpacker and a political consultant.

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La Opinión writes up a National Council of La Raza and Urban Institute report, ¨Paying the Price: The impact of Immigration Raids on America´s Children.¨ The report looked at the effect of immigration raids in Greeley, Colorado, Grand Island, Nebraska and New Bedford, Massachusetts where a total of 912 adults were arrested impacting 506 children.

La Opinión also carries yesterday’s El Diario/La Prensa report on sanctuary cities.

No other major political stories in the Spanish-language dailies today.

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EDLP reports on how “sanctuary cities” have become a target of criticism by Republican presidential candidates. The paper specifically refers to Thompson and Romney The paper draws a comparison between the crime rate in New York City where police officers cannot ask someone their immigration status and Boston where they can, according to the article.

El Diario/La Prensa reports on negative reaction to New York Governor Spitzer’s proposal of a lower-grade driver’s license. New York State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco’s is quoted making the “acid” complaint that those who favor driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants won’t be satisfied until they get “the whole enchilada.” EDLP says the “culinary reference was repudiated by other legislators who considered it disrespectful and inappropriate.” La Opinión carries an editorial in favor of New York Governor Spitzer’s proposal of a lower-grade driver’s license calling it an “undeniable and important step in the right direction.”

La Opinión cites data from the California Office of Emergency Services that of the 130 people injured by the fires at least fifty were undocumented immigrants. At the University of California, San Diego Burn Center four of the seventeen patients are firemen and eleven are believed to be undocumented immigrants.

El Nuevo Herald reports on the deportation of Julio and Liliana Gómez parents of Alex and Juan Gómez. The Gómez family was ordered in July to return to their native Colombia. Juan’s high school classmates rallied round his cause and lobbied on his behalf in Washington, D.C. The Gómez brothers won a temporary reprieve thanks to a private bill submitted to Congress by Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/290318.html