Obuckabee Wins. Now What?

Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, the Democratic and Republican candidates strongly preferred by Latinos nationwide, had less than a strong showing in Iowa, a state with a tiny Hispanic population. From here the race goes to New Hampshire, yet another state with a miniscule number of Latino voters. It is not until Nevada, on the Democratic side, that the Hispanic vote might potentially become significant. For the Republicans, Florida will be the first major test of Hispanic support.

Latino Voters in Iowa

Like it or not, the Iowa caucuses matter. And this time around, Iowa has been the setting of a great deal of Hispanic voter outreach especially given the tiny number of potential voters. It is not the first such effort (first was Bush in 2000 and then Kerry in 2004) but it is the first time so many candidates (Clinton, Obama, Richardson) in the same party have duked it out for Latino support.

Below is a sampling of our Iowa coverage:

Eyes Turn To Latinos In Iowa

Dems Work To Woo Iowa’s Hispanic Voters

Interview With Villaraigosa in Iowa

Interview With The Mayor of Columbus Junction, Iowa

Villaraigosa Iowa Interview

Early Sunday evening, CandidatoUSA interviewed Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who was en route from Marshalltown, Iowa to Ames, Iowa. The mayor was in Iowa campaigning on behalf of Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy and speaking at events that are attended by as little as “ten, fifteen, twenty” people to as many as “sixty or more”, which is less than the capacity on an LAUSD school bus. That doesn’t sound like a lot of people and objectively it ain’t. But, for Iowa a turnout of a dozen people at an event by a campaign surrogate is considered respectable. Below is an edited and partial transcript of the interview:

What do folks ask you after you make your opening remarks at these events?

I always begin with a question that I ask rhetorically. What is the mayor of Los Angeles doing here a few days before New Year’s in the dead of winter in Iowa. And I say that I am here because this is the most important election in my lifetime. An election that goes to the heart of what really matters to most Americans and that is extricating ourselves from war, investing and restoring strength in the middle class, providing universal health care for uninsured Americans and investing in the fight against global warming.

And what I also say is that this the deepest and most talented Democratic field since I’ve been voting in 1971, my first Presidential election in 1972. I can’t remember a field this deep at least since 1968 when Bobby Kennedy and McCarthy were running. Although this is a deep, talented field I believe that Senator Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience that we need right now in the country to take on the tough challenges that we face as a nation.

You mentioned Muscatine and Marshalltown, a lot of these places have seen a sharp influx of Latino immigrants in the last 15 years. Do Latino voters attend these events? Do they ask about immigration?

Yes, there have been a number of Latinos. Particularly, Americans of Mexican descent and others who have come. I’ve met with a broad section of Iowans.

Does the topic of immigration come up?

Yes, the issue of immigration has come up in almost every event that I’ve been to here in Iowa. That is true of Nevada, as well, when I’ve campaigned for Senator Clinton. It is a very significant issue and a challenge that we face in the United States. Senator Clinton has the wherewithal to help, craft and enact a fair and just immigration reform plan that is founded on the principles that this great country was built on. The principles of embracing new Americans but also fortifying our borders, collaborating with our neighbors, providing employer sanctions but very importantly also providing a pathway to citizenship to those immigrants that play by the rules, pay their taxes and want to be part of the American dream.

You mentioned your time in Nevada. Why not spend that time trying to drum up votes for Clinton in California?

First of all, make no mistake, I spend the vast majority of my time in Los Angeles and in California. I can tell you that wherever I go, I talk about Hillary Clinton’s strength, her experience, her leadership and her candidacy. The eyes of the nation, of the world are focused on Iowa right now. When called upon, I’ve answered. By the way, I am in the thick fog on my way to Ames because as I said this is the most imp election in my lifetime.

What will you be doing on behalf of the campaign ahead of the February 5 primary in California?

Well, I’ll return to LA tomorrow afternoon. I’ll spend the first of January there. I’ll announce historic new crime figures in Los Angeles, that we’ve reduced crime to historic levels. And then I’ll return to Iowa for the election. Go back to Los Angeles. I’ll be in Nevada a good part of my time until those elections. And then back to Los Angeles and wherever else in California or anywhere else that the campaign needs me.

Why not start the electoral process in a big, racially and ethnically diverse state like California?

That’s a great question, a question that many Californians have asked for a long time. But, the fact of the matter is that at this time, these elections at this time begin in Iowa, go to New Hampshire and South Carolina, Nevada and then on February 5 to California. Given the rules of the game as they exist today, I am here in Iowa.

I think this election is too important to stay on the sidelines, to not get involved. I have said too many that I am here today because there is a Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act that opened up the country to me. America has been good to me. And the American Dream is a dream that needs to be a dream that everyone of us can aspire to.

I am excited to be here in the dead of fog as we’re driving down this lonely highway in an effort to really get out the vote in support of change, of a new direction for America and of the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Q&A with the Mayor of Columbus Junction, Iowa

 

Immigration has been a heated topic of interest among Republican voters in the lead-up to this week’s Iowa caucus. Dozens of towns statewide have been re-shaped by a dramatic influx of Hispanic immigrants over the last fifteen years, many of them drawn by work opportunities in the agricultural sector.

Columbus Junction is as good an example as any of this phenomenon. The re-opening of a local meatpacking plant in 1986 brought with it a steady increase in the local Latino population. In 1990, the Census Bureau reported 14.5 percent of the local population was Hispanic. By 2000, the figure had risen to 39 percent. Mayor Dan Wilson estimates that figure has now risen to roughly half of the town’s population of some 2500 people.

Much of the national media coverage has focused on those Iowans who are angry about the changes wrought by immigration. That isn’t true of Mayor Wilson.
Read more …

NYT Report On Hispanic Voters in Iowa

Here it is and here is my take from earlier this summer. Here’s an interesting study “Undocumented immigrants in Iowa: Estimated Tax Contributions and Fiscal Impact.”

Latino voter outreach in Iowa

In Iowa, there are hints of a low-key Hispanic voter outreach effort in the making.Lorena Chambers, today CEO and lead political strategist of Chambers López & Gaitán, was the Hispanic media consultant for Kerry-Edwards 2004 and is now working on a Hispanic voter outreach effort she won’t describe on behalf of an organization she won’t name.

But she is not at all shy about stressing the growing importance of Hispanics in Iowa where even a tiny group of voters can have an outsized impact. “In 2000 as well as 2004 Iowa came in with 5,000 votes. Hispanics can actually decide the fate of Iowa,” Chambers insists.

According to Geoscape 2007 data, there are 120,000 Hispanics in Iowa out of a total population of 2.98 million. The 37,000 Latino registered voters account for less than two percent of registered voters. Despite the miniscule population of Latino voters, Chambers stresses that given the unique nature of the Iowa electoral process “even one, two, three, four or five people can make a difference in every caucus.”

But the importance of Latinos as a potential swing vote has yet to translate into new business at Spanish-language media outlets in Iowa.8

“Nada,” is how much local Spanish-language political advertising Sergio Corona, publisher of the weekly newspaper Viento del Trópico, says he’s seen or heard.

Michael Hope, national sales manager for the five Citadel Broadcasting stations in Des Moines, has tried to interest the various campaigns in advertising on “La Indomable,” a Regional Mexican format AM station. Thus far, he’s had no success, but says a number of Republican campaigns are considering running their English-language spots on La Indomable. “Sounds crazy,” Hope admits.

Republican candidates wouldn’t be the first to do so. Some local car dealerships and furniture stores already air English-language spots on La Indomable and claim it works. Almost certainly, the motivation for advertising in English on Spanish-language radio has something to do with statewide political concerns about immigration.

“You have a very homogenous state all of a sudden finding a minority population becoming present and growing,” says René Rocha, an assistant professor of politics at the University of Iowa. “All the ingredients are there for the development of more negative, more prejudicial attitudes towards Latinos in the state.”

A recent Des Moines Register article profiling local Hispanic marketing efforts stated “not everyone is a fan of using foreign languages in ads. State Rep. Dwayne Alons, a leader in passing Iowa’s English-only law, said companies that advertise in Spanish are discouraging Hispanic residents from learning English - which isolates them further.”

Presumably, Alons and other Republicans would also look askance at political advertising in Spanish. Almost 63 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers said a candidate’s position on undocumented immigration was “very important,” according to a University of Iowa poll in March.