Political conventions highlight Latino split

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON The Hispanics with the highest profiles in this year's political conventions, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, stand as opposites in a cultural and political split that has divided millions of U.S. Latinos for decades.

Republicans chose Rubio, who is Cuban-American, to introduce Mitt Romney at the party's convention last week. Democrats, meeting this week in Charlotte, N.C., picked Castro, who is Mexican-American, as keynote speaker, the role that launched a young Barack Obama to national political prominence.

Although they often are lumped together as Hispanics, Rubio and Castro are emblematic of acute political distinctions between Mexican-Americans, who are the largest Latino group in the U.S., and Cuban-Americans, who are the most politically active. Despite their shared language, these two constituencies have different histories in the United States and are subjected to distinctions in immigration policy that go easier on Cuban immigrants.

"Historically, many Cuban-Americans for the last few decades have tended to be a little more conservative. So it's not surprising that you would see Sen. Rubio and the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, Ted Cruz, running as Republicans," Castro said. "And I don't begrudge them for that. I think the policies they espouse are wrong, are not the best ones. But, you know, they're doing what they believe. And I applaud them for that."

Rubio, 41, was born in Miami. His parents left their native Cuba for the U.S. 2½ years before Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government. Fifty-nine percent of Cubans in the U.S. in 2010 were foreign-born, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, and three-quarters were American citizens.

Julian Castro, 37, was born in the U.S., as were his parents. Almost 64 percent of people of Mexican descent in the country are U.S.-born, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Moises Venegas, a retired Mexican-American educator and Latino community activist in Albuquerque, N.M., said the two groups have little in common besides a historical connection to Spain, and Spanish surnames.

"The Cubans have never been one of us," Venegas said. "They didn't come from Chihuahua or Sonora in Mexico and from poor backgrounds. They came from affluent backgrounds and have a different perspective. The Republican Party also has opened doors just for them."

Pedro Roig, a Cuban-American attorney and senior researcher at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies in Miami, disputed the notion that there is rivalry between the groups. He attributes divisions between Cuban- and Mexican-Americans in part to geography and noted that many in the Cuban community admire Castro's selection as the Democrats' keynote speaker.

In 2008, 9.7 million Latino voters cast ballots in the presidential election, and 5.2 million were Mexican-Americans, about 45 percent of eligible Mexican-American voters, according to Pew Hispanic Center data. When it comes to showing up at the polls, however, Cuban-Americans outpace Mexican-Americans -- some 713,000 Cuban-Americans showed up to vote in 2008, 69percent of eligible Cuban-American voters, the center found.

Obama won 47 percent of the Cuban vote in Florida in 2008.

Immigration is the greatest source of division between the groups, with Cubans having an easier route to legal residency and citizenship. Early migrations of Cubans included upper- and middle-class families, but people who came to the U.S. during the 1980s Mariel boatlift were not as well-off.

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Latino Growth Not Fully Felt at Voting Booth

Interviews with Latino voters across the country suggested a range of reasons for what has become, over a decade, an entrenched pattern of nonparticipation, ranging from a distrust of government to a fear of what many see as an intimidating effort by law enforcement and political leaders to crack down on immigrants, legal or not.

Here in Denver, Ben Monterosso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, or My Family Votes, a national group that helps Latinos become citizens and register to vote, gathered organizers around a table in his office and recited census data demonstrating the lack of Latino participation.

“Our potential at the ballot box is not being maximized,” Mr. Monterosso told them. “The untapped potential is there.”

More than 21 million Latinos will be eligible to vote this November, clustered in pockets from Colorado to Florida, as well as in less obvious states like Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina and Virginia. Yet just over 10 million of them are registered, and even fewer turn out to vote.

In the 2008 presidential election, when a record 10 million Latinos showed up at the polls nationwide, that amounted to just half of the eligible voters. By contrast, 66 percent of eligible whites and 65 percent of eligible blacks voted, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center.

That disparity is echoed in swing states across the country. In Nevada, 42 percent of eligible Hispanics are registered, while just 35 percent are registered in Virginia, according to Latino Decisions, which studies Latino voting trends.

Although Latinos do not turn up at the polls in the same numbers, relative to their population, as other ethnic groups, their overall numbers are growing so rapidly that they are nevertheless on the verge of becoming the powerful force in American politics that officials in both parties have long anticipated — an effect that would only be magnified should they somehow begin to match the voting percentages of other ethnic groups.

Mr. Obama’s campaign has seized on that as a central part of his re-election strategy, with an early burst of three Spanish-language television advertisements in four swing states, including Colorado, and voter registration drives in Latino neighborhoods.

“Hi, are you registered to vote?” Linda Vargas, 62, called out in English and Spanish to people walking into a public library on the outskirts of Denver as she sat behind a table stacked with voter registration forms.

This segment of the American electorate is by any measure sprawling, with near-explosive population growth in places like California and Texas and growing numbers in swing states like Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. Their presence in such politically important states has only fed the frustration of Latino organizers over their underrepresentation at the polls.

Matt A. Barreto, an associate professor of political science at the University of Washington and head of Latino Decisions, said the population growth had produced a higher Latino vote in every presidential election over the last decade, a number that had the effect of masking the political apathy of many Latino voters.

“The population growth has driven increases in the Latino vote every year,” he said. “But we still need to confront a registration gap that is quite significant.”

Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, said Latino voters were a critical factor in the president’s re-election hopes. “Look, if we do our job right and have a good ground game, I absolutely believe that Latino voters can be one of the big reasons we win this election,” he said.

Officials in Mr. Romney’s campaign argued that he would cut into Mr. Obama’s Latino support by challenging his record on the economy, and how, they said, it had been particularly harmful to Latinos. Last week, the Romney campaign posted a Spanish-language advertisement on its Web site pointing to rising unemployment among Latinos.

Marisa Gerber contributed reporting from Nogales, Ariz.; Dan Frosch from Colorado and New Mexico; and Susannah Nesmith from Miami.

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Rick Perry-backed judge proposes Latino districts, infuriates GOP (Daily Caller)

A former Texas Supreme Court justice whose appointment by Gov. Rick Perry led to accusations of racial pandering was part of a Federal District Court decision Thursday to issue a new voting district map for Texas that will likely overturn the map proposed by the Texas Legislature and is designed to create ethnic voting districts for Latino’s.

U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez joined with another Latino justice from the three-justice federal panel — Clinton-appointee Judge Orlando Garcia — to issue the racially-drawn map, which has not yet been given final approval. Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans were given the opportunity to comment on the map Friday, and the parties now await the court’s final decision.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the new state House and Senate district lines could cost Republicans six seats in the Texas Legislature in 2012, and Fox News reports that the GOP does not believe it will hold its 101-49 supermajority in the Texas House if the map was formally adopted.

Rodriguez, once a casual Democrat, was plucked from obscurity by Gov. Perry to ascend to the Texas Supreme Court in 2001. Conservatives worked to successfully defeat him in a 2002 primary that the Weekly Standard reported was “all about race.” To compensate for his defeat, Rodriguez was appointed to the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas by then-Perry ally President George W. Bush. (RELATED: Conservative ire with Perry runs deep, reflects racial politics)

The third member of the three judge panel — Judge Jerry E. Smith of New Orleans — posted a map proposal different from that put forth by Garcia and Rodriguez. His proposal was much closer to that of the legislature’s.

The three judges prepared the maps because a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. — which is ruling on whether the Texas Legislature’s original redistricting violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act — is not likely to reach a decision in time for the 2012 elections.

The release of the Rodriguez-Garcia map was met with swift condemnation from Lone Star Republicans.

“Contrary to (a) basic principle of federalism,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office said in a statement, “the proposed interim redistricting plan consistently overturns the legislature’s will where no probability of a legal wrong has been identified.”

Meanwhile, Democrats cheered the decision. “These maps are a step forward for Texas voters and underscore the importance of the Voting Rights Act,” Anthony Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, said in a statement.

The U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 established federal oversight over elections in several southern states, including Texas, to prevent the disenfranchisement of blacks. The act necessitates that any changes those states make that affect voting must be federally approved. Latinos were added as a protected class in 1975, and former President George W. Bush renewed the act for another 25 years in 2006.

In the 1996 Supreme Court case Bush v. Vera, the court struck down the Texas legislature’s attempt to create racial districts, calling it racial gerrymandering.

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Rick Perry may have tough time swaying Latino voters (Daily Caller)

As speculation swirls that Texas Gov. Rick Perry may enter the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the Miami Herald reports he may have difficulty attracting Latino voters.

Yesterday in San Antonio, Perry addressed the 28th annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. The governor’s speech made mention both of his record of appointing Hispanics and his economic achievement as the state’s executive. And though he received polite applause, the mood was tense.

(Perry joke about Jose Cuervo falls flat at Latino convention)

At the root could be the governor’s inclusion of a “sanctuary city” bill in the special session of the state legislature. The bill threatens to withhold state aid from local governments that prevent police officers from asking about immigration status. Hispanics may also be upset with a bill Perry signed into law last month, requiring photo identification at polling stations. Both are hot-button issues for Latinos.

And Latino voters could prove to be a crucial demographic in 2012. They’re expected to turn out in record numbers, with a possible 26% increase in Latino turnout from the 2008 election.

Perry, a master politician, avoided any mention of the sanctuary city bill or the photo identification bill during his speech, instead focusing on broad themes. He also addressed the audience, saying Hispanic contributions were important for “the future of Texas.” The state’s future, he said to the Latino crowd, is “incredibly right because of men and women like you.”

But one of Perry’s opponents remains cautious. Democratic state representative Trey Martinez Fischer, chairman of Texas’ Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, told the Herald: “Governor Perry is a phenomenal politician and he can campaign like no other, but you’ve got to get beyond the person…Latino voters will look at action but not words. When Latinos scrutinize the actions that have been taken in this state, they’ll look for another choice.”

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