Hispanics poised for big role in ’08 election

Bill Richardson is Hispanic. Chris Dodd speaks Spanish. Hillary Clinton has an impressive roster of Nevada Hispanics in her camp.

As presidential candidates come to Nevada to campaign, they are touting their Hispanic credentials, hoping to gain an edge with the state's large Hispanic population.

The Democrats are working especially hard to get Hispanics on their side, with the state Democratic Party hiring longtime Nevada Hispanic activist Andres Ramirez to reach out to Hispanics and other minority groups.

But the Hispanic vote is largely a wild card in the Nevada presidential nominating caucuses. Unlike other well-entrenched, monolithic ethnic blocs, Hispanics are still finding their political identity in Nevada and elsewhere.

Among the unknowns is whether Hispanics will turn out to vote in 2008, whether they will vote together based on issues specific to their community, and how they can best be wooed.

"One of the things that has hindered us politically is that we are so diverse," said Carlos Campo, dean of arts and sciences at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"Language unites us, but there are so many differences," Campo said, with a population that traces its roots to the many nations of Central and South America and the Caribbean, groups as different as the job-seeking migrants of Mexico, political refugees from Cuba and American citizens from Puerto Rico.

Nevada's Hispanic community has no kingmaker, he said, no Jesse Jackson-like figure whose ring candidates can kiss and who has the power to move Hispanics as a bloc.

"We lack that superstar sort of person, that dynamic unifier," Campo said.

But he sees growing awareness in the Hispanic community of its potential clout.

"Southern Nevada Hispanics realize there is power there that has to be political, and I think they're going to start using it," he said.

In the absence of a single leader to whom they can kowtow, Democratic candidates have sought out Nevada Hispanics in different ways. But it is becoming clear that an attempt to reach out to Hispanics is de rigueur for campaigning here.

During a visit to Nevada earlier this month, Dodd held a "kitchen table" with Hispanic leaders in Las Vegas, hoping to win them over with the fluent command of the language he learned while in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.

Edwards, meanwhile, will meet privately with Hispanic leaders when he is in Las Vegas on Monday, according to his campaign.

Clinton, for her part, recently announced a "Nevada Hispanic Leadership Council" that included many big names in the Hispanic community.

That move was in keeping with her traditional front-runner's style of snapping up high-profile endorsements.

Nationally, she scored a coup with the announcement of Raul Izaguirre, the former leader of the National Council of La Raza, as her Hispanic campaign chairman.

Izaguirre came to Nevada recently to meet with Clinton's Hispanic council.

Privately, many prominent Hispanics grumbled at the Clinton announcement, given the presence of Richardson in the race. The New Mexico governor's mother and paternal grandmother were Mexican; he was born in California and raised in Mexico City and Boston.

Izaguirre said he believes Clinton has a better chance to win.

"He's a great guy and I hope someday he will be president," Izaguirre said of Richardson. "But Hillary is the best candidate right now."

Fernando Romero, president of Hispanics in Politics, said his group felt it was important to support their own.

"Some of us were somewhat dismayed" by Hillary's committee, Romero said. "But everyone has a right to support whomever they feel is the best."

Hispanics in Politics plans to endorse Richardson, Romero said. "I don't think it behooves us to choose anyone else."

Richardson has a grass-roots group, Mi Familia Con Bill Richardson, that formed on its own to support him in Nevada.

Romero said his group and that group would work to turn out Hispanic votes on the grass-roots level. "That's where the votes are, not necessarily the big names," he said.

Richardson's Nevada spokesman, Josh McNeil, noted that many members of the Nevada campaign team are Hispanic, including the chairman, Reynaldo Martinez, a former chief of staff to Sen. Harry Reid.

"For us, it's kind of an organic part of everything else we're doing," McNeil said. "It comes from the top."

Democrats have a head start on campaigning in Nevada because they scheduled their early presidential caucus here last year, while Republicans just began their effort this month.

But speaking to Hispanic voters is something Republicans should be doing as well, said Pete Ernaut, chairman of the Republican presidential caucus committee.

"So far, it (the Hispanic vote) has not been" a focus for Republicans, he said. "But it's only a matter of time before it becomes more influential in races on both sides."

The Hispanic vote isn't necessarily overwhelmingly Democratic. In 2006 in Nevada, 37 percent of Hispanics voted for Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons, according to research by the Pew Hispanic Center. Gibbons was endorsed by the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce and Hispanics in Politics.

That's proof that the Hispanic community votes according to the candidate, not the party, and can't be taken for granted by Democrats, Romero said.

Ramirez, the outreach director for the Democratic caucus, disputed the oft-heard claim that Hispanics don't vote.

Although nearly a quarter of Nevadans are Hispanic, only about a quarter of them are eligible to vote, while the rest are either younger than 18 or are not citizens, he said.

Of those eligible, about 75 percent are registered; and of those registered, about 75 percent turn out to vote, Ramirez said.

Hispanics make up about 11 percent of the Nevada electorate but, according to exit polling, made up 13 percent of those who voted in 2006, he said.

"So, Hispanics actually voted at higher rates of than the rest of the population," he said. "But it's true that not enough Hispanics are registered to vote. To me, that's where the potential for increase is."