Hispanic
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 12:45pm.
As mentioned in NDN's report, Hispanics Rising 2, the growth of Spanish-speaking media is on the rise. In an article this week, the Associated Press reports: Spanish-speaking news casts are eclipsing their English-language competitors in major media markets all over the country: in New York, within the past few months, WXTV's 6 p.m. newscast has eclipsed its English-speaking competitors on ABC, CBS, and NBC stations in popularity among viewers younger than 49. This reflects a trend mentioned in NDN's report: among 25-54 year-olds, the September 9, 2007 Presidential debate on Univision had the largest viewership of any debate - with 1,166,000 viewers. Case and point of the growing influence of the Hispanic viewership: the Nevada State Democratic Party just named Emilia Pablo , reporter and producer for two years at Univision and one of the most recognized faces in the Las Vegas Valley, as its new spokeswoman.
In Los Angeles, KMEX had more viewers in June for its newscast than any of its English competitors, regardless of age, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"It talks about how the United States is changing," said Ray Rodriguez, president and chief operating officer of Univision Communications, Inc. "It's a bigger story than just television." One startling change has been the TV-watching habits of Hispanic viewers. In 1995, most Hispanic viewers in New York primarily watched English-language television (62 percent) over Spanish-language stations (38 percent), according to Nielsen Media Research. Last year, viewers favored the Spanish stations 71 to 29 percent.
This trend might alarm those who believe that it's because these new residents and citizens are not assimilating into the United States, but Univision executives have analyzed the viewership and explain: the majority of their viewers are bilingual. As Maelia Macin, Station Manager for KMEX in California explains, "The choice is made more for content than language."
Spanish-language news more aggressively cultivates the relationship with the largest growing demographic in the country by trying to be a resource for them in all areas of life: everything from participating in local community events, to running voter mobilization campaigns, health symposiums, etc. General news is not excluded, it's just packaged differently - in addition to covering the National Football or Baseball League, Spanish-language media also covers major soccer games in Latin America - when rivals were preoccupied with Christy Brinkley's divorce and the capture of a Brooklyn murder suspect, New York's WXTV led its local news with a story about graffiti saying "Get out of the USA " painted near a Peruvian restaurant on Long Island. The Spanish-speaking Univision affiliate figured it was a more meaningful story for its audience, and those kinds of choices are paying off.
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 12:52pm.
For years, NDN has been a leader on Hispanic issues, including comprehensive immigration reform and analysis of Latino demographic and voting trends. In the last few months, NDN has set out to make the argument that Hispanic and immigrant voters have become a critical voting bloc in the United States and will play a pivotal role this fall and in all future elections. Our arguments went public in a big way in late May as we released Hispanics Rising II, an in-depth, updated look at Hispanic demographic and voting trends and the critical role that the Hispanic community is playing in U.S. politics. Below are some of the articles relevant to our argument as well as Andres's presentation at NCLR's Conference in San Diego last week:
Latino turnout could hold key to White House - San Francisco Chronicle, by Tyche Hendricks, May 21, 2008
Obama closes in on Democratic nomination - Xinhua General News Service, by Yang Qingchuan, May 21, 2008.
Obama looks west in electoral map play - Politico, by Carrie Budoff Brown, May 27, 2008
Favorece voto latino a demócratas por tema de inmigración en EU - El Financiero, May 28, 2008
Obama woos key states with accent on Spanish - Financial Times, By Andrew Ward in Reno, Nevada, and Edward Luce in Washington, May 29, 2008
Group predicts record Hispanic turnout in next presidential election - Mashall News Messenger, by Bob Deans, May 29, 2008
Democratic Group Says Hispanic Voters Run to Democratic Party - Kansas City Infozine, by Christian A. Cheairs, May 29, 2008
Election 2008: Latino vote could be pivotal in Western states - San Jose Mercury News, By Frank Davies, May 29, 2008
El voto latino aumenta y se vuelve más demócrata - La Opinion, Pilar Marrero, May 29, 2008
Obama va por el voto hispano - CNN Espanol, May 29, 2008
Obama's E Pluribus Challenge - Rolling Stone, June 04, 2008
Obama leads in battle for Latino vote - Los Angeles Times, by Reed Johnson, June 06, 2008
Obama en busca del voto latino - La Opinion, by Pilar Marrero, June 06, 2008
Hispanics will be Obama's big challenge - Miami Herald, by Andres Oppenheimer, June 08, 2008
Spanish-language media key to victory with Latinos - Politico, by Gebe Martinez, June 10, 2008
El voto latino será crucial en 2008 - Univision, June 13, 2008
Shift on immigration could cost McCain - St. Petersburg Times, by Alex Leary and Wes Allison, June 21, 2008
The swing states of 2008 - Salon.com, by Thomas F. Schaller, June 24, 2008
Obama, McCain make strong bid for Latino votes - San Francisco Chronicle, by Carla Marinucci, June 26, 2008
McCain, Obama battle for Hispanic votes - The Hill, by Roxana Tiron, June 28, 2008
Swinging for Latinos - New Mexico Independent, by Marjorie Childress, July 1, 2008
Hispanic voters gaining strength in key states - Associated Press, by Stephen Ohlemacher, July 2, 2008
McCain revs efforts to woo Hispanic voters - The Arizona Republic, by Dan Nowicki, July 10, 2008
POLITICS: Latinos expected to play key role in presidential election - North County Times, CA, by Edward Sifuentes, Saturday, July 12, 2008
Obama prepara un "llamado a las trincheras" durante un foro hispano - EFE News Service, Andres's interview with Maria Pena, July 13, 2008.
NPR: 'Bush Hispanics' Say Goodbye To GOP, by Jennifer Ludden, July 13, 2008
McCain woos Latinos, touts immigration votes - San Francisco Chronicle, by Carla Marinucci, July 15, 2008
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 5:08pm.
San Diego, CA - "La raza cósmica" así se refirió Barack Obama al público Hispano a quién enfáticamente le dijo, "No se equivoquen: La comunidad Latina tiene estas elecciones en sus manos," durante la conferencia anual de NCLR. Sí, el voto Hispano tiene variaciones, es un voto crucial y los comentarios que yo escucho del público demuestran que - por primera vez - saben lo que valen. La gente aquí esta emocionada y cada vez les es más facil tener demandas y expectativas de los candidatos con respecto a los temas de importancia porque saben que su voto juega un papel más central en la política Estadounidense que en cualquier elección anterior. Como Andrés resaltó durante su entrevista con Maria Peña de EFE: el que se gane el apoyo de los Hispanos gana la Casa Blanca.
El uso de "la raza cósmica" implica que el Senador Obama entiende que la comunidad Hispana tiene una rica variedad de colores y creencias. El tema de inmigración sigue siendo la preocupación primordial de los que asisten a la conferencia, más que nada debido al impacto que tienen las redadas en la comunidad Hispana. Ayer también escuché a muchos elogiar al Sen. Obama por haber discutido temas además de inmigración en más detalle. El reto ya está - dado el poco apoyo que tiene la postura del Sen. McCain con respecto al tema de inmigración, se esperaba que su discurso se enfocaría en temas económicos y demás, en vez de inmigración. Sin embargo, el Sen. Obama le ganó - ayer tomó la oportunidad para presentar una nueva propuesta para apoyar a pequeñas y medianas empresas a fin de que puedan pagar el gasto de seguro médico para empleados. Además, se enfocó en temas de economía, educación, salud, veteranos de guerra, y recibió un enorme aplauso cuando atacó las redadas de inmigración, y además, criticó a John McCain por haber "abandonado su postura valiente" en cuanto al tema de la reforma migratoria.
Sin duda, le será dificil al Senador McCain superar este discurso. El Sen. McCain también ha reconocido las diferencias dentro del voto Hispano, y esta luchando para ganarse a Hispanos que son de políticas más conservadoras. Ambos candidatos siguen refinando su metodología - tal como comentado por Associated Press ayer, "como pretendientes incómodos," aveces ambos candidatos han manejado torpemente su acercamiento a Hispanos al acercarse de manera demasiado directa y racional, con una metodología de "llevame a tu líder." Pero a los Hispanos les gusta desarrollar relaciones más estrechas y personales. El Sen. Obama empezó su discurso ayer agradeciendo y reconociendo personalmente a activistas y defensores de inmigrantes, como a Enrique Morones de Border Angels, y a lo largo de su discurso apeló al corazón y "carácter de esta comunidad," haciendo que el público sintiera que aprecia sus valores, y que esos valores son valores Americanos. El Senador McCain es reconocido y respetado por la comunidad Hispana, pero para ganarse a estos votantes tendrá que: 1) tomar esta oportunidad única para demostrar coraje con respecto al tema de la reforma migratoria y distanciarse de su partido, y 2) demostrar que no ve a la comunidad Hispana meramente como votantes, o peor, como un bloque de votantes a ser ganados, sino que tiene que demostrar que nuestras luchas son sus luchas, que él también conoce el "gran corazón" de la comunidad y que sinceramente le importa luchar al lado de y como parte de la comunidad Hispana. El concepto de familia es un fundamento de la "raza cósmica," y el Sen. McCain tiene que hacer que esta comunidad sienta su deseo de ser parte de la familia primero.
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 2:21pm.
San Diego, CA - Showtime is a few minutes away, Barack Obama will address the largest civil rights group in the nation and deliver a much-awaited speech on his proposals on issues of importance to the Latino community. The air is one of excitement and a great deal of anticipation. One cannot understimate the importance of the group Barack Obama is addressing - those attending the NCLR conference are the most active community leaders, grassroots organizers, and advocates on behalf of the Hispanic community. And these leaders will undoubtedly disseminate their impressions of Barack Obama's speech today and John McCain's speech tomorrow to their communities when they go back home. Obama is expected to deliver a message of empathy and unity with the Hispanic community as he speaks about the inequalities and stigmatization currently suffered by Latinos accross the country. His speech has grown increasingly passionate, so everyone is anxious to see how he delivers his address to this intimate family gathering of about 2,000.
Submitted by Melissa Merz on Wed, 07/02/2008 - 12:06pm.
NDN friend, frequent panelist and contributor Tom Schaller had an excellent op-ed in yesterday's New York Times. The op-ed, entitled, The South Will Fall Again, argues that the South will not be returning to the Democratic political fold anytime soon. Schaller, a very well-respected political scholar at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has wriiten extensively on this subject, including at length in his book, "Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South."
Schaller is in good company.
As Simon wrote in January of this year in his essay, "On Obama, race and the end of the Southern Strategy," this election is the first post-Southern Strategy election since 1964. The Southern Strategy was the strategy used by Conservatives and the GOP to use race and other means to cleave the South from the Democrats. This strategy – welfare queens, Willie Horton, Reagan Democrats, tough on crime, an aggressive redistricting approach in 1990 – of course worked. It flipped the South (a base Democratic region since Thomas Jefferson’s day) to the GOP, giving them majorities in Congress and the Presidency. 20th century math and demography and politics dictated that without the South one could not have a majority in the United States. But the arrival of a “new politics” of the 21st century – driven to a great degree by the new demographic realities of America - has changed this calculation, and has thankfully rendered the Southern Strategy and all its tools a relic of the 20th century.
Simon and Peter Leyden also wrote about winning the presidency without the South in their winter 2007 Mother Jones article, The 50-Year Strategy.
Most recently, NDN issued an important report, Hispanics Rising II, which presents critical voting and demographic data showing that southwest states with heavy Hispanic populations such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona could be the new key to electoral victory for the Democrats.
This is not to say that the South does not matter. As Schaller noted yesterday, Virginia is very much up for grabs. But Democrats should no longer pin any hopes on a region of the country that has been solidly red for decades when so many opportunities to recolor the electoral map are opening up thousands of miles away.
Submitted by Zuraya Tapia-Alfaro on Fri, 06/13/2008 - 7:09pm.
In a piece in the Washington Post today, Marcela Sanchez discusses U.S. Senator Barack Obama's "Clues for Wooing the Latino Vote." Ms. Sanchez discusses the point made in NDN's report on Hispanics Rising that the harsh tone of the immigration debate on the part of Republicans has been perceived by many Hispanics as anti-Hispanic as opposed to anti-undocumented, and has thus cost Republican candidates votes - and elections - since 2006. However, Ms. Sanchez makes a distinction between the perception of John McCain and that of the Republican Party among Latinos; based on Sen. McCain's current stance on a number of issues, I do not see such a distinction.
As Marcela Sanchez cites herself, the polls show Sen. Obama ahead of Sen. John McCain by at least 62-29 percent. She argues that many of those Latino Obama supporters might be in States that are traditionally Democratic, however, the polls are taken at the national level. While it is true that Hispanics are definitely not monolithic, the fact is that most Hispanics are concentrated in the Southern and Western swing states, and Florida:
Ms. Sanchez posits that it is in these states, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada and Colorado,"where McCain could connect with enough Latinos to make a difference." I disagree for one main reason - Sen. McCain could not even win Latinos in his own home state, where about 30% of the population is Hispanic. In the 2008 primary elections in Arizona, the exit poll data showed 68% of all Hispanics who voted cast their vote for a Democrat, and only 32%voted for a Republican. John McCain's share of that 32% was 21.76% of the entire electorate. This is particularly dramatic because when he ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Sen. McCain was able to secure 72% of the Hispanic vote - that is a fifty percent drop in votes from the Hispanic community of his home state in just four years. Which begs the question - who is really in the tougher spot with Latinos? The candidate who won his Senate election with 82% of the Hispanic vote in his own state and currently has a lead of over 30% among Hispanics nationally? Or the candidate who has lost fifty percent of the Hispanic voters in his own State who supported him in 2004? Mind you, this is not to say that it will not be a challenge for both candidates to secure the Hispanic vote, nor is it a matter of favoring one candidate over another, it is a matter of wanting to encourage the media and readers to provide a more detailed analysis and not buy into sound bytes.
The piece also describes Sen. McCain as a, "a key sponsor of legislation creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants," with, "a good track record with Latino concerns." I beg to differ - the story that is clear as day, but for some reason seriously underreported, is that John McCain was once a leader on the issue of immigration reform, but when the going got tough last year - once he decided to become a Presidential candidate - that took importance over his duties as Senator and he stopped attending the high-level meetings and brainstorming sessions that were necessary in order to get this difficult legislation passed. There is agreement among many in the offices of key legislators and advocacy groups that were there on the ground during the immigration debate: when the going got tough on immigration and other issues important to Latinos, John McCain was no longer in sight.
Some individuals mentioned in the article differentiate between Sen. McCain, the candidate, and his political party; they attribute his declining popularity to the negativity associated with Republicans, but believe Sen. McCain can remain above that sentiment as he, "will remain sufficiently moderate on immigration,despite some politically expedient tips of the hat to certain segments of the conservative base." I would say his actions have been much more than "a tip of the hat"- there is no difference at this time between John McCain and his political party. He is the Republican Party and he has shown this by certainly not being "moderate" on the issue of immigration. He has actively spoken in public rejecting and denouncing the trailblazing immigration legislation of which he was once a sponsor. Maybe because it is a sad story to tell, but I find that this story is not told.
Our report agrees with the conclusion in this piece that immigration is an issue that mobilizes Hispanic voters; however, I would not say that Hispanics are not supporting John McCain as part of a "protest vote" against his party; while that might be the case in part, it is a protest vote against the way John McCain's position has, in no uncertain terms, flipped on the issue of immigration. As much as his campaign or the media may try to deny it, there is no denying the facts, as reflected in an excerpt of our Hispanics Rising presentation:
You'll note that one of these slides cites to Meet the Press; at the time this blog was being drafted to post, a man that I look to as an example of the type of professional and person I can only hope to be, Tim Russert, passed away. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
Submitted by Simon Rosenberg on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 8:20am.
As a non-partisan think tank and advocacy organization, NDN does not endorse candidates for federal office. But I do want to report in on a race that may be of great interest to many in our community. The long-time director of all of our path-breaking work in the Hispanic community, Joe Garcia, announced yesterday that he is running to unseat Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart in the Miami-based 25th Congressional District in Florida.
To check in to see how Joe is doing in his first 24 hours as a Congressional candidate check out this piece (which includes a very good local TV news story about his announcement) and visit his site.
As for the fate of our Hispanic work, look at the posts below about the historic Hispanic participation rates this year. Our new Vice President for Hispanic Programs, Andres Ramirez, is already making his mark with quick and strong analyses, and is, in the language of the day, fired up and ready to go.
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