Simon posted this statement yesterday, following an exchange on "Meet the Press" during which U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) essentially admitted that his party had scapegoated Hispanics during the immigration debate. Today, NDN released a statement about the massive damage the GOP has done to its brand among Latinos:
On this Sunday's "Meet the Press," Tom Brokaw asked former RNC Chairman, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), about whether the collapse of the Republican brand in the Hispanic community will relegate his party to minority status. From the transcript:
MR. BROKAW: Senator Martinez, as you know, politics is about keeping score. I know this is tough for you to hear, probably, but you were 0-for-3 last Tuesday. You're a Republican; you are from Florida, that went to the Democrats; and you're Hispanic, or Latino in some parts of this country, and the Hispanics went overwhelmingly for the Democrats this time. Jill Lawrence wrote in USA Today: "If the Republicans don't make their peace with Hispanic voters, they're not going to win presidential elections anymore. The math just isn't there." That's according to Simon Rosenberg, head of the NDN, a Democratic group that studies Hispanic voters. How do you get back to the Hispanics?
SEN. MARTINEZ: Governor Jeb Bush -- former Governor Jeb Bush last week made a comment that if Republicans don't figure it out and do the math that we're going to be relegated to minority status. I've been preaching this for a long time to my colleagues within my party. I think that the very divisive rhetoric of the immigration debate set a very bad tone for our brand as Republicans. The fact of the matter is I think in Florida there was not a great ideological shift, but I think there was plenty of room for improvement in how that state was looked upon.
The fact of the matter is that Hispanics are going to be a more and more vibrant part of the electorate, and the Republican Party had better figure out how to talk to them. We had a very dramatic shift between what President Bush was able to do with Hispanic voters, where he won 44 percent of them, and what happened to Senator McCain. Senator McCain did not deserve what he got. He was one of those that valiantly fought, fought for immigration reform, but there were voices within our party, frankly, which if they continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we're going to be relegated to minority status.
"Senator Martinez’s comments are right on. If the national Republican Party continues their systemic demonization of Hispanics in the United States they should expect to be a minority Party for a very long time," said NDN’s President, Simon Rosenberg. "Just as in signing the Voting Rights Act, Lyndon Johnson turned the South and political control over the to the Republicans, the Tancredo-inspired GOP’s treatment of Hispanics may be turning over the new map of the 21st century to the Democrats.
There can be no doubt now that the GOP's handling of the immigration issue has been one of the greatest mistakes in the last 50 years of American politics. Our advice to the GOP is to sue for peace, and work with the Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2009." As Peter Wallsten wrote in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, this failure with Hispanics may have cost the Republicans four prominent states in this election, and may even cost them Arizona and Texas in the coming years. If that comes about, it is game over, lights out for the GOP in the Electoral College for a very long time. Click here for Jill Lawrence's recent piece in USA Today mentioned by Brokaw, and here for NDN’s landmark study, Hispanics Rising II, which lays out this argument, along with electoral maps, in greater detail (Senator Martinez makes a guest appearance on page 30 of the report).
Also, check out polling by Sergio Bendixen released by NDN on September 10 that show overwhelming public support for comprehensive immigration reform in the key battleground states of CO, FL, NM and NV.
