E-mail a friendRep. Joe Baca
original airdate June 25, 2008
California's Rep. Joe Baca has served in Congress since winning a special election in '99. His committee assignments include Agriculture and Financial Services, and he also chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Born in New Mexico, Baca was a child when his family moved to Barstow, CA. He was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army and worked in community relations in the private sector. His public service includes election to the State Assembly, where he was the first Latino Speaker pro Tempore, and the State Senate.
Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus tells Tavis which presidential candidates resonates with the Hispanic community. (2:39)
Full Interview. (10:42)
Rep. Joe Baca
Tavis: Congressman Joe Baca is a Democrat from California who serves as the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Vietnam War veteran was first elected to Congress in 1999 and represents California's 43rd district. He joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Congressman, nice to have you on the program, sir.
Rep. Joe Baca: Nice to be with you, Tavis, thank you.
Tavis: Let me start by asking what your sense is - let's go right at it - of how the Hispanic vote is going to factor in this year's race for the White House.
Baca: Well, it's going to be very critical. When you look across the nation, the Latino vote, especially when you look not only at California, you look at New Mexico, you look at Nevada, you look at California - of course, I mentioned California, but New Mexico and Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Texas. You look at Illinois, you look at New York, you look at Florida, you look at Virginia, you look at Ohio.
These are pivotal states that Latinos have a high number proportion of Latinos that are there. We represent approximately around 17 percent of the total population of the United States, and that includes Puerto Rico, that makes it 49 million people in the United States.
Tavis: What do you make of the progress, or lack thereof - the rate of progress, the speed of progress or lack thereof of Hispanics relative to the - the number of Hispanics, rather, relative to their voting power? It's one thing - the same thing is true in Black America.
Got a whole bunch of Black folk, 30 million of us. Doesn't mean everybody registered and participates in the process. How do you feel about the rate of progress in your community?
Baca: Well, that's true, and I think we've got a lot of work still ahead of us, is to continue to educate the Latino community the importance of voting, and that's something that we've got to continue to work on. Too often, many of the Hispanics say (speaks in Spanish), "Why should I vote, my vote doesn't count."
We still need to do a lot in the educational system to educate the Latino community about its vote, that it does make a big difference, whether it's done at the local level or whether it's done at the presidential election.
We need to do a lot more in our educational systems to educate us, because it seems like we reinvent the wheel by going back to the Latino community and telling them the importance of voting, and their vote does count, and it does matter to all of us.
And I think once we begin to understand the value of that vote, I think that we're going to see a lot more Latinos and Latinas that are going to participate in the American democracy of voting, and I think it's important for all of us, because remember that many of our men and women who have served in the military, and a lot of those Hispanics and non-Hispanics that served to give us those kind of freedoms, and people are dying in other countries to vote.
Yet we've not exercised that right here in the United States, Tavis, and I hope that we will continue to educate the Latino committee, and this election is going to be very pivotal.
Tavis: Let me take a quick moment here to assess the two candidates, because you mentioned earlier that you want folk not just to vote but to be informed voters. I suspect it depends on which John McCain shows up. That said, if the John McCain that was very friendly to immigration reform and took risks to push that issue, if that John McCain shows up, how do Latinos respond to John McCain, before we move on to Mr. Obama?
Baca: Well, I think we've got to remember that he's a flip-flopper and he's flip-flopped on the issues right now. It's the ability to stand up to those critical issues, and I think that's important for the Latino community to understand, while McCain was with us on the immigration issue at the very beginning, wanted comprehensive immigration along with the DREAM Act, has since gone away because politically, he let his presidential candidacy get in the way.
So I think the Hispanic community is looking for someone that is bold, someone that is strong, someone that is courageous, and someone that's going to stand up by their values. And I think we have that in Obama, because Obama has stood up on immigration. He has talked about it in each of the campaigns that he's gone out into the community.
He's not deviated from it, he believes in comprehensive immigration. He knows what we mean to this country, because there's 12 to 15 million immigrants that are here in the United States and the contributions that are made to our society. There's been a lot of myth about immigration, and when we got some of the TV shows that go on like the (unintelligible) the world that paints negative pictures, they never talk about the positive contributions of the immigrants and what it's done to our communities, because it's based on population.
When you have the population, that means that services are provided in the community, additional revenues that come into the communities, monies that are paid into the Social Security system, monies that go into our educational system, monies that go back into our public system.
And then when you look at patronizing each and every one of our restaurants and others, that's revenue and sales tax that goes right back into our communities. So there's a lot of taxes that re paid by individuals that are here in the United States. We all want to make sure that we give them an opportunity to apply for citizenship.
So it's about security and it's about taking care of our country, and I think it's a lot better that if we have that kind of security and identify individuals and allow them to be identified and have them go through a process to eventually become U.S. citizens.
But against being on the kind of process that they have to go through in terms of the security, the background check that they have to take as well. I think that becomes very important to us, so when I look at both candidates, I looked at one that was originally with us and one that is not, and I think that's our responsibility, to let the community know that while McCain stood with us, more likely he'll back up.
If he couldn't sit with us now, why would he be able to stand up with us later on?
Tavis: Your enthusiasm for Senator Barack Obama notwithstanding, when Hispanic voters by and large had the choice, they chose Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Obama. We know now that later this week, of course, they're going to have the unity rally and start campaigning together. That said, what's your sense of what Mr. Obama has to do to excite your community? Because again, when given the chance, they chose her over him.
Baca: Well, he has to continue to reach out, and he is reaching out to the Hispanic community. He has to send his message on where he stands on those issues that impact our community. It's just not about immigration that the Latino community is concerned about. We care about the economy and jobs in the area, and that's very pivotal to a family because if you can't put food on the table, you can't provide for a family.
Within the Latino community, for a lot of us, it wasn't always education; it was about working and providing for a family. This becomes important to a lot of us, so when we talk about building a strong economic base, we want to build a strong economic base and that's where Obama was going to come in, to create the kind of jobs that are going to pay good salaries in the area.
It's not just about taxes. Taxes is not going to build, and that's where McCain comes on. He says, "Well, if I get more taxes, we're going to create jobs." No, it's not going to create jobs. It's only going to help those who are continuing to get richer will get richer, while a lot of jobs that we need to create for people in the area.
Remember, when you create those jobs, they pay taxes, and those are taxes that come back into our area, and that becomes pivotal. So the Latino community cares about jobs in the area, they care about the education, they care about health. That becomes very pivotal. And then, of course, we're very religious in terms of our faith. It becomes very important to a lot of us as Christians, whether we're Catholic, Protestant or whatever religion that we choose to be, but faith becomes important.
So you put these components together, and I think Obama meets that mold of what the Latino community wants along with other people as well, because he identifies with the working families because it's about jobs here in the United States not outsourcing.
We've lost so many jobs, and when you talk about taxes, the majority of the tax breaks that we get, these guys end up creating those jobs outside of the United States, and we don't create those jobs right here for working families right here in the United States.
So that's why he will appeal to the working families, to make sure that those jobs are created right here in the United States, where people can put food on the table. Because right now, gas prices are ridiculous. If you've got a job and you don't have decent wages, there's no way in the world that you can afford to pay for gas prices.
You can't even afford to take your kids to leisure activities or other activities that you need them involved, so the gas prices has escalated, the food prices have just gone up.
So we need to address these issues, and these become very pivotal in terms of forming that kind of a message, Tavis, for the Hispanic community, and I think that all of us have a responsibility to let the Hispanic community know that Obama will address the issues that impact not only Hispanic but women, working families.
So when you look at those - and then he'll also address the issues of our young youth, too, as well, because education becomes important to a lot of us. Accessibilities to going on to a community college or a state college or a university, the opportunity to graduate whether you're the first, in the middle, or the last. That becomes pivotal for a lot of us as well.
Tavis: Congressman, thank you for coming on, glad to have you. Congressman Joe Baca, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Mr. Baca, nice to have you on. All the best to you, sir.
Baca: Thank you very much, you have a nice evening.
Tavis: Thank you.
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