Online NewsHour: Report | Calif. Latinos on the Primary | February 4, 2008

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REGION: North America

TOPIC: Politics

Online NewsHour

Originally Aired: February 4, 2008


	Latino Voters May Wield Major Influence in California's Primary

	California's earlier primary combined with their growing numbers makes Latinos a major factor come February 5. Gwen Ifill reports from California on the Latino vote's increasing influence in the state.

GWEN IFILL: Mariachi music as political battle cry. The prize today: Latinos in this heavily Democratic East Los Angeles, where both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have turned on the flattery leading up to Super Tuesday.

In a state and a city which has usually voted much later in the primary year, the rallies and the bilingual phone banks are new. Both campaigns expect Latino voters to determine who can claim the biggest proportion of Tuesday's trove of 370 delegates.

California's politically influential Latino population, 13 million strong, is the largest in the nation. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that the state's five million eligible Latino voters make up more than a quarter of all Latino voters in the U.S.

The competition for the Latino vote began in earnest in the run-up to last month's Nevada caucuses, as both Clinton and Obama sought to prove their connection to Spanish-speaking communities.

Clinton and Obama gain endorsements

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), New York: I have a very large Latino constituency in New York that has supported me very strong.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: You don't serve democracy by trying to keep people out; you're supposed to try to bring them in.

GWEN IFILL: But the fight for California, where recent polls have shown Obama steadily closing the gap with Clinton, has raised the stakes.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Oh, I'm fired up now. I am fired up. Yes, we can! Si, se puede! That's what I'm talking about.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: We need a doer, we need a fighter, and we need a champion once again to get up everyday in the White House.

GWEN IFILL: Clinton has won influential backing from labor leader Dolores Huerta and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, Mayor of Los Angeles: Here we are, on the threshold of electing a new president of the United States.

GWEN IFILL: Obama, who claimed newspaper endorsements this weekend from the Los Angeles Times, but more significantly the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, is counting on support from labor leaders and activists, like Maria Elena Durazo and Congressman Xavier Becerra.

REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D), California: When a guy by the name of Xavier Becerra can talk to you about the next president named Barack Obama, something's going on in the United States of America!

Latinos gain influence

GWEN IFILL: In California, but also in Arizona, New York and New Jersey -- all Super Tuesday states -- both candidates have also spent millions of dollars taking Spanish-language appeals to the airwaves.

ANTONIO GONZALEZ, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project: We have a better opportunity to influence the course of campaigns and politics and governance than ever before.

GWEN IFILL: Antonio Gonzalez is president of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project.

ANTONIO GONZALEZ: We're not powerless anymore. We used to be powerless. We used to be excluded. We've been ending that era bit by bit, and now we have some levels of power, and we have to get more. The point of the power is not to get power; the point of the power is to effect change.

Immigration issue hurts GOP

GWEN IFILL: President Bush claimed 44 percent of the Latino vote in 2004, but this year Republican candidates appear to be virtually ceding ground to the Democrats: 57 percent of Latino voters are registered Democrats; only 23 percent registered Republicans.

And the gap is growing wider, in part because of Republicans' hard line on illegal immigration.

The Republican stance on immigration was on display at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley at last week's candidates debate.

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), Massachusetts: My plan is this, which is for those that have come here illegally and are here illegally today: No amnesty.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: We are all committed to carrying out the mandate of the American people, which is a national security issue, which is securing the border.

FORMER GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), Arkansas: What we've got to do is to have a secure border fence, something I propose that we do within 18 months of taking office.

Clinton works to maintain edge

GWEN IFILL: Among Democrats, Clinton holds the advantage among Latino voters because, supporter Dolores Huerta says, of the Clintons' history.

DOLORES HUERTA, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers: I think, in terms of the Latino community, we have a relationship with Hillary. We really trust her. She's not somebody who is new to our community. She's somebody that we know, somebody that's advocated for us. And this is -- I think that's why most of us are supporting her.

GWEN IFILL: Obama supporters agree Clinton does have an edge.

GILBERT CEDILLO (D), California State Senator: The Clinton legacy is powerful. It's huge. The Clinton campaign starts off with a great advantage, just the mere name identification. But where we're going to win, where we're going to make our gains is when people know the record and know the difference.

GWEN IFILL: Obama tried to even the playing field this weekend. New endorser Ted Kennedy, whose family has long ties to the farm workers union, which is backing Clinton this year, was dispatched to East Los Angeles.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), Massachusetts: Un voto por Obama es un voto para la gente.

GWEN IFILL: In appealing to Latinos, Obama has emphasized his own father's immigrant roots.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: With a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, and a story that could only happen in the United States of America.

GWEN IFILL: But immigration is not the only thing on the minds of the nation's largest minority. Like other Americans, most Latinos cite the economy, education, and the war in Iraq as their chief concerns.

ANTONIO GONZALEZ: Latinos fall in that side of the electorate that thinks about tomorrow, thinks about the future. Therefore, they are for activist government that is stimulating tomorrow's jobs. And they're for an activist fiscal policy that's for borrowing and investing. And we're even for higher taxes if the taxes are properly intended.

GWEN IFILL: Neither side is willing to predict Tuesday's outcome in such a volatile election year, so the competition for every available vote is heated. The candidates are competing for a slogan first coined by the farm workers union.

CROWD: Si, se puede! Si, se puede! Si, se puede!

GWEN IFILL: They are competing to mobilize a critical mass of voters with what both candidates say will be an unrivaled get-out-the-vote operation tomorrow. And they are also competing for the votes that could very likely tip a close election.

JIM LEHRER: You can ask questions about California's primary and other Super Tuesday contests in an Insider Forum on our Web site. To do so, just go to PBS.org.


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