Democrats Court Hispanic Leaders

By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 1, 2007

ORLANDO - Democrats sensing an opportunity for gains among the nation's fastest-growing minority group swarmed a gathering of 1,000 Hispanic elected officials from across the nation here this weekend.

On Saturday, the seven leading Democratic presidential candidates appeared before the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, all boasting of their Hispanic supporters and their involvement in the Hispanic community.

They came with one big advantage - the fact that Republicans are taking most of the blame for the decisive defeat of the immigration reform bill in the Senate last week.

In a forum for the candidates, all of the Democrats lamented defeat of the bill, and several denounced what they suggested was a racist or anti-Hispanic tinge to the arguments used against it.

Barack Obama, for example, said there was "an ugly overtone" in the debate, which he said was absent from the debate over the same bill last year, and accused opponents of using "the politics of fear."

Joe Biden told conference attendees the debate over immigration "has become a race to the bottom - who can be the most anti-Hispanic."

While immigration was by far the biggest topic of discussion at the conference, other recent news events also seemed designed to benefit Democrats.

On Friday, only one of the slate of Republican candidates, dark horse Rep. Duncan Hunter, had appeared for what had been planned to be a similar, GOP candidates forum. Hunter's appearance and the Democratic speeches were broadcast live nationwide on Univision, the nation's leading Hispanic television network.

Thompson Clarifies Gaffe

Buzz at the conference also focused on a gaffe by potential GOP candidate Fred Thompson, who seemed to refer to Cuban immigrants as terrorists in a speech to a South Carolina Republican Party gathering Wednesday.

Thompson later published a clarification saying that's not what he meant. But Hillary Clinton, in an appearance at the conference, declared herself "appalled" at the comments and said Thompson "apparently doesn't have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else."

At least for Florida Hispanics, Clinton may have scored the biggest coup at the conference, announcing a list of Hispanic supporters including state Reps. Luis Garcia of Miami Beach and Darren Soto of Orlando. Both are celebrities within the party because they won seats in 2006 formerly held by Republicans.

Overall, the conference could only add to Democrats' hopes for their future with Hispanic voters, both nationally and in Florida.

Nationwide, Democrats hope the growing and generally Democratic-disposed Hispanic minority will help them win previously GOP-dominated western states.

In Florida, Republican-leaning, anti-Castro Cubans have long dominated Hispanic politics, and most big-name Hispanic politicians are Republican. But Democrats see hope in the growing proportion of non-Cubans and in the generational erosion of Republican dominance among Cuban immigrants.

While Republicans are "conceding the Latino vote in Florida to Democrats," the Democratic candidates are "fully recognizing the importance of the Latino community in Florida and nationally," trumpeted a state Democratic Party press release about the candidates' forums at the conference.

GOP Hopefuls Didn't Attend

The Republican presidential candidates all cited scheduling conflicts in failing to attend the conference, and it came at an awkward time - the end of a quarterly fundraising period when all candidates are preoccupied with raising money.

Republican party activists, meanwhile, said their candidates could draw little benefit from appearing at NALEO, whose membership is mostly Democratic.

Republicans as a whole didn't shun the event.

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who's also national Republican Party chairman, spoke at the conference Friday, as did Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio and other prominent Republican Florida Hispanics, along with Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.

In his speech to the conference Friday, Martinez, who has taken political heat as one of the leading backers of the immigration bill, also lamented its failure and said it's now up to the bill's opponents to propose a solution to the nation's immigration problems.

Martinez also sought to deflect at least some of the blame for the bill's failure from Republicans.

He acknowledged in comments to reporters that he was disappointed that Republicans were the majority of no-voters, but added, "I was equally disappointed that some Democrats in the Senate offered amendments that turned out to be poison pills and caused the demise of this bill. … So I think there's bipartisan blame to go around."

Martinez Defends Absences

Martinez, chosen as national GOP chairman at the urging of President Bush partly to increase the party's appeal to Hispanics, also sought to defend the Republicans' absence from the forum.

"When you're running a campaign, it is difficult to be everywhere you want to be," he said. He called it "wrong and unacceptable to draw from that the conclusion that the Republican presidential candidates don't care about the Hispanic vote or Latinos in this country. … As this campaign unfolds, I think that will become completely clear."

Asked about the harsh opposition to the immigration bill by several of the GOP candidates, including Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Thompson, he said, "This is a very politically toxic issue, and those that are running for office sometimes run away from tough problems."

But to many attendees, none of that excused the missing candidates.

"I'm very disappointed. They should have been here," said Aileen Cubillos, chairwoman-elect of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Orlando. "If you're going to be president of the United States, you should listen to everyone - supporters or critics, friend or foe."

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.