Economic crisis, housing, jobs helped drive Latino vote

While there were few doubts that Maryland voters would respond with huge support for Barack Obama, the Illinois senator�s numbers elsewhere were boosted by a large turnout of Latino voters, especially in battleground states.

In key states like Florida, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and even John McCain�s own Arizona, issues like the economy, housing foreclosures and the loss of jobs helped send Latino voters to the polls in droves.

It could be some time before there is an accurate picture of Tuesday�s Latino vote in Maryland. However, individuals and groups involved in voting efforts in Spanish-speaking communities felt confident that Obama easily swept the Latino vote.

Will Campos, a Democratic county councilman in Prince George�s County, said, �We�ve seen a great rallying behind Barack Obama with the Latino community, just the fact that he�s charismatic and an impressive figure.�

He said Obama�s economic message resonated stronger than did McCain�s.

In addition to the construction industry, where many Latino males have earned a living, being a fraction of what it was just a year ago, numerous Hispanics were also caught up in the wave of housing foreclosures.

�The economy is what is really affecting everybody,� Campos said.

Campos said that with Obama having a lock on the Maryland Latino vote, he and other Latino organizers spent the last few days in Virginia�s Tidewater district getting out the vote.

Although their numbers are proportionally small in Maryland, according to the William C. Velasquez Institute, which is a nonpartisan public policy center in Los Angeles, Latinos had the highest Election Day turnout in Maryland in 2006 and 2004 in proportion to their number of registered voters, when compared to the turnout of white voters and black voters.

Just as it did elsewhere, the presidential election generated great interest in Spanish-language newspapers, and on radio and television stations.

Both Obama and McCain made a show of various Latino elected officials and Hispanic celebrities who supported them. Both candidates also poured major funding into Spanish-language media advertising.

In August the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee declared they were committing $20 million for Spanish-language media advertising, get-out-the-vote organizing, staffing and mailings to reach Latino voters.

Last Wednesday evening Univision, the nation�s largest Spanish-language television station, carried the half-hour Obama campaign commercial. Telemundo, the nation�s second-largest Spanish-language television station, had a steady stream of campaign coverage, including on its Web site for the benefit of Latinos in markets where the cable station is not carried.

National polls showed Obama consistently carrying a 30-point lead over McCain among Latino voters.

In Florida, however, where polls had shown a 10-point McCain lead among Hispanic voters, Cuban GOP incumbents grew worried last week.

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart complained to Politico.com that Obama�s �unanswered� ads against McCain on Spanish-language radio and TV in the Miami media market were �having an impact,� and hurting his re-election effort.

A GOP analyst in Florida estimated that in the final week or so of the campaign Obama was dropping $100,000 a day in advertising in the Miami market on Spanish-language television.

Steven Ochoa, vice president of public policy and research for the Velasquez Institute, predicted in a report last month that the Latino vote was shaping up to figure prominently in four battleground states.

�When it comes to the four battleground states we examined our findings are clear � Latino voters provide the margin of victory for Senator Obama in three (New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada) of four key battleground states. In Florida, Latino voters provide no advantage to either side in the race for the presidency, a new trend in a state where Cuban Republicans have traditionally influenced elections for the Republican Party,� Ochoa said.

In McCain�s home state of Arizona, an Arizona State University poll last week showed that Obama had narrowed McCain�s 7-point lead of a month ago to just 2 points. It had been double digits in the summer.

Elias Bermudez, founder of Immigrants Without Borders, an immigrant-rights group, predicted in the Sept. 25 Arizona Republic that the economy would drive Latinos to the polls.

�In the past everybody was happy, their bellies were full, so nobody really gave a hoot about participating in the election,� Bermudez said. �Nowadays, everyone is losing their footing because of what is going on with politics. I hope and pray that this time they will come out and vote.�

Immigration was expected to spur Latinos to the polls in Arizona in part to make a statement against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his very aggressive, anti-immigrant posturing and raids.

With both Obama and McCain insisting that the immigration system needs reforming, immigration never took on the prominence some thought it would.

Despite that, Frank Sharry, executive director of America�s Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group, noted in a telephone news conference last week that immigration remains a threshold issue for many Latinos.

He said it generates as much attention among Latinos as the threshold issue of civil rights does among blacks.