Candidates Face First Test Among Latinos

For Chris Hernandez Jr., Wesley K. Clark is known simply as “the Boss.” For three perilous years in the late 1990s, Hernandez worked as Clark’s bodyguard when the now-retired Army general served as NATO commander during the war in the Balkans.

Hernandez’s job was to watch the back of the four-star general he considers a personal hero. At home in Arizona, little has changed in the arrangement. As Clark -- now a Democratic presidential candidate -- campaigns for votes in Tuesday’s Arizona primary and the New Mexico caucus, Hernandez is a critical player in efforts to win the backing of fellow Latino war veterans.

In nearby Mesa, Vietnam veteran Oscar Urrea fights for a different field leader: Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts. Urrea considers Kerry, who served as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam, a comrade in arms who’s been tested under fire.

“We never met in Vietnam, but I’m proud to serve for John Kerry,” said the 56-year-old Urrea. “He’s one of us.”

The Arizona and New Mexico contests -- two of seven in the Democratic race on Tuesday -- represent the first tests among the candidates for the increasingly crucial Latino vote. All of those who have campaigned here -- including Clark, Kerry, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- have run Spanish-language ads and have made their campaign websites available in Spanish.

They have sought the endorsements of popular Latino politicians and community leaders and conducted tours of the border. Several of the contenders are to appear tonight at a forum in Phoenix sponsored in part by Latino groups. And Dean and Kerry have briefly dusted off their schoolboy Spanish while addressing audiences on immigration reform and improving healthcare for the poor.

The reason: The Latino voting bloc has grown in both scope and significance across the Southwest. With extensive coverage of the campaign by Spanish-language media, a good showing in Arizona and New Mexico could help candidates attract Latino votes in California, one of a bloc of states with primaries on March 2.

And for the eventual Democratic nominee, the party’s contests in Arizona and New Mexico will provide valuable name identification among Latinos in the general election.

“Latinos across the Southwest will watch what happens Tuesday,” said F. Chris Garcia, a political scientist at the University of New Mexico. “And these candidates know the importance of coming out of the gate with a positive image among Latinos.”

He added: “These are uncharted waters. None of them has any experience with Hispanic voters.”

Latinos now make up 25% of Arizona’s 5 million residents, and their growing numbers have helped make the state -- once a Republican bastion -- more competitive in recent presidential elections. In a reflection of the of the group’s increasing political clout, the number of Latinos elected to office in Arizona has risen 20% in the last seven years.

In New Mexico, nearly one of every two of the state’s 1.8 million residents is Latino, including Gov. Bill Richardson.

A Los Angeles Times/CNN poll conducted late last week showed Kerry leading among likely voters in the Arizona primary, with 29%. Clark ranked second, with 22%, followed by Dean (13%), Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina (8%) and Lieberman (3%).

The poll, which had an error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points, also found that the race remains fluid. One in five of Arizonans was undecided and another two-fifths who had a favorite candidate said they might change their minds.

To get their message out in Arizona and New Mexico, many candidates have spent heavily on TV and radio ads. From June through late January, Dean spent nearly $1.7 million in the two states, followed by Clark ($1.5 million) and Lieberman ($700,000), according to an analysis provided to The Times by TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group. Kerry began running TV ads in the region late last week, following his victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Many of the ads have been in Spanish. But Garcia cautioned that such targeting of Latino voters could backfire if the message lacks real solutions to problems faced by minorities.

“If the efforts are perceived as ... merely pandering to Hispanic voters by throwing out a few Spanish phrases, people could become insulted,” he said. “But if the message is sincere, the use of a little Spanish comes off as a respect for the culture. It’s a bridge.”

At age 41, Hernandez knows about building cultural bridges. For months, he has traveled across Arizona, appealing to the patriotic, pro-military attitudes of many Latino voters. He wants to make sure they look past retired Gen. Clark’s seemingly cool, crisply pressed exterior.

While NATO pilots were on missions, Hernandez tells veterans, Clark would often get only two hours’ sleep. “We’d sit up all night and I’d try to take his mind off things by telling him stories about growing up in Arizona,” Hernandez said. “But I knew he wasn’t listening. He was thinking about the guys in the air.”

On forays into the field, Hernandez said, his job was to evacuate Clark if the general came under fire. But Clark often demanded to travel to hostile areas. “He’d say ‘Let’s go down there,’ and I’d respond, ‘We can’t go there, sir. It’s not secure,’ ” Hernandez said. “But he’d tell me to go anyway. And in the back of my mind I’d be thinking, ‘You go, boss!’ ”

Hernandez assures Latino veterans that Clark is one of them. “He comes from the same humble background we do,” he said. “His dad died when he was young. He had to struggle. I’ve had veterans say to me, ‘Clark’s story reminds me of myself.’ ”

While Urrea can’t point to any personal battle stories with Kerry, his own talks with Latino ex-soldiers focus on the senator’s fight to ensure respect and benefits for Vietnam veterans.

Urrea, one of three brothers who served in that war, cites Kerry’s sponsorship of a law to offer health benefits to the victims of Agent Orange.

He also argues that as president, Kerry would work to improve Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide. “After the bullets stop flying, nobody cares about veterans anymore,” Urrea says. “Our hospitals are the first place the government goes when it needs to make budget cuts.

“But not John Kerry. He’s going to be the veterans’ president. He’s going to fight for us just like we’re fighting for him.”

At a recent Latino veterans event, Urrea met Hernandez. The two shook hands and wished each other’s leader well on Tuesday.

“We’re on the same ticket; we’ve just got different choices,” Urrea said. “That’s why we went to war in the first place: to protect those political choices.”

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Tuesday’s Arizona primary will be the first indication of the Democratic candidates’ viability in the West and with Latinos, who make up one-quarter of the state’s population.

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Snapshot

Population

Statewide: 5.1 million

Urban residents: 88.2%

Residents 65 and older: 13%

Median household income: $40,558

Families below poverty line: 9.9%

Families with preschool children below poverty line: 19.3%

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Ethnicity

White: 64%

Latino: 25%

Black: 3%

Asian: 2%

Native American: 5%

Other: 1%

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Politics

Registered Republicans: 41.5%

Registered Democrats: 35.9%

Independents: 22.6%

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Occupation

Management/ professional: 32.7%

Sales/office: 28.5%

Production/ transportation of goods: 10.9%

Service: 6%

Construction: 11%

Farming, fishing and forestry: 0.6%

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Top exports

Circuits, ariplanes, helicopters, jets and parts

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Presidential primary history

Percentage of votes

1996

Democrats

Bill Clinton: 95.5%

No preferences: 4.5%

Republicans

Steve Forbes: 33.4%

Bob Dole: 29.6%

Patrick J. Buchanan: 27.6%

Lamar Alexander: 7.1%

Alan L. Keyes: 0.8%

Richard G. Lugar: 0.6%

Others: 0.9%

2000

Democrats

Bill Bradley: 18.9%

Al Gore: 77.8%

Heather Ann Harder: 1.6%

Invalid: 0.2%

No preferences: 1.7%

Republicans

John McCain: 60%

George W. Bush: 35.7%

Alan L. Keyes: 3.6%

Steve Forbes: 0.4%

Orrin G. Hatch: 0.2%

John R. McGrath: 0.1%

Gary Bauer: 0.1%

Percentages of votes were rounded to the nearest tenth

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and Almanac of American Politics, www.fec.gov, Congressional Quarterly - Researched by Susannah Rosenblatt