CAMPAIGN ’88 : GOP Airs Spanish Ads

Republican Party Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. on Tuesday unveiled television spots aimed at Latino voters in California.

The three 30-second commercials, being aired in Spanish and English versions, cite gains Latinos have made in the “progressive environment” of a Republican Administration over the last seven years.

One spot, which opens with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in a classroom and shifts to scenes of Latinos at home and on the job, proclaims that “three times as many Hispanics are completing college than eight years ago, and more Hispanics are working and earning more than ever.”

The Census Bureau, cited as the source of the college education statistic, said it could find no substantiation for the claim. Arthur Cresche, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Hispanic research branch, said figures show that the number of Latino graduates rose from 515,000 in 1980 to 809,000 in 1988--roughly a 60% increase, not triple.

Another commercial, showing a young teacher in a campus scene, repeats the claim and adds: “You have a friend in Washington,” referring to new Secretary of Education Lauro F. Cavazos.

In the third GOP commercial, the narrator observes that “eight years ago, we didn’t know many Hispanic leaders,” then cites Cavazos, Treasury Department official Katherine Ortega, Florida Gov. Bob Martinez and Los Angeles inner-city high school teacher Jaime Escalante.