Latino Leaders Open Clinton Campaign Office

Eager to woo the Latino vote in Orange County for Democratic presidential challenger Bill Clinton, local Latino leaders opened a special campaign office Monday to promote the Arkansas governor in this stronghold of immigrants from south of the border.

No sooner had organizers unveiled the “Adelante con Clinton” campaign office at 715 N. Main St. than they fired a broadside at Orange County’s top elected Latino leader, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, a Republican and unwavering backer of President Bush.

Rueben Martinez, chairman of the “Adelante con Clinton” campaign in Orange County, blasted Vasquez for supporting Bush and having little understanding of the type of leadership the Latino community needs.

“We challenge Supervisor Vasquez to a debate on the impact of the presidential elections on Latinos,” he said. “We believe the ill-guided policy-making from the federal government is directly connected to California’s state government crisis and the visionless leadership that dominates our local communities.”

Vasquez has served in a prominent role as a chief Republican spokesman for the Latino community, and during the GOP convention in Houston in August, he delivered a nationwide, prime-time speech. Vasquez could not be reached Monday to comment on Martinez’s charges or the request for a debate.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, vice chairwoman of the national “Adelante con Clinton” campaign, told the 30 people who showed up for the event that the effort to draw Latino votes in Orange County “should not be viewed as separate from the national campaign.

“This is an effort to get Latinos involved in the campaign and get them out to vote,” Molina said. “We are interested in the same issues as the national campaign--education, economics, crime. We are not asking for anything special, but we are reaching out to people at the community level and trying to get them involved and out to vote.”

The “Adelante con Clinton” campaign in Orange County will concentrate on voter registration drives and campaign rallies with major Latino leaders, Martinez said.

“Latinos know that the Bush Administration has been a disaster for them,” Martinez said, adding that President Bush “has been so preoccupied . . . in the search for self-glory in the foreign policy arena that our own economy, the job market, law and order, health care and education have gone by the wayside. The Latino people have been hurt tremendously by the last four years.”

Molina said the “Adelante con Clinton” campaign cannot be compared to previous presidential candidates’ attempts to get the Latino vote, because after the election “we expect to be with them in Washington to change things.”

“I have tremendous confidence that the Latino community is going to support the Clinton-Gore campaign. We’re losing our jobs, we can’t afford housing and frankly, public education stinks,” she added.

Molina said, however, that it isn’t a given that the Latino community will vote Democrat come November. Candidates must take the time to come into the Latino community and address the needs of the people.

“We can be a powerful force,” Molina said. “If the same percentage of California Latinos had voted the way they did in Texas, we would have Governor (Dianne) Feinstein in Sacramento right now.”