Poll Shows Gore With Big Lead Among State’s Latinos

Vice President Al Gore leads all other Democratic and Republican presidential candidates among California Latinos, according to the latest in a series of polls highlighting the influence of Latino voters.

A poll by the nonpartisan Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at Claremont Graduate University shows Gore leading Republican front-runner George W. Bush, 56% to 26%, among registered Latino voters statewide. There was a margin of error of 4 percentage points in the poll. Latinos make up 13% of California’s 10 million voters.

The Tomas Rivera results contrast sharply with those of a national poll released earlier this month that showed Latino voters favoring Bush over Gore, 51% to 38%.

The difference among California Latinos, said director Harry Pachon, is the result of lingering resentment against former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, a strong supporter of Proposition 187, which sought to end government benefits for illegal immigrants and was approved by voters in 1994.

Remaining hostility toward the initiative--cited as an important factor by 53% of the 604 registered voters who responded to the poll--has fueled the strategies of Democrats who hope to capitalize on it and Republicans who hope to erase it.

Gore and Bush have been aggressively courting California Latinos for months, occasionally flavoring their speeches with Spanish phrases, an ability most poll respondents considered “unimportant.”

Despite Gore’s overall lead, poll respondents agreed with the Republican Party on selective issues.

On abortion, for instance, 64% of those surveyed voiced their opposition and said the issue is an important factor in deciding whom to support. And two-thirds of those responding to the poll supported school vouchers, another Republican cause.

But on such matters as support for universal health coverage and gun control, the poll showed Latinos overwhelmingly in agreement with the Democratic Party.

The diversity “just shows you that you can’t paint this community in one single brush stroke,” Pachon said. “Neither party can discount them or take them for granted. They’ll both have to work for their vote.”