Democrats Work to Boost Latino Turnout for Kerry

Cheered by President George W. Bush’s sagging poll ratings, Latino Democrats from New York to California met Saturday to coordinate strategy to generate maximum turnout in their communities for Sen. John F. Kerry, a candidate some admitted to feeling lukewarm about.

Latino voters could ultimately decide who wins the November election, said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. If Democrats can capture two-thirds of the 3 million Latinos who may cast their first ballots this year, that would be sufficient to tip Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona, now electoral dead heats, into the Kerry column and ensure victory for the Democratic challenger, McAuliffe said.

Republicans are also working hard to court Latino voters. The personal style of the president, the former governor of Texas, has resonated with many.

McAuliffe accused Bush of engaging in the Republicans’ “old song and dance” of policies on employment, education and immigration that he contended were hostile to Latinos -- though he joked that the president sometimes let himself be seen with a mariachi band.

“For Republicans, Hispanics are backdrops for photo opportunities,” McAuliffe told the DNC’s Hispanic Leadership Summit, attended by 350 Latino office holders and party officials from a score of states. “For Democrats, they are building blocks of the American dream.”

To galvanize the Spanish-speaking electorate, participants in the meeting were told, the Democrats have cranked out a number of Spanish-language TV spots that focus on hot-button issues crucial to Latinos, including jobs, schools and healthcare. Officials of the Kerry campaign also unveiled their “Unidos con Kerry” (United with Kerry) initiative, which is intended to increase Latino voter registration, education and fundraising across the country to the Democratic candidate’s benefit.

Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, co-chairman of Kerry’s California campaign and Saturday’s keynote luncheon speaker, promised an “unprecedented effort” in the 171 days remaining before election day to reach Latino voters. As one step in Kerry’s game plan, Villaraigosa said, Latino Democrats from California and other so-called “export” states with large Latino populations will be bused to battleground states such as Arizona to knock on doors, help in voter registration drives and staff Spanish-language telephone banks to get out the pro-Kerry vote.

“Latinos will make the difference in this election,” said Paul Rivera, a senior political advisor to the Kerry campaign, as he appealed to fellow Latino Democrats for their active support. “This is the time when we, in fact, can lead our nation.”

However, some who attended the session did not conceal their mixed feelings about Kerry, who has been accused of being slow to involve Latinos in his campaign and to engage the nation’s Latino voters. Marty Chavez, mayor of Albuquerque and vice chair of the Democratic Mayors Assn., said at the meeting that if Kerry were to walk into the hotel ballroom where he and many other leading Latinos in the party were conducting the two-day meeting, the Massachusetts senator wouldn’t know more than five of the participants by name.

What’s more, said Chavez, when Kerry’s presidential campaign recently announced its 28 senior staff members, there was not a single Spanish-sounding surname on the list.

“I don’t want a one-night stand with this administration,” Chavez said. ‘I want an eight-year marriage.”

Raul Martinez, longtime mayor of Hialeah, Fla., and one of South Florida’s few elected Democratic officials of Cuban origin, said Kerry’s aloof demeanor needed to undergo a radical change if the Democrat meant to connect with Latinos. Martinez suggested the Bostonian fly to Texas and eat some tacos to “get that pepper inside him.”

“We can say all the good things about the Democratic Party,” Martinez said. “But if the candidate doesn’t have it in his guts, and it doesn’t show, people can’t see it.”

Villaraigosa blamed some of the criticism of Kerry’s campaign on “Republican spin,” and noted that Bush and his team have had a sizable head start.

“The truth is, they’ve been building their campaign for three years,” the Los Angeles councilman said. “We’ve been putting ours together for six weeks.” In the coming weeks and months, Villaraigosa promised, Latino staff members would be added to the Kerry organization.

The Democratic conclave, held at a hotel inside Orlando International Airport, opened in the glow of a recent poll conducted for CNN and Time magazine that found Kerry leading Bush, 51% to 46%. A Newsweek poll released Saturday put Bush’s job approval rating at 42%.

“It’s obvious the public is realizing this president has done a really bad job with the country,” said Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, a DNC media director.

Democrats who spoke at Saturday’s session accused the administration of presiding over the highest Latino unemployment rate in a decade, reneging on promises of bringing aid to schools and rejecting changes in immigration laws that would promote family reunification.

“It’s time for us to send a clear message: ‘Bush, you’re fired,’ ” said Joel Rivera, majority leader on the New York City Council.