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Democracy: Accountability & Civic Responsibility
IMPORTANCE OF HISPANIC VOTE IN '08 PUT TO EARLY TEST
By Marisa Treviño, MATT Contributing Writer
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
An unspoken prerequisite for any successful U.S. politician is the ability to have a smooth command of the English language. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even President Bush, proved that a politician doesn’t have to speak the language accent or twang-free — just clear enough that their stand on the issues are understood by potential voters.
It is just that kind of clarity that the Spanish-language network, Univision, hopes to present to their viewers in September. The network that claims to reach 99% of U.S. Hispanic television households invited both Republican and Democratic presidential nominees to participate in the network’s first-ever Spanish debate.
At first, the only candidates who responded to the invitation were the sole Spanish-speakers among all of the contenders — New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd.
It wasn’t until Sylvia Rosabal, vice president of Univision’s news division, sent out a follow-up invitation explaining that the candidates could respond to questions in English with their answers simultaneously translated into Spanish that a collective sigh of relief must have rippled among the remaining invitees. Because two more Democratic nominees made it known that they were now considering joining the Spanish/English debate — Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Senator, Mike Gravel.
The reluctance by a few of the other Democratic nominees to sign on is being blamed on the fact that the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
has not sanctioned the Univision debate.
According to Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, director of Hispanic Media Communications for Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign, all of the Democratic nominees have pledged not to participate in any non-DNC
sanctioned debates.
“We have met with Univision’s representatives to encourage them to get their debate sanctioned by the DNC,” Rodriguez-Ciampoli said.
Though some of the Democrats may be grappling with party promises, it doesn’t explain why Republicans are rebuffing en masse Univision’s invitation and those by other Latino organizations who want all the presidential candidates to address the Latino constituency.
At the annual National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) conference in June, only one Republican presidential nominee, Duncan Hunter, had accepted an invitation to appear before the NALEO membership in a candidate’s forum.
In contrast, seven of the Democratic nominees confirmed their appearances.
The lack of interest by Republican candidates to appear in Latino-sanctioned forums and debates is a disturbing trend and one that warrants closer examination.
It’s understandable that the Republican nominees would feel vulnerable, even intimidated, to stand before a crowd whose majority are perceived as being sympathetic to the plight of the undocumented worker — but they should know that the Latino electorate is not homogenous in our political viewpoints.
The fact that these Republican politicians, who are aspiring to represent all people in the nation, would not give equal time to Latino-sponsored forums reflects the level of their commitment and comfort level with the Latino community — which appears to be pretty low.
What does that mean for the Latino community?
It means that as the immigration reform debate continues in Congress and cities and towns continue to pass ordinances authorizing local law enforcement to determine which Hispanic is legal and which is not, and more states pass English-only laws, and more anti-immigrant rhetoric is broadcast blaming Hispanics for a host of society’s problems, Republican politicians will feel less and less comfortable in addressing the Latino community.
Without their participation in Latino-sanctioned forums where we can be afforded the opportunity to speak face-to-face with the candidates, these politicians will labor under many false assumptions and will give up trying to know who U.S. Latinos are before they can even begin.
And that is a dangerous road to take given the steady growth of the Latino population.
By not accepting Univision and NALEO’s invitations, and any future invitations by other Latino organizations, these political candidates are in essence denying Latinos a place at the collective table of constituents who matter and deserve equal time with their potential leaders.
Such a future course doesn’t bode well for any political party, much less for the Hispanic community.
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